A devastating assessment has urged for the closure of one of NSW’s oldest and most notorious prisons, after it was discovered that inmates were kept cold in their dark and stale cells, and that groups were often split based on race.
The maximum security area of Goulburn Correctional Centre, was opened in 1884, was inspected in 2021 and found to be “dark, poorly ventilated, prone to extreme temperatures, did not have showers, and had ligature points.”
Ligature points are locations where a rope or cord could be hung to inflict self-harm.
Inside the prison, one particularly incriminating image revealed the four refrigerators that housed the convicts’ food, each labeled ‘Aussie/Asian,’ ‘Koori Yard,’ ‘Mixed Yard,’ and ‘Leb Yard.’
Inspector Fiona Rafter of NSW Custodial Services released the inspection summary on Wednesday, which included 36 recommendations for the jail, including the closure of the maximum security dormitories and yards.
‘Goulburn CC’s highest security section is one of the oldest pieces of custodial infrastructure in NSW and is no longer fit-for-purpose,’ according to the assessment.
‘It is unable to create conditions that are appropriate for a modern correctional setting and favorable to offender rehabilitation.’
‘Custodial personnel do not feel safe working in this atmosphere, which makes it dangerous for both inmates and staff.’
The audit also called the center’s yard grouping method ‘discriminatory,’ claiming that offenders were frequently segregated based on race.
‘We were told that this method was established in the late 1990s in reaction to a number of racially motivated murders that happened in the Goulburn CC yards,’ according to the study.
‘Yard categories that divide inmates based on race are discriminatory, humiliating, dehumanizing, and incompatible with the community’s beliefs and expectations.’
Inmates also claimed that certain groups were treated unfairly, such as the Indigenous group, which was assigned to a dark prison yard on a permanent basis.
The release of the study coincided with the guilty plea of a former gang boss who stabbed another inmate in Goulburn’s ‘Supermax’ High Risk Management Correctional Centre while they were both held in a room together.
The Supermax prison is not the same as the maximum security sector at Goulburn CC, which has been slated for closure.
On May 20, 2020, ex-Brothers 4 Life Blacktown chapter leader Farhad Qaumi is shown repeatedly stabbing triple killer Abuzar Sultani with a razor blade.
Correctional officers can also be seen witnessing the incident occur through the door.
Qaumi was imprisoned in 2017 for the execution murder of Sultani’s instructor, Joseph Antoun, and Sultani was imprisoned later that year for the murder of Pasquale Barbaro, a Brother 4 Life associate.
The guards’ actions have been questioned, including why they allowed the two inmates to be alone in a room together and why they did not interfere.
‘I’d rather see cops return home to their families than rush into a scenario that puts their lives at jeopardy,’ Corrections Minister Geoff Lee said.
‘I always stand by police and will request that the matter be investigated by the Corrective Services Commissioner.’
For the horrific attack, Qaumi pled guilty to assault occasioning bodily harm on Wednesday, receiving an additional 19 months on top of his already severe sentence.
For his role in the ‘violent underworld rampage’ that erupted in western Sydney in late 2013, he will be imprisoned until at least 2056.