offenders and prisoner 2

8/3/2019 Offenders and Prisoner 2

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/offenders-and-prisoner-2 1/64

Upside Down Inside OutMaking sense of Vietnamese prisoner issues

February 2006

- 1 -N:\Copy\Webmaster\PRs files\Upside Down Inside Out Making Sense of Vietnamese Prisoner issues.doc



C 2006 Caboolture Shire Council & Caboolture and Redcliffe Multicultural (CARM)Forum

Upside Down Inside Out: Making sense of Vietnamese prisoner issues

ISBN

This report is copyright and may not be reproduced in any form without permission of Caboolture Shire Council or Caboolture and Redcliffe Multicultural (CARM) Forum.Enquiries should be directed to:

The Multicultural Planner Caboolture Shire CouncilPO Box 159CABOOLTURE QLD 4510

Tel: 07 – 5420 0111

The PresidentMulticultural Association of Caboolture Shire22 Edward StreetCABOOLTURE QLD 4510Tel: 07 – 5495 3818

Disclaimer

Any representation, statement, opinion or advice, expressed or implied in this publicationis made in good faith but on the basis that neither Caboolture Shire Council nor theCaboolture and Redcliffe Multicultural (CARM) Forum their agents or employees – areliable (whether by reason of negligence, lack of care or otherwise) to any person for anydamage or loss whatsoever which has occurred or may occur in relation to that persontaking or not taking (as the case may be) action in respect of any representations,

statement or advice referred to in this report.




Upside Down Inside Out:Making sense of Vietnamese prisoner issues




FOREWORD

The township of Woodford in Caboolture Shire is renowned for two major institutions –the Woodford Folk Festival and the Woodford Correctional Centre. One symbolisesfamily fun, freedom and cultural expression, the other, separation, regimentation andconfinement. How does the psyche of a town deal with such extremes of legitimatehuman endeavour?

Just as we bring great energy to our participation in the Woodford Folk Festival so toomust we actively work to ensure the present and future wellbeing of our Woodford

prisoners - our new long-term residents.

Woodford Correctional Centre management informed Council that the number of Asianprisoners, particularly those from a Vietnamese background, was increasing within thefacility and that these prisoners were failing to respond to the Centre’s rehabilitationprograms. Issues of language, culture and access to appropriate legal servicesappeared to be at the heart of the problem.

This was the impetus for a suite of initiatives to address the barriers of language, cultureand access faced by prisoners from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.Council is proud to have played an active role in this process.

The result has been a valuable eighteen month partnership – meeting monthly withVietnamese prisoners, undertaking research, negotiating cultural privileges withmanagement, conducting cross cultural training for Centre staff and providing input intothe development of the Department of Corrective Service’s Multicultural Action Plan for Queensland.

I commend to you this report, Upside Down Inside Out: Making sense of Vietnamese prisoner issues. It represents a successful example of local and state governmentsworking together to improve the lives of a group of Queenslanders often ‘out of sight’and ‘out of mind’.

It is my hope that the issues raised through this report through the voices of Vietnamese

prisoners will be the catalyst for improving our awareness, processes and systems totake into consideration the very real barriers faced by all prisoners from different culturaland linguistic traditions.

Joy LeishmanMayor




ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The research project, Upside Down Inside Out: Making sense of Vietnamese prisoner issues, is a joint initiative of the Caboolture Shire Council, Woodford Correctional Centreand the Caboolture and Redcliffe Multicultural (CARM) Forum’s Refugee Action Group.

As Coordinator of the Research Project, I would like to acknowledge a number of peoplefor their assistance in this project:

• Peter Camden, former General Manager, Woodford Correctional Centre, for hisforesight and vision genuine concern and commitment to make things happen

• Des Voss, Manager, Residential, for his cooperation and dedication tooperational changes

• Anne Winterflood, Education Officer, for her advice arising from her vastknowledge and insights into Vietnamese people and her personal commitment totheir wellbeing

• Centre staff who participated in meetings to develop the content of the crosscultural training modules

• Margaret Bornhorf, Senior Trainer, Multicultural Affairs Queensland, for facilitatingthe cross cultural training sessions from research to presentation of trainingworkshop

• Caboolture Shire Council - the Mayor, Joy Leishman, Cr Greg Chippendale andstaff for their commitment to leadership in ensuring access and equity for multicultural people

• Members of the Refugee Action Group who provided support and advice atimportant junctures during the project.

Special thanks are extended to:

• Dr Julie McCredden, School of Psychology, University of Queensland, for her analysis, interpretation and write up of the data

• Jeremy Liyanage, former Multicultural Planner, Caboolture Shire Council, for project managing this initiative and assisting in the writing of this report

• Anne Winterflood, for her contribution of the background information onVietnamese people

• Jane Teague for the recording of the focus group proceedings

Significant thanks are reserved for the group of Vietnamese prisoners who demonstrateda courageous commitment to being involved in what others from the Vietnamese

community may have deemed an intrusion into their private lives. In being honest andopen in their communication, they clearly were taking a risk in trusting relative strangerswith issues close to their hearts.

Tears and laughter, feelings of dejection and also of hope, moments of disappointmentand the delight of making gains and most of all the prisoners’ unflagging patience,characterised our many focus group sessions. This research could not have beenpossible without their valued contribution.

Cesidio ContePresident, Multicultural Association of Caboolture Shire




TABLE OF CONTENTS

Executive Summary

1. Introduction

2. Background

PreambleInitial Inquiry with PrisonersAction Plan

3. Methodology

Action Research ApproachFactors Influencing Project OutcomesMethods of Analysis

4. Results

4.1 Overall Results

4.2 Survey Results with Quotes from Focus Groups

4.3 Demographics

4.4 Language Issues4.4.1 Understanding of Jail Information4.4.2 Understanding of Legal Situation4.4.3 Interpreter Help4.4.4 Legal Aid4.4.5 Crimes, Sentences and Appraisal4.4.6 Time Served and Understanding

4.4.7 The Review Process4.4.8 Link between English Ability, Education, and Jail Term

4.5 Education

4.6 Daily Life in Jail4.6.1 Cultural Issues4.6.2 Health Issues4.6.3 Treatment by Others4.6.4 Other Issues In Prison




4.7 Family Visits4.8.1 Frequency of Visits4.8.2 Transport Issues

4.8 The Future4.9.1 Release from WCC4.9.2 Family Situation and Perspective on Future4.9.3 Support Needed4.9.4 Drug Related Futures (if support not given)4.9.5 Deportation4.9.6 Prevention

1. Appendix

a. Attachments




EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Project aim

This report was commissioned by the Woodford Correctional Centre (WCC) andCaboolture Shire’s External Multicultural Taskforce to identify the issues andexperiences of Vietnamese prisoners. The aim was that Correctional Facility staff atWoodford would become aware of how the prison system impacted on Vietnameseprisoners and that the insights gained would guide the facility in effective programdevelopment and prisoner rehabilitation for a newly recognised clientele - prisoners fromculturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.

Initial negotiations with Woodford Correctional Centre led to a series of initiatives to bepiloted with the largest of the cultural groups, the Vietnamese. It was anticipated that

through their implementation, the centre would better understand its Vietnameseprisoners, would be more able to address the cultural and language bIocks that preventthese prisoners from being successfully rehabilitated and ensure that cultural andlinguistic considerations are incorporated into program design and development.

The initiatives trialled at the Woodford Correctional Centre helped to shape the state-wide Multicultural Action Plan for Queensland Corrective Services.

The initiatives, listed below, spanned a period from August 2003 to May 2005:

• Focus groups with Vietnamese prisoners

• A focus group with centre staff

• Regular negotiation sessions with management to progress prisoner issues

• A survey of 22 Vietnamese prisoners

An outside researcher was contracted in May 2005 to analyse the survey and focusgroup data and to produce the majority of this report.

Factors underlying the increase of Asian prisoners

From the literature there appear to be common factors underlying the increase innumbers of prisoners from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds, inparticular, prisoners of Asian ethnicity, within correctional centres throughout Australia.Some of these factors include:

• Low levels of education

• Resident of socio-economic disadvantaged areas

• High unemployment rates

• Poor English language skills and/or literacy skills

• A younger age structure (evidence of past immigration patterns and family sizedifferences)

• Feeling of dispossession

• Lack of family support and the feeling of isolation

• Conflict over being caught between the two cultures of their parents and their peers

• Lack of ability to seek community support

• Witnesses of the terror of war and associated atrocities, including suffering fromsevere deprivation




The Woodford experience

Discussions with staff and prisoners led to a greater clarification of the problems thatboth staff and Vietnamese prisoners encounter, and to identification of the causes of these problems and an exploration of suitable solutions.

Management articulated a number of problems: Asian prisoners were not responding tothe centre’s generic programs, and management was at a loss regarding how to addressthe everyday issues of these prisoners and how to develop responsive systems,procedures and programs.

Prisoners spoke of their problems: the hardship caused by being deprived of culturalaspects of everyday life, facing language barriers, struggling with the lack of appropriatelegal assistance and having limited access to educational and rehabilitation programs.

The causes of these problems, put simply, were lack of information regarding thisprisoner demographic, lack of effective communication between staff and prisoners and

lack of consideration of cultural issues in programs and processes.

Solutions to these problems would include the development of flexible and responsivesystems and processes, culturally competent staff, and advocacy support to address thebarriers or blocks to access.

The outcomes of these changes would be effective program planning (prisoner support,education and language, employment preparation), effective planning of future directionsand effective monitoring of prisoner reviews, parole requirements and multicultural actionplan accountability to the Premier & Cabinet.

Problems, Causes, Solutions and Outcomes

Lack of information

o Inability to respondeffectively toeveryday issues

o Inability to designeffective programs

o Prisonersunresponsive togeneric programs

Problems forVietnamese Prisoners

Causes

Poor communication

Cultural issuesnot considered inprograms and processes

Solutionso A flexible and responsive systemo Culturally competent staff o Advocacy (multicultural task force

etc. to address cultural andlanguage blocks found in system)

o Everyday culturaland languagedeficiencies

o Ineffective educationand rehabilitation

o Ineffective legalassistance

Outcomes1. Effective Planning for

o Prisoner support Programso Employment Programso Education and Rehabilitation

Programs2. Effective Future Directions3. Effective Monitoring of

o Reviewso Parole

o Accountability toMAQ/Premier

Problems forManagement




• That the need for prisoners to speak their own language, both to one other and over the phone is understood and allowed.

Education and Courses

• That most of the Vietnamese prisoners need more education to bring them to

senior level. Tuition in English, Maths, and Computers need to be madeavailable with language assistance.

