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Victoria's prisons being institutions closed to the outside world. The only regular event in Victoria is the annual "Beyond the Bars" broadcasts by radio station 3CR from inside Victoria's prisons during NAIDOC week. Select prisoners at medium and minimum security prisons may leave their prisons to work in the community on "community work gangs", but community groups rarely if ever venture inside those prisons.

Sixth, the prison system can also be improved by establishing Country Fire Authority sub-stations at each of Victoria's four minimum security prisons. This would not only allow prisoners to re-connect with the community and be a tangible form of reparation to the community, but would also benefit the community in having four permanently manned fire-fighting stations spread throughout country Victoria. As an alternative or as an addition to the building of new walled prisons (Victoria having the highest percentage of its prisoners in walled prisons), the prison system would be improved by constructing a minimum security "fire camp" in country Victoria dedicated solely to training and providing prisoners as rural fire-fighters. Such prison camps have existed for decades in California such as the Fairfield Fire Camp in northern California - and in many other states in the United States. In Australia, prisoners at the Cadell Training Centre in South Australia are able to join the local Country Fire Service (see
www.corrections.sa.gov.au/prisons/cadelltrainingcentre.htm). There is no reason why such a program could not be instituted in Victoria.

Seventh, the prison system can be improved by instituting a restorative justice program in Victoria. Such a program already exists in the New South Wales prison system and it is a process there that can be initiated either by the victim or the offender. The Court of Appeal of Victoria has said that "it is rare to find convincing evidence of genuine remorse," and that, "remorse is an elusive concept which is not to be confused with such emotions as self-pity" (R v Whyte [2004] VSCA 5, at paragraph 21). The only true remorse is that which is displayed when an offender is brought face-to-face with his victim. Any other display of remorse in the absence of the victim, even if genuine, is not wholehearted, is forced and is disconnected from the reality of the cause of the remorse. Only by being confronted by the physical embodiment ol his actions does an offender truly appreciate what he is, or should be, sorry for.

"Ideas about How to Improve the Prison System: A 10 Point Plan" Page 4

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