• That courses especially those deemed mandatory for parole be made morereadily available to all prisoners throughout their terms and not just prior totheir parole

• That special consideration be given to those prisoners with language barrierswho require more time and effort to gain mastery of course subject matter

Cross Cultural training for staff

• That staff be provided with opportunities for cross cultural training, awarenessof the cultural, social and language issues faced by Vietnamese prisoners and

proactive strategies and measures to reduce incidents of misunderstandingsand conflicts

• Treatment by prison staff and other prisoners has a bearing on the health of prisoners (the relationship between being treated differently by staff andheadaches is statistically significant.)

Family Visits

• Help with transport needs to be given so that families may visit (the amount of visitation by families with transport issues is much lower than other families).

High priority issues - During the focus group meetings, some issues of highimportance requiring immediate action came to light, as follows:

Deportation of some prisoners

• That formal procedures be developed to respond to Department of Immigration a procedure be developed to advocacy support be providedNotification is not understood, and deportation may be the result of non-reply.

• Prisoners need help with the right-of-reply process, which may preventdeportation.

Positive outcomes

Over the course of the research, the different issues (above) were raised and promiseswere made that they would be looked into or dealt with. By the last meeting however, itseemed that only a few of the issues had been dealt with to some sort of resolution.They were:

1. Cultural awareness was increased via a question-answer session betweenprisoners and guards.

2. A drum was made available for Chinese New Year, which was financedpersonally by a council worker.

3. A cross cultural awareness training day was attended by16 WCC staff on 30March 05. The feedback from staff was very positive




Limited Results

All of the other issues raised during the focus groups have been unable to be addressed.This was not due to not knowing or caring, but seemingly because of the current prisonprotocols and procedures at Woodford. Further insights in to these reasons and theissues listed above are given in the Focus group quotes and summaries accompanyingthe figures and tables in the results section of this report.

Key recommendations

The research has shown how procedural blocks to everyday needs impedes theattainment of higher goals common to prisoners, staff and administration, that of effective education and rehabilitation of prisoners and of encouraging more positiveoutlooks and relationships with staff on a day to day basis.

In order to attain these goal, we recommend that the current system expand to

acquire some flexibility within its procedures and processes to allow the followingto occur:

• That assistance with English language and comprehension is assured so that theaccused comprehends in full what is transpiring at all stages of the correctionalprocess, from arrest, meetings with solicitors, court appearance, sentencing,remand, induction, development of sentence plans, review meetings and paroleto preparations for transition and release. It is also recommended thatmandatory procedures be established involving the use of professionalinterpreters to ensure that prisoners clearly understand all legal documents andare assisted to formulate an effective and accurate reply when required

• That a wide range of rehabilitation and vocational courses be made available

throughout a prisoner’s term of incarceration, with tuition assistance whenrequired

• That transport issues for family members who wish to visit be addressed

• That cross cultural training for staff be provided on an ongoing basis

• That Vietnamese food items be incorporated into their regular prison diet

• That cultural artefacts including in-language books, videos, magazines and CDsbe made available through the library system

• That cultural celebrations like Tet or Vietnamese New Year including food, music,drumming and dance become part of the regular annual calendar of events at theprison

Challenges for Qld Corrective Services

The Queensland Corrective Service’s Strategic Plan 2003-2007 has identifiedcriminogenic needs of offenders which correlate closely with the findings of this report.These issues pose a number of key challenges for the Department:

Strategic environment

Issues identified in the Crime Prevention Strategy link illicit drug use to education andsocio-economic disadvantage. In relation to these issues research shows that:

• about half of the male offender population has reported that illicit drug use is amajor factor in their offending

• offenders suffer from educational disadvantage




• Library resources – discuss with Caboolture Library Services what library resourcesin different languages can be obtained

• Family Connection – assist to make contact between Vietnamese prisoners andfamily as currently there is little contact with family members or their culture

• Vietnamese Intervention Program – assist to develop new intervention program asthe current one is not effective with Vietnamese prisoners as it does not take intoconsideration their culture, needs, religious beliefs, etc)

• Local Committee - place these issues on the agenda of the Woodford CommunityLocal Committee to keep local people informed of what goes on at the WCC. Also,identify groups within the community who will provide long-term commitment for prisoners before and after release

• Cross Cultural Training - assist WCC to develop a cross cultural training packagefor custodial staff as well as both mainstream and multicultural prisoners (with a pilot

aimed at Vietnamese prisoners as currently the only cross cultural training is ATSIspecific)

• Accurate Data – update multicultural prisoner data at WCC when prisoners undergotheir six-monthly Sentence Management Review Process, as data relatingparticularly to cultural background is highly inaccurate.




1. INTRODUCTION

This research report, Upside Down Inside Out: Making sense of Vietnamese prisoner issues, was commissioned by the Woodford Correctional Centre (WCC) and CabooltureShire Council’s External Multicultural Taskforce. The purpose of the study was tounderstand the issues experienced by Vietnamese prisoners as an initial step towardinforming the Centre’s quest to make its systems and programs more responsive tothose prisoners from multicultural backgrounds.

Improving access to information, services and support for people from culturally andlinguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds is the raison d’etre of Council’s ExternalMulticultural Taskforce. It works in partnership with senior management of leadagencies in the Shire including state and federal government, business and mediastakeholders.

Council’s role, through the Multicultural Planner, is to support these agencies to

undertake a multicultural audit of their organisations and assist them in developingappropriate initiatives to address the barriers faced by multicultural people in accessingtheir services. The Woodford Correctional Centre, Caboolture Police and Legal AidCaboolture were some of the agencies that indicated an interest in partnering Council indeveloping such initiatives.

As a significant initial response, the Woodford Correctional Centre embarked upon thisVietnamese prisoner research project. This is a seminal undertaking which is hoped willinform and influence how the Department of Corrective Services will ensure thesuccessful rehabilitation of prisoners from culturally and linguistically diversebackgrounds.

The partnership between Woodford Correctional Centre and Caboolture Shire Council isa demonstration of Council’s Multicultural Policy in practice.

2. PROJECT BACKGROUND

2.1 Preamble

In June 2003, Caboolture Shire Councillor, Cr Greg Chippendale, requested thatCouncil’s Multicultural Planner attend a one day community consultation meeting with

Woodford Correctional Centre (WCC) at the request of Peter Camden, GeneralManager.

As part of the outcomes of this meeting, the Multicultural Planner met with Peter Camden on 18 August 2003 and was briefed by him about the growing Asian populationwithin the facility who were not responding to the generic programs of the Centre. Arequest was made to Caboolture Shire Council to assist WCC to determine long-termprogram and project responses.

Present at the initial community consultation meeting was Peter Camden (GeneralManager), Frances McDonald (Manager, Business Services), Nigel McReaddie(Assistant General Manager), Michelle Paynter (Assistant Manager) and Des Voss(Manager, Residential).




During the initial meeting, staff at the Centre voiced concerns about various issues facedby prisoners from diverse cultures particularly those from Vietnam who were facingsubstantial sentences of between ten to fifteen years.

It was identified that prisoners from diverse cultural backgrounds lacked a basicknowledge of Australian laws in the first instance, complicated by the fact that certainactions or behaviours classified as criminal under Australian legislation are not deemedso in their country of origin. These ranged from drug related incidents to social coupling,for example, a legitimate marriage to a child-bride in one country would be regarded asunder–age sexual relations and hence considered criminal behaviour in another.

The issues raised were centred primarily on the inability of the current system, which inthe main is designed to cater for English speaking Anglo-Australian prisoners, torespond to the cultural, social and rehabilitation issues of prisoners from diverse culturaland linguistic backgrounds. There was also tacit awareness and acknowledgement of arange of other multicultural prisoner issues.

Issues identified by prison management fell into five major categories:

(i) Lack of accurate data of the cultural and linguistic make up of the prisonpopulation

(ii) Inadequate attention to communicating essential information indifferent languages at all stages of the correctional process from remand(Arthur Gorrie Centre) to induction, development of sentence plans, to the sixmonthly sentence management review meetingso A majority of Vietnamese prisoners are unable to speak functional

English so are at a disadvantage in being familiar with the expectations of the prison system

o Vietnamese prisoners are recruited to act as translators for fellowprisoners which lead to the creation of power dynamics within their ranks

(iii) Lack of cross cultural understanding amongst staff o Negative comments are recorded by staff in sentence management

review meetings due to a misinterpretation of Vietnamese prisoner behaviour

(iv) Need for future direction and planning to adequately meet the needs of WCC’s changing population1. Lack of understanding in how to address cultural issues in the design of

core programs within WCC, for example, anger management and

substance abuse management initiatives2. Lack of information regarding the skills sets required by employers to

ensure multicultural prisoners receive training and employment relevantto current and future employment markets

(v) Ill-equipped to address the issues of a different client groupo Lack of research in Queensland regarding responses to the issues of

prisoners from culturally and linguistically diverse backgroundso Confusion as to where tolerance begins and ends in terms of prisoner

ignorance of Australian lawo Dilemma of balancing security concerns and compliance with anti-

discrimination legislation, for example, what response to a Sikh wearing aturban which could be concealing contraband

o Difficulty in developing trust and confidence with multicultural prisoners




o Difficulties with communicating with Vietnamese prisoners especiallyregarding mental health issues and their unwillingness to accesscounsellors

2.2 Factors underlying the increase of Asians in prison

The impetus for the undertaking of this research project was the growing Asianpopulation within the Woodford Correctional Centre. A decision to focus the research onVietnamese prisoners was based on the fact that this was the largest single ethnic groupat the centre. A majority of the Vietnamese prisoners were on drug related charges.

Possible factors that contribute toward increasing rates of incarceration particularlyamong Indo-Chinese people are many and varied. Historically many migrants andrefugees from South East Asia have experienced numerous traumatic events such aswars and associated atrocities and subsequent forced evacuation from their homes andtheir homeland.

In addition, the Asian population within Australia has traditionally had employment in themanufacturing sector. However, work in this area has tapered considerably over the pastdecade and this, combined with a lack of qualifications overall among the Indo-Chinesecommunity, helps to explain their high unemployment rates.

Literature from the Victorian Health Department suggests that stressors caused by themigration experience, as well as the loss of family, possessions and status, together withilliteracy, the lack of English proficiency, increasing poverty and the high unemploymentrate make such people vulnerable to seeking relief through the use of illicit drugs.D’Avanzo (1997) and Mudalay (1997) (cited in the Victorian Government HealthInformation) reported that the use of hard drugs in order to “alleviate psychological

distress” was common among the Asian community.

The dynamics of illicit drug use within the Asian community is complex. The cultureusually does not allow for the expression of emotion, hence there is reluctance to openlyacknowledge personal problems and drug use is therefore met with strong denial so asnot to bring shame and stigma to the family. As well as bringing shame to the family,seeking outside help can result in other dilemmas for the family, such as implication of admission of failure of the family structure to both the community and others.

The research set about to complement existing research which documented the possiblecauses of incarceration among Indo-Chinese groups. This inquiry would focus on who were the prisoners, what issues they faced as a result of their cultural and linguistic

background, why the system concluded that it was not successfully rehabilitating thisgroup and how it could more appropriately respond to there prisoners’ issues as well asto the barriers inherent in the current system.

A number of possible project proposals were discussed with Woodford CorrectionalCentre in response to their concerns. Permission was granted by the management teamto form a focus group of Vietnamese prisoners who would provide cultural informationand advice. Caboolture Shire Council staff would meet on a monthly basis withprisoners to identify access and equity issues, experiences and responses.

2.3 Initial inquiry with prisoners

A prisoner focus group comprising eleven prisoners, the Multicultural Planner (asmoderator) and the Assistant planner (as note-taker) met for an initial meeting in August




2004 to identify areas of concern and to design a survey for collecting anonymous,general data from across the spectrum of the Vietnamese prisoner population.

During the initial meeting, prisoner issues that were raised included not receiving regular visits from family and friends, having little contact with their culture (religion, food, music,videos and celebrations) for substantial periods of time and a lack of supportmechanisms to assist multicultural prisoners to re-integrate into the community uponrelease.

The major focus of the discussion centred upon a recognition that the correctionalsystem would need to change if it hoped to offer successful rehabilitation programs toprisoners other than those from white, Anglo, English-speaking backgrounds.

2.4 Vietnamese prisoners in context

In order to respond appropriately to the issues faced by a growing member of

Vietnamese prisoners in Queensland and Australian jails, a greater comprehension of the contexts of their lives is imperative.

This section provides background information pertains to the prison context withcomparisons between the Australian prison population and those of Vietnamesebackground, data on offences, the historical context - of invasion, colonisation andcommunist reforms which reduced many to the status of refugee, the cultural contextwhich draws sharp distinctions between Anglo-Australian and Vietnamese perspectiveson family structure, roles, behaviours and priorities and finally the linguistic context inwhich lack of proficiency in English often creates insurmountable barriers torehabilitation.

Prison population

Prison statistics for June 2004 show that nationally the Australian prison population hasincreased by 43 percent since 1994 (Australian Bureau of Statistics: 2003). 75 percentof Australia’s prison population is categorised as being Australian born, whilst theremaining 25 percent are recorded under 27 different nationalities, one ‘other’ and one‘unknown’. Figures from the Australian Institute of Criminology (AIC: 1999), reveal thatprisoners born in Vietnam showed the largest percentage increase in number, increasingfrom 18 in 1983 to 457 in 1997.

However, ethnicity data is problematic in that “ethnicity” is usually categorised instatistics under ‘country of birth’. As Beyer (2003) points out, children of established

migrant groups may still identify with their cultural group but are included into the“Australian born” category. Consequently ethnicity data becomes inaccurate anddistorted by identifying only more recent migrant groups in Australia.

Also contributing to the problem is that the different States use independent methods of recording their prison data and in some instances a prisoner’s ethnicity is recordedaccording to the perceptions of the recording officer (Australian Institute of Criminology,2000). Thus published prison statistics may imply a ‘reality’ that may be different to whatwould be revealed if a national system for recording a prisoner’s self reported ethnicidentity were to be adopted (Beyer, 2003).

Crime statistics for drug offences from the ABS 2003 show that 10 percent of prisonerssentenced had a most serious offence of dealing or trafficking in illicit drugs and other related illicit drug offences. Figures from the AIC (1999) reveal that persons born in




Vietnam who were processed for drug offences increased from 10 percent in 1993-1994to 33 percent in 1996-1997. During 1997 almost half of those prisoners born in Vietnam(222 out of 457) were incarcerated for drug offences. Also of interest is that the medianage for Australia’s prison population is approximately 32 years of age, while the averageage for Vietnamese Prisoners is estimated to be approximately 26 years (ABS 2003) .

Understanding historical factors

Over the last two decades, there has been an increase in migrants from Asia, peaking in1991-1992 to 51 percent of all arrivals (ABS: 2003). Research indicates thatresettlement difficulties unique to Vietnamese stem from their history and culture (Burley,1990; Signy {cited in Sydney Morning Herald} 1997).

Vietnam has experienced a long history of attempted colonization and resistance.Attempts to colonize this country were made by the Chinese, French, Japanese andAmerican governments. After the reunification of North and South Vietnam in 1975, the

Vietnamese government seized control of all business interests, land and buildings(including homes) belonging to citizens from South Vietnam. In fact if has only been inthe last three to four years that the Vietnamese government has allowed its citizens topurchase dwellings in which to live. However the government still owns the land.

Those Vietnamese who were identified as having business interests or having workedfor the American government were forced to attend re-education camps designed topromote communist sentimentalities and nationalist ideologies (Poh-Ling, 1997 andpersonal interview, 1998).

The new reforms introduced by the communist government created economic, socialand religious hardship for many Vietnamese people who experienced a major loss in

their living standard, food scarcity and severe restrictions imposed on their civil liberties,often living in fear of their safety and the safety of their relatives (Traan, 2004 andpersonal interview 1998).

Not surprising, the government reforms led to a mass exodus of more than one millionpeople seeking international refuge from overseas nations (Poh-Ling, 1997;Cuthbertson, 1999). In 1975 Australia granted refugee status to 140,000 refugees,including many children. Some of these refugees entered legally into the country,however a large number came illegally, raising public suspicion and outrage.

Cultural factors

One of the most important values of Vietnamese culture is the family and it is importantfor those from a Western culture to understand that a Vietnamese family includes notonly living members but also the spirits of ancestors. Even in today’s society, manyVietnamese families pay homage to the ancestral spirits by laying items of food andother offerings at the ancestral altar which is located in their homes or businesses.

Australians rely on external services to meet their needs including health care services,unemployment benefits, religious services and nursing homes for the elderly.Vietnamese however rely on the family unit on such occasions (Hassen, Healy,McKenna & Hearst, 1991). The concept of health benefits and welfare is foreign to themajority of Vietnamese families. Although it is considered an economic strain, manyfamilies still send money back to Vietnam to support family members residing there(Hassen et. al 1991).




However, the traditional Vietnamese family unit is breaking down with many Vietnamesenow forming western style nuclear family units as opposed to the traditional extendedfamily. This, however, does not mean a breakdown of traditional values, in which:

o Individual interest is subordinate to the welfare of the kin groupo Confrontation is subordinate to harmonyo Future orientation is subordinate to past orientationo Competition is subordinate to co-operationo Showing anger is considered impolite

(Managing Differences, 1998)

A Vietnamese woman was studying toward a Masters degree at the University of Queensland. One of her assignments was to interview other Vietnamese studentsregarding their integration into university. The following is an extract from her assignment and from a personal communiqué which highlights the linguistic and culturaldifficulties and differences experienced by well educated Vietnamese (as opposed to

many prisoners) who are considered proficient in English as a second language:

“Actually there are many ways in which Eastern traditions andsocial, behavioral and professional practices differ from theWest. Behavior which is acceptable even admired inAustralian society might be considered insulting to theVietnamese. For instance Australians tend to be outspoken,individualistic-qualities which are quite opposite of what isvalued in most Asian cultures. Self-restraint and internaldiscipline are stressed in traditionally cultural education inVietnam. Because of such discipline, Vietnamese peoplecompared to Australian peers are shy and passive. They feel

reluctant to raise questions or queries even whey they needhelp.

Using English in communication is one of the mostproblematic constraints that every student with non-Englishbackground have to confront. Because of a lack of proficiency in commanding this common yet difficult language,

“Saving face” is extremely important to the Vietnamese. Thischaracteristic can surface in any interaction between two or more persons and should be understood if one is to beeffective communication. Public criticism or display of anger

is considered severe and taken very seriously in Vietnam.”(Nguyen 2002)

In Vietnam, people don't usually practice to say "sorry" after doing a wrong thing, in my opinion, mostly due to "facesaving" tradition. Also with receiving a favour from other people, Vietnamese do not always say "thank you", again dueto "face saving" tradition. “ (personal communiqué, 2004)

There is a misconception held by many Australians that the Vietnamese population is ahomogeneous community. However within the Vietnamese population there exists strictsocial divisions which stem from ethnicity, religion and class. One thing this populationdoes have in common is that due to their harsh past, the only law that they have known




and understood is the law of survival and that included “reliance on the black market andbribery for survival, … deceit and subterfuge to escape death.” (Burley 1990).

Thus the Vietnamese, when confronted by a breach of Australian law, appear to have alot of ‘baggage’ to process given their past violent history and their cultural conflicts,including their fear and mistrust of police. As Burley (1990) reports:

“Their customary behaviour dictates submission toauthority, absolute politeness, a patient willingness toplease and withdrawal from confrontation, their interaction with authorities easily leads tomisunderstandings on both side.”

Offences

Beyer (2003) found that in Victoria, the most common offence for which Vietnamese-born Australians are arrested is heroin related offences. In fact Beyer established that

they are 40 times more likely to be arrested for drug trafficking than Australian-bornyouth. Beyer also reported that 74 percent of the Vietnamese population in Victoria isaged in the peak drug offending age group of 15-44 years, compared to approximately46 percent of the Australian population in this age group.

Table 1: Number & rate per 100,000 population of Australian & Vietnamese born allegedheroin traffic offenders aged 15-44years, Victoria 1997-98 (from Lorraine Beyer’s paper presented at the Evaluation in Crime and Justice: Trends and Methods Conference March 2003.

15-24 years old 25-44 years old

Countryof Birth:

Total

Victorianpopulation15-24 yrs

No of

herointrafficoffenders15-24 yrs

Rate

per 100 000aged15-24yrs

Total

Victorianpopulation25-44 yrs

No of

herointrafficoffenders25-44 yrs

Rate per

100 000aged 25-44yrs

Australia 518 643 429 83 970 311 248 26

Vietnam 12 183 524 4 301 28 775 153 531

The actual involvement in illicit drug use by the Vietnamese may be higher than thestatistics show, as these figures only include those prisoners born overseas and thus

represented in the ethnicity data. They do not include Australian born Vietnameseprisoners. Another possible reason for the underestimation of the problem may includethe following:

In many Asian communities it has been found that the subject of illicit drugs is taboo and therefore drug use is often met withstrong denial, particularly by the older generation. Illicit drug usecommonly results in loss of face within the community. It is perhaps no surprise that the level of illicit drug use exacted fromsurveys is low or that there is a paucity of knowledge about illicit drug use in Asian communities. (Ja & Aoki, 1995 cited inVictorian Government Health Information)




Current programs and language demands

Prisoners are recommended to participate in a range of intervention programs in order toaddress their offending behaviour. The premise of these intervention programs basedon cognitive behaviour therapy, is to change prisoners’ thinking and belief systems inorder to bring about enduring emotional and behavioural change:

“Cognitive therapy hypothesises that people’semotions and behaviours are influenced by their perception of events. It is not the situation in and of itself that determines what people feel, but rather theway in which they construe a situation.” (Beck, 1995)

These programs are designed theoretically to teach prisoners how to identify, evaluateand modify thoughts in order to avoid dysfunctional behaviour that led them to offend.

However, as Davies, Lewis, Byatt, Purvis and Cole (cited in Home Office Findings 233)

point out, these programs are:

Typically delivered in classroom type settings and require offenders for example, to listen to tutors, read hand-outs, participate in group discussions and complete written exercises.

Not surprisingly, the authors found a marked discrepancy between the literacy demandsof intervention programs and the literacy levels of the prisoners. They also found thatthere was a particularly significant mismatch in prisoners’ speaking and listening skills.These findings pertained to the general population of prisoners and not just the non-English speaking background prisoner population.

The following illustrates some of the language difficulties encountered by persons fromnon-English speaking backgrounds:

Jargon. We all become complacent with the use of ‘jargon’ within our own field of expertise. For the non-English speaking background prisoner, already trying to copewith an alien environment (prison) and trying to cope with the demands of learning theEnglish language, ‘jargon’ can be ‘the last straw’!

The insurance and legal industries have for some years now introduced ‘plain English’into their policies and documents. The acceptance by the general public was immediateand welcomed. Thus the use of simple language should not be overlooked when it

comes to developing and delivering intervention programs and words such asmollification and super optimism currently included in programs should becomeredundant and replaced.

Apart from these linguistic difficulties with the English language, the Vietnameselanguage is very different from English in that all Vietnamese words are monosyllableand the language is tonal ie the meaning of a word changes according to the tone that isplaced on it.

The Vietnamese alphabet is composed of 12 vowels and 17 consonants. Unlike theEnglish alphabet, the Vietnamese alphabet has no f, j, w or z , and Vietnamese has noconsonant clusters; English has many. There are no suffixes, no plural suffix, no articles(a/an) and no possessives in Vietnamese. Also there is no grammatical feature inVietnamese which corresponds directly to tense.




The sentence structure in Vietnamese is different especially in sentences asking Englishyes-no questions and information questions. For example:-

English Vietnamese

What is your name? Co ten la gi?(Co = addressing a young lady: ten=name: la=is: gi=what)

The above highlights just some of the difficulties that Vietnamese and English as SecondLanguage (ESL) learners have with the English language.

Imagine the difficulties prisoners lacking English language proficiency experience whenattending intervention programs conducted in English and with very strong Westerncultural values and beliefs. Little wonder that many of their exit reports from theseprograms present them in a less than favourable manner and often suggest that they are

less empathetic than prisoners whose first language is English.




3. METHODOLOGY

3.1 Action research approach

The research was framed within an action research approach which adopted bothquantitative and qualitative measures of data collection. Action research was chosen for the method because it encourages people affected by the research, in this instance,Vietnamese prisoners, to participate in all phases of the process. This approach isparticularly effective when working with people who are disenfranchised by dominantsystems:

The worker and agency cannot present their own program but must search for it dialogically with the people they seek to empower. Critical to this is the participation of those who are disadvantaged. There needs to be a movement away from the ‘expert’ to a community of inquirers (Friere, 1970:118).

The quest of action research is to link analysis with action and theory with practice whichpromotes engagement rather than detachment. The process of doing the researchencourages collaboration and a commitment to make things happen. The outcome of theaction research project is therefore seen as effective change within a system or thebeginnings of a change process, rather than a mere description of the way things are.

Based on principles of action research, a questionnaire was designed by a focus groupof prisoners which was used as the quantitative technique to provide a ‘broad anglescan’ of the circumstances, issues and responses of the Vietnamese prison populationat Woodford Correctional Centre.

A focus group technique was employed as the qualitative measure to flesh out the

stories and real life circumstances behind the numbers and percentages - a ‘narrowangle’ view.

These two types of enquiry were then embedded within an action research cycle of (i)inquiry with prisoners, (ii) feedback to staff and administration, and (iii) subsequentaction (changes in policy or procedure). It was anticipated that repeated cycles throughsteps (i) to (iii) would result in informed and beneficial changes in policy and procedureswithin Woodford Correctional Centre that might help to achieve the aims of the project asenvisioned by Woodford management and Caboolture Shire’s External MulticulturalTaskforce.

Although policy and decision makers tend to favour quantitative information because

they are accustomed to basing funding decisions on numbers and statistical indicators,the richer data obtained through the qualitative research was likely to be moretrustworthy and more informative in the planning and implementing of programresponses signalled by the prisoners themselves.

Owing to the small sample size, it was hoped that the validity of results would bestrengthened by using more than one method to study the same issues (ie, method of triangulation). Combining two methods was useful in validating and enriching themeaningfulness of the reported findings.

The two methods were combined by beginning the study with a qualitative segment: firstan initial meeting with prisoners that helped frame the overall enquiry and then series of focus group discussions that suggested the issues that should be explored in asubsequent survey of program participants. The next stage combined both quantitative




and qualitative methods, by designing and administering a survey to all Vietnameseprisoners, and then following up the survey findings by using in-depth discussions withinfurther focus groups.

The quantitative data was collected via a survey comprising 48 questions asking aboutpersonal characteristics (age, gender, etc), background and reasons for entering prison,language and understanding in court and in prison, health issues, staff and prisoner relationships, family visitations and cultural issues. The survey was given to twenty-twoVietnamese prisoners. The survey included five open-ended questions, providing someexpansion on some of the issues covered in the survey.

Most of the qualitative data was gathered using a focus group technique. The focusgroup comprised twelve prisoners, the Multicultural Planner (as moderator) and theAssistant Planner (as note-taker). The group members met together for seven focusgroup sessions spaced over a twelve month period. Discussions were led by themoderator.

After each meeting the moderator then met with prison staff and management to discussthe issues raised, asking for action or permission or enquiring after possibilities. Theresults of these meetings were then used as the basis for discussions in the next focusgroup meeting. It was anticipated that the focus group discussions would produce morein-depth insights and understanding into the reasons for prisoners’ poor response to thegeneric services and programs of the Centre and of the barriers they faced due tocultural and linguistic factors. It was also hoped that the feedback from thesediscussions to management would effect some changes that would result in a dynamicchange-and-reflect cycle occurring during the course of the study.

In the main, each focus group session lasted between 1 ½ to 2 hours. On occasionswhen very specific information was required, the sessions tended to be shorter. The

objective was to get high quality data in a social context where people felt comfortable toconsider their own views in the context of the views of others, and where new ideas andperspectives could be introduced.

After the focus groups had been completed, the Multicultural Planner met with the prisonadministration in June 2005, to present a summary of the issues that had been raisedduring the focus group meetings and to discuss the progress on each. The issuesdiscussed in this meeting and in the initial community consultation meeting wereincluded with the focus group meetings for the qualitative analysis. This gave a picture of how initial insights and goals were developed throughout the focus groups and how wellany of them had been addressed by the end of the focus group stage of the study.

3.2 Methods of analysis

Focus group meeting analysis

The procedure for analysing the focus group and meeting data was as follows:1. Data sorting was conducted on all meeting documents so as to identify the main

conceptual groupings of the items addressed within meetings.2. All items from all meetings were then clustered into those conceptual groups

which were given appropriate labels3. Using the main concepts as objects within a model, the analyst created a

concept map depicting how the various main concepts related to one another 4. The main concepts within the overall model were used to create the executive

summary and also distributed throughout the report so as to sit with the tables




and charts to provide greater insights. In addition, some quotes are presented asstand alone issues within the main report as they cover topics not raised by thesurvey.

Survey data analysis

The survey data was collated using Microsoft Excel, then transported to SPSS. Thisstatistical package was used to create summary tables, charts, pivot tables, and cross-tabulations so as to create helpful descriptions of the data. Some analysis wasperformed on a couple of the cross-tabulations (chi-squared tests) where the sampleswere large enough to allow such analysis. The tables and charts and presented withdescriptions of each sitting together with relevant quotes from the focus groups that helpexplain the experiences behind the data in each case.

3.3 Factors influencing project outcomes

Changing of the guard

During the course of the research, the Woodford Centre faced significant changes.There were many staff changes and movements, the Centre was being transitioned intoan exclusively long term prisoner facility. the transfer of a significant number of prisoners to Woodford, as a result, and the ensuing processing requirements and alsothe introduction of a new system Prisoner Management System (PMS).

The General Manager who had been instrumental in the Centre embracing this ‘self-reflective’ exercise, was seconded elsewhere. The Acting General Manager wasfocused on the transitioning of the Centre into the states long-term facility and preparingfor a substantial increase in the prisoner population.

Quantitative analysis: small data size

While there were estimated to be over forty Vietnamese prisoners at the facility, only 22prisoners participated in the survey. Due to the small sample size, it was not possible toperform effective statistical tests. Relationships were not significant which may haveotherwise been significant had the sample size been at least double the size obtained.One of the focus groups described mistrust among the prisoners as one of the mainreasons for non completion of form:

(Meeting 4 March 2005)

Rollout of Vietnamese prisoner surveys

Secure 2 - done first. Most prisoners were very suspicious of WCC guards handingout surveys and were extremely reluctant to complete all questions honestly asconcerned that guards would read them and there would be negative repercussionsagainst prisoners

Surveys have not been completed by the following numbers of prisoners:3 in Secure 1, and 10-12 in Residential

Vietnamese prisoner focus group members said they would assist in promoting thecompletion of these surveys the remaining Vietnamese prisoners if okay with WCC.They would explain that no WCC staff would be reading these, only the twoCaboolture Shire Council staff involved.




While there are some limitations due to only approximately 50 percent of the prisonersfilling out the surveys, if the 22 who responded to the survey can be said to berepresentative of the whole Vietnamese population in WCC, then the issues arising fromthe survey can be said to be of relevance to the entire group and worth taking intoconsideration in future directions for Woodford Correctional Centre.




4. RESULTS

The results given below contain many different tables and charts describing differentaspects of the Vietnamese prisoners backgrounds, daily life in prison and many differentissues that they face. The overall themes that emerged are described in Figure 1 below,which illustrates how the problems that were raised in the focus groups and surveyresponses were also explored in terms of their potential solutions. The main problemareas that emerged are everyday cultural and language deficiencies, ineffectiveeducation and rehabilitation, and ineffective legal assistance. The main systemicsolutions that emerged are the need for a flexible and responsive system, culturallycompetent staff and for advocacy to address cultural and language blocks found in thesystem.

Figure 1: Identified problems & solutions

Problems ofVietnamese risoners

Systemic solutions

o Everyday cultural andlanguage deficiencies

o Ineffective educationand rehabilitation

o Ineffective legalassistance

o A flexible and responsivesystem

o Culturally competent staff

o Advocacy to addresscultural and languageblocks found in system

The frequency data summarised in the sections below, using tables and charts and thequotes and stories uncovered during discussions, helps to fill in the detailed informationthat illustrates the who, what, how and why of these problems and their potentialsolutions.

Survey results

The results in the following sections (4.3 to 4.8) contain a combination of the results fromthe prisoner surveys and focus groups, summarised and grouped according to the mainareas of Language, Life in Jail, Family Issues and The Future . Quotes from focusgroups are given where helpful to elucidate the experiences and stories to give thefigures and the tables more meaning and to provide a richer context for understanding.

Demographics

Country of origin

Most of the Vietnamese prisoners surveyed were born in Vietnam. Of those born inVietnam, there are two main groups. Five people have lived in Australia for 8-16 yrs,and seven people have been here for 19-25 years. The entire population comprisespost “boat people”, having all come to Australia from 1979 onwards.




Table 2: Country of birth

Country of birth Count %

Australia 2 9%China 2 9%

Hong Kong 2 9%

Malaysia 1 5%

Vietnam 15 68%

Total 22 100%

Table 3: Length of stay according to country of origin

Years lived in Australia * Country born in Crosstabulation

Count

0 1 0 0 0 1

0 0 1 0 0 1

1 0 0 0 0 1

1 1 0 0 0 2

1 0 0 0 0 1

1 0 0 0 0 1

1 0 0 0 0 1

0 0 1 0 0 1

1 0 0 0 0 1

2 0 0 0 0 2

1 0 0 1 0 2

1 0 0 0 0 1

1 0 0 0 0 1

1 0 0 0 0 1

0 0 0 0 1 1

12 2 2 1 1 18

2

3

8

10

14

15

16

18

19

20

21

23

24

25

26

Years

lived in

Australia

Total

Vietnam China Hong Kong Australia Malaysia

Country born in

Total

(Focus group questions and answers 15 Oct 2004)

1. What do you think of your culture?

Yeah okay

Fine

More Vietnamese than Aussie

2. How does the Vietnamese approach to life differ from the Aussie way?

Very family orientated, family values very important




A lot of respect for elders

3. Is it important to eat together?

Not as much as everyone busy

Things have changed, people are too busy

4. What about religion?

Bud đ hism and Catholic primarily

Attended Catholic church

No point

Bu đ dhist believer but rarely attend temple only for special occasions Is there a tradition to live in the temple and spend time learning there?No not in Vietnam

5. How big is the problem of gambling in the Vietnamese community?

In Sydney it is big

My family has increasing gambling problems – my aunty is in her mid 40s and isbored so gambles a lot

Gambling is in the Vietnamese blood

Citizenship

Three quarters of the entire sample (16/21) have taken out Australian citizenship. Tenpercent (2/20) are permanent residents. Ten percent (2/20) indicated that they are on atemporary visa.

Place of residence prior to prison

A group of nine prisoners come from Brisbane’s south-western suburbs including Inala,Darra, Browns Plains, Oxley and Bellbird Park. Three come from New South Wales andVictoria.

Age

Most of those surveyed (14/19) are between 20 and 30 years of age with only fiveprisoners above 30 years.




Figure 2: Age breakdown

Age breakdown

Below 30:

74%

Over 30: 26%

Relationships and children

Most of the group indicated that they are not in a relationship. About one quarter (5/21)are married or de-facto. Of the eight from the survey who have children, most have morethan one child so that the group surveyed has 16 children between them.

Table 4: Family Situation

Those not single, and have children

Maritalstatus

No Average no of children

De-facto 2 2.5

Divorced 1 3Married 3 1.6

Separated 2 1.5

Total 8 8.6

The families of prisoners

(Focus group questions and answers 1 April 2005)

1. What does your family think about you being in jail?

Don’t talk about prison with other relatives due to a sense of shame

Are very supportive and have regular visits if geographically possible (some prisoners’ families live interstate)

2. What constitutes a Vietnamese family?

The extended family - grandparents, uncles, aunties, mother, father, siblings,cousins, and the rest. All members are well connected with their family group

3. How many children in Vietnamese families?

Traditionally Vietnamese families had 10 to 11 children




Contemporary Vietnamese families have an average of 4 to 5 children

4. Who has power in the family?

The father has the power and has the last say on everything

Grandparents also have significant authority and power within the family

5. Who has power in the community?

In Australia

Community leaders with academic qualifications receive high status in thecommunity

Community leaders who are wealthy also receive high status

Professionals who provide the community with free programs such as ESL,mathematics, martial arts, etc are also highly respected by the community

In Vietnam

Ho Chi Min gave land and work to his people – considered a great leader

Predominantly academics and wealthy members in the community

6. How important is your opinion in the family?

Different in each family

Parents / grandparents make all decisions

The younger sibling(s) must be obedient to discipline by the older siblings. If ayounger sibling is naughty, the older sibling gets into trouble because they havefailed their responsibility to discipline properly

Discipline is more strict than within the Australian culture like kneeling in corner for hours can be given as a punishment for not obeying

Not allowed to talk when eating but more the case in Vietnam than in Australia

Language issues

Vietnamese

Most of the prisoners surveyed (17/22) speak Vietnamese as their first language.Half speak only Vietnamese at home. Just under a quarter (5/22) speak bothVietnamese and English at home. Most of those surveyed (17/22) speakVietnamese very well or average. Three speak it poorly, and one not at all.

Figure 3: Languages spoken at home




Languages spoken at home

Cantonese

14%English

5%

Vietnamese

81%

English

Just under one fifth (4/21) report that they speak English well. The remainder saythat they speak average or poor English. Over three quarters of the group (17/21)asked for assistance in learning English.

Figure 4: How well English is spoken

How well English is spoken

Average

38%

Not very w ell

43%

Very well

19%

English as a second language

Of those whose first language is Vietnamese and who were not born in Australia (15

people), only three reported that they speak English well, the rest stated that their English was either average or poor. However, there is a general pattern in the datathat shows that the longer that people have been in Australia above 14 years, thebetter their English.

Table 5: English ability of those not born in Australia

Frequency PercentValid

PercentCumulative

Percent

Valid very well 3 18.8 20.0 20.0

average 7 43.8 46.7 66.7

not verywell 5 31.3 33.3 100.0

Total 15 93.8 100.0




Missing

missing1 6.3

Total 16 100.0

Understanding of information in jail

Only some understanding

Approximately 80 percent of the prisoners (17/21) say that they only understand some or not much of the information in jail. The prison mostly communicates with the groupthrough other prisoners (65%) or through an interpreter (23%). Two people say they arenot communicated with at all.

Figure 5: Understanding information in jail

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

All Not much Some

Information understanding in jail

Figure 6: How prisoners are communicated with in jail

How does the prison communicate with you?

Interpreter

24%

Not at all

12%Other prisoners

64%

(Focus group questions and answers 12 Nov 2004)

1. Were your provided with translated information about jail eg the ‘Entering Prison’leaflet?




No prisoners from this group ever saw the Vietnamese translated “Entering Prison” leaflet

2. If you have a complaint and want to communicate that to Management, do youbelieve your can successfully do this?

We don’t have much faith that our complaints will be heard

I sent a letter to the Director General and the Ombudsman but still haven’t got aresponse and nothing has been followed up about my unfair transfer to a different centre. What can I do?

Understanding of legal situation

Lack of understanding

When Vietnamese prisoners were convicted and sentenced, only one fifth of the group(4/19) say that they mostly understood their situation. The rest (80%) had only someunderstanding (12/19) or none (3/19), even though an interpreter was provided.

Figure 7: Understanding of own legal situation

How much did you understand?

Didn't know

16%

Mostly understood

21%Some understanding

63%

Lack of understanding due to poor English

Most of the respondents (15/19) have average or poor English. Table 5 shows that of these, 80% (12/15) had only some understanding or no understanding of their situation

(even though an interpreter was provided). Tables 5 and 6 show how three people withpoor English had some understanding (for two of them, an interpreter had beenprovided) and two who have poor English mostly understood their situation (aninterpreter had been provided for these). There is one person with poor English who hadonly some understanding of their situation, but no interpreter was provided.

Table 6: Understanding of situation according to English proficiency




How well English ability * Understanding situation Crosstabulation

Count

1 3 0 4

1 6 0 7

2 3 3 8

4 12 3 19

very well

average

not very well

How well

English

ability

Total

mostlyunderstood

some

understanding didn't know

Understanding situation

Total

Interpreter help

Lack of understanding due to other factors

Table 6 shows that there were 5 people who even after having interpreter help onlyunderstood some or not much of their situation. It is possible that for these people, thelegal system itself was hard to understand, not just the language (see extracts fromfocus group below)

(Minutes 17 September 2004)

1. What other things made it hard for you to understand your situation?

Some of us can read most of the words in legal letters but we don’t understand what it means (issue of comprehension)

I am really not sure of the right action to take so I don’t know if legal representation isgetting me anywhere

I have hired a private solicitor because I am struggling to understand the meaning of legal letters and reports (psychological, appeal and assessment, parole, etc)

Table 7: Interpreter help given or not to prisoners with various levels of Englishproficiency and understanding of situation

How well English ability * Understanding situation * Interpreter provided Crosstabulation

Count

0 2 0 2

2 2 3 7

2 4 3 9

1 3 4

1 2 3

0 1 1

2 6 8

average

not very well

How well

English

ability

Total

very well

average

not very well

How well

English

ability

Total

Interpreter provided

yes

no

mostly

understood

some

understa

nding didn't know

Understanding situation

Total

Unaware of interpreter availability




When receiving legal assistance, 40 percent of the group (9/22) did not know that theycould request an interpreter. Of the 13 who knew that they could, 8 were provided withan interpreter while 3 were not.

Table 8: Did you know you could request an interpreter?

Frequency PercentValid

PercentCumulative

Percent

Valid yes 13 59.1 59.1 59.1

no 9 40.9 40.9 100.0

Total 22 100.0 100.0

Most interpreter help in court

Interpreters have been more often used for court (8/10) than during police interviews(4/10) for both average and poor English speakers. Only one person with poor English

had an interpreter during a police interview. The one person who speaks English verywell requested interpreter help for both the police interviews and court but this help wasnot provided.

Table 9: English ability of prisoners in situations when interpreters used

How well English ability * Interpreter provided * Situation Crosstabulation

Count

1 1

1 1

2 2

3 3

5 5

0 1 1

1 0 1

2 0 2

3 1 4

not very well

How well

English ability

Total

average

not very well

How well

English ability

Total

very well

average

not very well

How well

English ability

Total

Interpreter helped when... Police interview

Court

Both

yes no

Interpreter provided

Total

Legal assistance

Most legal assistance (19/22) received has been through Legal Aid. One person hasreceived no assistance whatsoever. Even when it is given, the process andunderstanding is not accessible to the Vietnamese prisoners (see comments from focusgroup below).

(Prisoners comments 17 September 2004)

Legal Aid makes deals with DPP (Department of Public Prosecutions) I am NOT

consulted and I only get told of their decision after the DPP has decided




Legal Aid has made all sorts of deals in my case but I did not understand any of it. Inthe end the people that offended with me got off with lighter sentences and I got themost severe sentence

Legal Aid phone service is no use to us. The times that we can use it are very limited because Legal Aid staff are not manning the phone. Many times it is not staffed at all so this service is unavailable to us

(17 Sep 04 meeting) ?????????

Prison and Legal Service is supposed to be for all inmates but they don’t care for individual prisoner’s needs

Very blunt and extremely brief communications. Always too busy and only giveabrupt short answers. The Legal Service number is almost always engaged so pretty useless to us

(Focus group meeting 6 May 2005)

CSC to confirm whether Police use TIS or in-house interpreters when apprehendingand charging alleged criminal offenders from non-English speaking backgrounds

CSC to confirm whether Court uses TIS or whether DPP can come with their own in-house interpreter

1. Who helps prisoners with legal problems?

Prisoners can make an appointment to see a counsellor

We don’t use counsellors because they can’t do anything to help us legally

2. What is the progress of prisoner’s transfer requests?

Three years ago I asked for a transfer to NSW because my family live there but nothing has happened yet

In 2003 I lodged my most recent request for a transfer to Victoria so that my wife and children could visit me more easily but I haven’t heard nothing back

I asked for a transfer in 2003 but it was denied because the Immigration Department had still not made a decision about my visa

Crimes, sentencing and appraisal

Crimes and sentences

Of the 19 who revealed their offence in the survey, most of the crimes are drug related(9/19): (Possession 2, Supplier 1, Trafficking 4, Drugs 2). Drug related crimes are giventerms of up to 14 years and drug possession sentences range from 2 1/2 yrs to 12years. As a result of this finding, this issue was discussed further in the focus groups asshown below.

Focus Group Discussions: Why drug trafficking?




(Minutes 17 September 2004)

No employment skills, lack of experience, no opportunity to get ahead

Although I had even completed full time studies, without experience there was nochance of getting a job

Family problems were so bad that I had to leave home and live on the streetsWhen I was 16 years old I had a drug habit to support. I started because of peer pressure and everyone saw it as trendy. Then I got addicted.

(15 October 2004)

There is a ‘Christmas clean-up’ in Inala. Police go around and start clearing away drugs, dealers and users from the area…. so more Vietnamese get arrested and end up in prison

The next largest group of offences is stealing/fraud (6/19 - fraud or Imposition 2, stealing1, ATM job 1, break and enter 1, armed robbery 1). The other three are attemptedmurder 2, and manslaughter 1.

Table 10: Sentence according to offence category

Jail Term Category * Offence Category Crosstabulation

Count

3 0 5 8

6 1 1 8

0 2 0 2

9 3 6 18

up to 6 yrs

8 to 14yrs

over 15yrs

Jail Term

Category

Total

Drug Related

Manslaught

er/Attempt

Murder

Robbery/

Theft/Fraud

Offence Category

Total

Sentencing

Most of the group (76 percent) were sentenced in the Supreme Court. Half (10/20) wereoffered a plea bargain.

Figure 9: Where sentencing occurred




Court sentences

Magistrate

14%

District

10%

Supreme

76%

Sentencing appraisals

Most of the group rated their sentence as unfair (16/19), though 6 of them knew that itwas a criminal offence. Nine of the nineteen respondents did not think that their crimewas a criminal offence. These nine are charged with imposition 1, robbery/stealing 3,drug-related crimes 3 and attempted murder/manslaughter 2. The issue of perceivedunfairness was discussed in the focus groups, as follows:

(Prisoner comments 17 September 2004)

White Australians also charged for really similar crimes got much smaller sentencesbecause of plea bargaining with the DPP

(Prisoner comments 6 May 05)

1. In the survey, 16 percent answered that they thought their prison sentence wasunfair. Why?

Became my English was bad I couldn’t communicate what had happened in thePolice interview when I was being charged. Even though there was an interpreter there, he wouldn’t accurately tell the police what I was actually saying. Most of theinterpreters that they used were from the Police Department and they would decidewhat information got written down on my statement

This same pool of interpreters is used during the trial in court. Often interpreters only

say what they’ve been told by the Police to say. I just gave up in the end. I was soangry became the interpreter would not say what I wanted him to tell the court. Hekept on telling me it wasn’t important. What could I do? (Even now the prisoner appears visibly shaken and angry)

There is a whole group of us. Things got violent and this guy badly hurts another guy. The guy who actually did it got a really light sentence because his English was pretty good. I was only an onlooker but I got a serious sentence became I couldn’t defend myself in English. I didn’t do the crime but the golden rule is not to grass upanother offender. You keep quiet out of fear that they’ll find out and harm your family – payback.

Queensland has the harshest laws in Australia. If I was charged in another state likeNew South Wales or Victoria the sentence is almost halved.




Some offenders get better sentence offers by being able to access better legal advice through Legal Aid.

4.4.6 Time served and understanding

Over half of the prisoners surveyed (12/19) are currently serving the first two years of their sentence. Nearly one third have served 3 to 6 years. One prisoner has served 12out of 15 years of his sentence.

Table 11: Amount of time served for different lengths of sentence

Years Served * Jail Term Category Crosstabulation

Count

Jail Term Category

up to 6 yrs 8 to 14yrs over 15yrs Total

up to 2 yrs8 4 0 12

3 to 6 yrs 1 4 1 6

YearsServed

12 yrs 0 0 1 1

Total 9 8 2 19

Understanding of situation and length of sentence

Of the eight people who were given the shortest sentences (up to 6 years), two didn’thave any understanding of their situation and four had only some understanding. Of theeight medium term prisoners (8 to 14 years), one understood while seven had someunderstanding. The three prisoners who have the longest sentences (over 15 years)were spread evenly over understanding, some understanding, and not understandingtheir situation.

Table 12: Understanding of situation for various jail terms

Understanding situation Total

mostlyunderstood

someunderstanding

didn'tknow

Jail TermCategory

up to 6 yrs2 4 2 8

8 to 14yrs 1 7 0 8

over 15yrs 1 1 1 3Total 4 12 3 19

4.4.7 The review process

This process does not seem to be equally accessible by Vietnamese prisoners, due tolanguage and comprehension difficulties, as discussed in the meeting below:

(Minutes of feedback meeting with management 15 October 2004)

1. Vietnamese prisoners are concerned that they are not advised of the outcome of their sentence management review




Whatever was advised at the ‘panel Interview’, the findings are reported back to eachprisoner. The problem is that most Vietnamese prisoners do not understand whatthe document means and really should be encouraged to talk it over with their caseofficer for a more detailed understanding.

One prisoner expressed his exasperation at the review process. The ORNI process

continually assesses him as a high risk to society based primarily on the fact that hewas only achieved a Year 9 level of education and that he has not completed thepre-requisite courses for parole.

This prisoner feels dumb-founded because centre management refuses him accessto the recommended rehabilitation programs. However when his ‘conditional release’comes up for consideration, he considers the Centre fails him because they say thathe is still a risk to the community because he hasn’t Completed these programs.

Other prisoners agreed that the recommended rehabilitation courses are rarelyavailable because of the small number of facilitators able to conduct there programs.

These prisoners had applied but were told that there is a long waiting list. So the‘long termers’ keep getting pushed down the list of eligibility and seen as a lowpriority. The ‘ long termers’ become the disadvantaged ones.

With the Centre’s appeal and assessments process there is a seven day turnaroundin decisions being made but Vietnamese prisoners do not get any feedback on howtheir applications went.

4.4.8 Link between English proficiency, education, and jail term

Inspection of the data suggests that there is a relationship between English ability(speaking and comprehension) and length of sentence. Although there is not enoughdata to test this relationship for statistical significance, the data shows that the prisonerswith the longest sentences speak average or poor English, the medium term (8 to 14years) prisoners speak average or poor English and the prisoners with shorter sentences mostly speak average English. Two speak it well and two speak it poorly.Furthermore, most prisoners have only studied to Year 10. Two medium term prisoners(8 to 14 years) have only finished primary school.

Table 13: English proficiency and jail term

How well English ability * Jail Term Category Crosstabulation

Count

2 2 0 4

5 2 1 8

2 5 2 9

9 9 3 21

very well

average

not very well

How well

English

ability

Total

up to 6 yrs 8 to 14yrs over 15yrsJail Term Category

Total

4.5 Education

Out of 20 respondents, one prisoner has no education, two have primary school, three

quarters have Year 10 and two have a high school certificate.




Table 14: Relationship between education level and jail term

Highest level of study * Jail Term Category Crosstabulation

Count

0 2 0 2

8 5 2 15

0 1 1 2

0 0 1 1

8 8 4 20

primary school

year 10

certificate

none

Highest

level of

study

Total

up to 6 yrs 8 to 14yrs over 15yrsJail Term Category

Total

Willingness to study in spite of poor English

Twenty of the respondents are currently engaged in study in the following subjects –

English language, Vietnamese, mathematics, computers, business and Years 11 and12. The two who are not studying have Year 10 education. One third of the people whoare studying are from Vietnam and speak poor English. Another two are from China andone is from Hong Kong, all of whom are studying although they speak poor English.

Table 15: Courses studied

Course Count %

English 5 25

Computers 3 15

Mathematics 6 30

Literacy (ESL) 7 35

Tertiary Preparation 2 10Other courses of study or applying

3 15

Table 16: English ability according to country of birth

Country born in

Vietnam ChinaHongKong Australia Malaysia Total

very well 2 0 0 0 0 2

average 4 0 1 1 1 7

How well

Englishability not very

well6 2 1 0 0 9

Total 12 2 2 1 1 18

The important role of education

The quotes in the section below show how lack of educational opportunities was astrong contributing factor for Vietnamese prisoners becoming drug traffickers. Theprisoners own descriptions of their frustrations with participating in courses within

Woodford can be seen below in ‘Blocks to Educational Advancement’ and their fears for




the future if nothing changes can be seen in section 4.8.4 under ‘The Future: Drug

related futures - if nothing changes’. Educational history

(Focus Group 1 April 2005)

Prisoner 1 During Year 9 I realised that I was struggling with my schoolwork. I left school and started working in a bakery and a butcher’s shop. I amcurrently doing a preparation courses for entry to tertiary education

Prisoner 2 When I was in Year 9 I was excluded from school. I wasn’t doing well anyway so I began working in a factory and a restaurant

Prisoner 3 Between Years 5 to 9 I didn’t receive any special education support for my ADHD condition so by Year 9 I left school and started working at theBrisbane Sheridan Hotel for two years

Prisoner 4 I studied to the equivalent of Year 11 in Vietnam and did very well. I got to Australia and was put into year 10. But because I had difficulties withEnglish I struggled. My maths marks were really high though. Eventually I dropped out of school without completing Year 10

Prisoner 5 I struggled at school mainly because my English was not good and theschooling didn’t give me ESL support. I finished Year 10 and got awelding apprenticeship

Prisoner 6 After Year 10 I started but didn’t complete a diploma in Hotel Management

Prisoner 7 I managed to get to Year 11 mainly because my family really wanted their son to complete senior studies. But because of my difficulties withEnglish, I gave up and worked in a restaurant

Prisoner 8 I completed Year 12 and did very well. I was accepted into university for a‘drafting degree’ but deferred to help support my family

Blocks to Educational Advancement

(Prisoners comments 15 October 2004 re: rehabilitation courses)

Prisoners with conditional release sentences don’t get on the program

They tell you that if you’re close to your parole date we’ll put you on the list for rehab programs

Not enough teachers as it is… so not enough staff to run more courses

(Meeting with management 15 October 2004)

When the issue of rehabilitation courses not being made available to prisoners, staff concurred with this. The reason given for inadequate numbers of courses being

conducted was that there just weren’t enough teachers for the number of prisonersneeding to undertake these courses. Priority listing depends on full time release dates.




For example, 12 months prior to release or parole, then and only then do prisoners getonto the priority list. Therefore course inaccessibility is not due to discrimination basedon age or culture but on date of prison release.

(Focus group 4 March 2005)

Prisoners discussed the centre’s core programs. The Violence Intervention Program(VIP), Cognitive Skills Program and the Relapse Prevention Programs all require afunctional level of English. Completing these core programs was a prerequisite for parole. Approximately 10 to 15 Vietnamese prisoners need interpreting assistance toundertake and complete these courses.

Vietnamese prisoners enrol in English as a Second Language programs in an attempt toimprove their English skill to be able to undertake the centre’s core programs. However,it is not appreciated by management that learning a second language, especially onelike English which bears no resemblance to Vietnamese, is very difficult. Few prisonersimprove their English sufficient for them to undertake the programs with any level of

confidence.

One Vietnamese prisoner experiences very bad headaches from having to sit still for extended periods in ESL classes and often ends up ‘in trouble’ with staff because heloses focus.

Education and rehabilitation: summary

The well established relationship between levels of education and level of life successcan be used to explain the history and current status of the Vietnamese prisoners atWoodford. That is, the prisoners in the focus group had either no ability or no chance to

pursue a meaningful education prior to entering prison due to family pressures or language barriers. Within the prison there are still significant language barriers and lackof course and trainer availability. Moreover, poor education will continue to be an issuefor these people after they leave prison if the system fails to find a way to give somesound education and training that will equip these men to find appropriate work whenthey leave.

The quotes from a focus group discussion of prisoners aspirations shows that there is awill to develop skills for a future career. It is up to WCC to help the men to find a way.

Aspirations of prisoners

(Focus group meeting 1 April 2005)

1. How important is education in the Vietnamese culture?

Education is seen as really important

Vietnamese families have very high hopes of children succeeding academically and professionally

2. What job skills would you like to develop?

Construction Industry (3 prisoners)Chef / hospitality (1 prisoner)Stick with existing trade in welding (1 prisoner)




Information Technology (2 prisoners)Garment manufacturing (1 prisoner)Salesman (1 prisoner)

Three Vietnamese prisoners indicated that they already have introductory skills inMicrosoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint.

4.6 Daily Life in Jail

In jail, six of the group surveyed carry out cleaning, laundry or gardening tasks, fiveprisoners undertake education work or study, eight are involved in industrial work or inthe woodwork facility and one works in textiles.

4.6.1 Cultural issues

Some of the main issues for the prisoners who participated in the survey and in the

focus groups revolved around the needs of every day life. In particular was their desirethat cultural food, media, and practises be included in everyday life. The main issuesand suggestions for solutions are listed in Table17 below.

Table 17: Difficult issues and their solutions

Difficult issues Suggested solutions

My English is not good. No Chinesenewspapers. Worried about mum.

Chinese newspaper. Chinese music.Chinese story book.

Food - more Asian food Provide more food on buy-up list

Cultural food entertainment Provide food which we able to eat through

the dayNo Chinese newspaper. English is not good.Nobody talks to me in Chinese - i feel sad.

I need Chinese newspaper. Chinesemusic. Magazine. Story book.

Food Asian food buy up for all the prisoner notonly just the Asians so there is no issues.

Food Provide more Asian foods for purchase onbuy-up.

No Asian meal Let us buy Asian food and provide our basic needs

Asian diet, books and magazines, Asianvideo (luxuries)

N/A

Language. Food. Need some Chinesenewspapers or music

Language. Food.

Asian diet or buy up book and newspaper -Asian video

It would be helpful of the management toprovide some of our needs

Mainly meals, books and magazines, Asianvideo

Na

Food - need more food Provide more food to choose from

Jobs, food, relatives, movies etc. So I'm lonely, confident in myself

I solve problems myself It depends on the problem

Food, as most Vietnamese prisoners are not

used to Australian food

More Asian food




Vietnamese culture practised in prison

Mostly, it is the Chinese New Year that is observed at Woodford Correctional Centre by90 percent of the respondents. Only 20 percent (4/21) practise food aspects of their culture and one third practise language aspects. These low rates are probably due tolow availability, as shown by the requests in Table 17 above and Table 19 below.

Table 18: Numbers of respondents who practice aspects of their culture in prison

Aspect Practised Count %

Chinese new year 19 90.5

Food 4 19

Language 7 33.3

Table 19: Aspects of culture that participants wish to practice

Other aspects desired to be practiced

Cooking appliances to cook our own food

English culture

Family at Chinese new year, food

Food, family for new years

Moon festival

Moon festival

Need cooking appliances to cook more

Newspapers, allow our family send Chinese

booksProvide certain type of food

Vietnamese

Foremost among Vietnamese prisoners’ ‘wish list’ of cultural aspects were Asian cookingitems, Asian CDs, videos and DVDs, newspapers and magazines in Vietnamese andChinese and to have members of their families join them in the celebration of theChinese New Year and the Moon Festival.

Time within the focus group meetings was allocated to develop ‘democratically arrived at

lists of food items to present to the ‘By Up’ committee for their consideration and musicCDs which would be soused from the music shop belonging to a prisoner’s aunt.

(Prisoners comments 17 September 2004)

We really want Centre Management to allow us to host Chinese New Year celebrations each year (close to the actual date) and to invite our family to celebratewith us just like the Aboriginal people can write their family for NAlDOC

We want more Asian food on the buy up list instead of all the unhealthy chocolatesand Sweets that are currently on the list. We want items like fish sauce, Oyster sauce (Maggi), MSG and soy sauce (Knorr or Maggi)




(Focus group 12 November 2004)

List of preferred ‘buy up’ items

1. Tom Yum noodles2. Chinese sausage3. ‘Squid’ brand fish sauce4. ‘Yellow Crane’ brand vermicelli (rice sticks/noodles)5. ‘Panda’ brand oyster sauce6. ‘Migoreng’ brand noodles7. ‘Knorr’ brand soy sauce8. MSG 454g packet9. ‘Rose’ brand rice paper 10. Lychee or rambutan or mixed logan fruit in plastic tubs

List of preferred CD artists

(several people were not sure of album titles)1. Vợ tôi2. Giọt nước mắt cho đời3. Một phút đam mê4. Ngàn năm vẫn đợi5. Người tình dối gian6. Đò chiều7. Ngày xưa anh hỡi8. Về cuối đường tình9. Làm sao anh biết10. Tình ơi có hay11. Tơ tằm

Progress on cultural issues raised by focus groups

Some progress was made on a few of the cultural and everyday issues as a result of thefeedback from the focus group to prison management, as follows:

Books/magazines help with Vietnamese language learning

(4 March 2005)

Some younger Vietnamese prisoners advised that they are now learning to write their traditional Vietnamese language because of the access to Vietnamese newspapers

available at the Centre’s library.

Food interest by other prisoners

(6 May 2005)

White Anglo prisoners have asked one of the Vietnamese prisoners o teach Vietnamesecooking to them in the Residential section.




of this relationship to do so. Because this was impossible to arrange on such short notice, the phone call was denied and the prisoner experienced symptoms of depression for an extended period because he couldn’t speak with his brother beforedeportation.

Procedural blocks to food

(15 October 2004)

Management expressed concerns over the difficulty in trying to source local suppliersof Asian food items, Council staff replied that they had found a reliable outlet inMorayfield which was willing to supply the prison with Asian food items from the listcompiled by the Vietnamese prisoners.

The staff member also stipulated that all ingredients must be packaged in plasticcontainers because of security requirements. He added that there was limitedstorage space and that it was not refrigerated.

Procedural blocks to ‘buy-ups’

One of the items most requested by prisoners was the availability of Asian fooditems. When prison management was approached about including Asian items onthe prison’s ‘buy up’ list (items that the prisoners can purchase themselves), theyinformed Council staff of the procedure to influence the makeup of the list. This wasthen communicated to prisoners at the next focus group meeting.


Council staff advised prisoners that because of lack of storage space at the prison,

the buy-up list was limited to only 40 items. This list should be representative of thedesires of all prisoners at WCC. But it was considered unlikely that Asian productswould be considered a priority by prisoners if there was no representation byVietnamese prisoners on the PAC Board.

One prisoner asked whether Council staff could ask management if there were anymulticultural prisoners on this Board and who was eligible to join.

In a subsequent feedback session, management replied that currently there were nomulticultural prisoners on the PAC Board, and that any prisoner could join the Board.

(Focus group meeting 6 May 2005)

At this meeting, Council staff recommended that some of the Vietnamese prisoners join the PAC Board as soon as possible to negotiate the introduction of Asian fooditems on the existing buy-up list.

One prisoner who had previously been a member of the PACC Board expressed in acynical tone, ”It is a waste of time being on the Board. We are in a minority so don’teven get a look in. All the white prisoners are interested in is junk food. They’ve gotto have their lollies! Most of the list is made up of junk food.”

Procedural blocks to receiving CDs

(15 October 2004)




CDs are among the only items permitted to be sent from outside WCC to prisoners.A number of Vietnamese families have posted CDs to family members in jail only tohave them withheld.

At the 4 March 2005 meeting, management gave an explanation as to why theseCDs were not being released to the prisoners. WCC considered these to be piratedcopies and hence a breach of copyright legislation.

Again at the 1 Apr 2005 meeting Council staff were asked to inform the prisoners totell their families not to send any copied CDs because the Centre will only acceptcommercially produced ones.

The prisoners informed Council staff that the copyright regimen in Vietnam differs tothat in the West. A Vietnamese commercial operator usually pays copyright for 60 to100 copies of a CD. Each operator is entitled to make the designated number of copies and to on sell these. This practice complies with Vietnamese legislation andis the only mechanism available to Vietnamese businesses in Australia to purchase

and on sell CDs.

As a result of this being communicated with management, some of the withheld CDswere released to prisoners. However because this decision has not been formallycommunicated to the appropriate staff, the results have been ‘hit and miss’, withmany prisoners still not receiving CDs sent by their families.

Procedural blocks to showing of videos

After much negotiation with management, Council was permitted to negotiate with aVietnamese video store in Inala to provide videos. A list of video preferences wereprepared by the prisoners and delivered to the Violet Raindrops Video Store.

Just before the first shipment, management informed Council staff that the Centre’svideo players are being replaced by DVD machines. As a result there wasconsiderable delay in being able to view their Asian movies.

(1 April 2005)

One movie was played on Sunday afternoon (English language) and another onMonday night (Chinese language) in the Residential and Secure 1 sections of the jail. Secure 2 prisoners did not see these movies. No other DVDs have been playedsince the viewing in the week following the last meeting.

Subtitle programming problem: second movie was in Chinese language and nosubtitles were programmed in when movie played on DVD unit. Prisoners could notunderstand the content as most do not speak the Chinese language. RequestedVietnamese sub-title as first preference then English as second preference

Programming Problem: guards cannot program DVD with sub-titles as only trained toplay DVDs, not program machine

Procedural blocks to books and magazines

(17 September 2004)

Different access arrangements to library and other facilities for prisoners who residein Residential, Secure 1 and Secure 2




(15 October 2004)

Magazines and newspapers are not allowed to be sent to prisoners from family or friends

Some procedural blocks to Buddhism classes

(1 April 2005)

Management cannot see any problem with non-Vietnamese prisoners attending theBuddhist philosophy classes but a formal program must be proposed and developedwith WCC first

Procedural blocks to Chinese New Year

(4 May 2005)

Department of Corrective Services assessment of traditional celebrations is presentlyunderway and therefore WCC unable to confirm that prisoners’ families will attendthe Vietnamese New Year celebration on an annual basis.

Management team in head office must approve whether this will be an annuallyrecurring event. Concerns were expressed that this precedent could mean that other cultural groups may also request their own day of celebration.

4.6.2 Health Issues

Half of the participants (11/22) rated their overall health as good or very good, while 36percent (8/22) rated their overall health as fair or poor. Three said they didn’t know. Of the 22 surveyed, 15 indicated at least one health problem. Most of these indicatedproblems with headaches (32%) or with sleep (27%).

Table 20: Self assessment of health levels

Health_analysis Count %

Don’t_know 3 14

Fair 7 32

Good 7 32

Poor 1 5

Very_good 4 18

Total 22 100

Table 21: Health issues experienced

Health Issue Count %Headaches 7 32

Sleep difficulties 6 27

Anxiety/Depression 4 18

Anger 4 18Hygiene 1 5




Other health conditions that were listed by the prisoners were back-pain, hay-fever,headache and back-pain, Hepatitis C and skin sensitivity. Two of the prisoners (withback-pain and hay-fever) need medical assistance in managing these conditions.

Unclear relationship between heath Issues and self assessments

Table 22 shows that health issues do not seem to effect Vietnamese prisoners’perceptions of their own health. (The “don’t knows” are included in the analysis belowas while these answers have a multitude of meanings, they probably do not mean“good”). The main patterns in the table are:

• Of those who do get headaches, over half (4/7) rated their overall health as beinggood or very good, and just under half (3/7) rated their health as fair or poor.

• Of those who do have sleep issues, half (3/6) rated their overall health as beinggood or very good and half as fair

• Of those who do have anxiety issues, half (2/4) rated their overall health as beinggood or very good, and half did not know

•

Of those who do have anger issues, half (2/4) rated their overall health as beinggood or very good and half as fair or did not know

In summary, most of the health issues listed (sleep, anxiety, or anger) shows no patternof affect on people’s stated levels of health, though headaches may have some effects.This result may be due to the health issues having no real impact on the half of theprisoners; or an unwillingness in half of the prisoners to admit to health issues. However data later shows that how prisoners are treated by others does have some effect on their stated levels of health.

Table 22: Relationship between Heath Issues and Self Assessments(Counts and Percents based on 15 respondents)

headache sleep anxiety anger hygiene

2 1 1 1 0 3

very good 20.0

2 2 1 1 0 4

good 26.7

2 3 0 1 1 5

fair 33.3

1 0 0 0 0 1

poor 6.7

0 0 2 1 0 2

don't know 13.3

Column 7 6 4 4 1 15

Total 46.7 40.0 26.7 26.7 6.7 100.0

4.6.3 Treatment by others

Many respondents (43%) indicated that they are treated differently by other prisoners atleast sometimes because of being Vietnamese. Of these respondents, most are mediumterm prisoners (8-14 years). Staff treat over half (11/21) of respondents differently. Of these, four are short term (up to 6 months) prisoners, five are medium term prisoners (8-14 years), and two are long term prisoners (over 15 years).

Table 23: Whether Vietnamese prisoners are treated differently by other prisonersaccording to length of sentence




Jail Term Category * Other prisoners treatment Crosstabulation

Count

1 6 2 90 4 5 9

1 2 0 3

2 12 7 21

up to 6 yrs8 to 14yrs

over 15yrs

Jail TermCategory

Total

yes no sometimes

Other prisoners treatment

Total

Table 24: Whether Vietnamese prisoners are treated differently by staff according to lengthof sentence

Jail Term Category * Other staff treatment Crosstabulation

Count

0 5 4 9

0 3 5 8

2 2 0 4

2 10 9 21

up to 6 yrs

8 to 14yrs

over 15yrs

Jail Term

Category

Total

yes no sometimes

Other staff treatment

Total

Treatment and English ability

Five people who do not speak English well report being treated differently by other prisoners, and four report different treatment by staff.

Table 25: Treatment and English ability

How well English ability * Other prisoners treatment Crosstabulation

Count

0 3 1 4

0 5 3 8

2 3 3 8

2 11 7 20

very well

average

not very well

How well

English

ability

Total

yes no sometimes

Other prisoners treatment

Total

Language rejection

(12 November 2004)

Guards take offence when we speak in Vietnamese

Treatment and health

The data was investigated to test if there any relationship between health issues for prisoners, and whether they are treated differently because they are Vietnamese byother prisoners and staff. Overall, the results suggest that being treated differently by

staff due to being Vietnamese does have some effect on some health issues, as follows.




Treatment and self assessment

There are four people who are treated differently by other prisoners at least sometimeswho rate their overall health as fair, and 1 who doesn’t know. That is, 5/22 may beaffected by different treatment by other prisoners. Similarly, there are four people whoare treated differently by staff at least sometimes who rate their overall health as fair,and 2 who don’t know. That is, 6/22 may be affected by different treatment by staff.

Table 26: Different treatment and self assessment

Different Treatment Due Vietnamese yes no sometimes

Health T’ment by

Others 1 3 0 4 19.0

very good staff 1 2 1 4 19.0

Others 0 3 3 6 28.6

good Staff 0 4 3 7 33.3

Others 1 3 3 7 33.3fair Staff 0 3 4 7 33.3

Others 0 1 0 1 4.8

poor Staff 0 0 0 0 0.0

Others 0 2 1 3 14.3

don't know Staff 1 1 1 3 14.3

Others Column 2 12 7 21

Total 9.5 57.1 33.3 100.0

Staff Column 2 10 9 21

Total 9.5 47.6 42.9 100.0

Treatment by others and particular health issues

Headaches and sleep difficulties seem to be reported more than other health issues byprisoners who are treated differently by other prisoners at least sometimes (53% of respondents), and by prisoners who are treated differently by staff at least sometimes(78% of respondents). Three people have anxiety issues.

Table 27: Different treatment and Health Issues

Different Treatment Due to being Vietnameseyes no sometimes

HealthIssue T’mentBy N %

Headache Others| 2 | 3 | 2 | 7 46.7

Staff 1 0 5 6 42.9

Sleep Others| 2 | 2 | 2 | 6 40.0

Staff 1 1 4 6 42.9

Anxiety Others| 0 | 2 | 2 | 4 26.7

Staff 1 1 2 4 28.6

Anger Others| 0 | 3 | 1 | 4 26.7

Staff 1 2 1 4 28.6

Hygiene Others| 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 6.7

Staff 0 0 1 1 7.1

Others Column 2 4 8 14

Total 14.3 28.6 57.1 100.0

Staff Column 2 7 6 15Total 13.3 46.7 40.0 100.0




Overall, it seems that different treatment by staff has a greater bearing on health issuesfor Vietnamese prisoners than different treatment by other prisoners. However, bothhave some important relationships to be considered further. In particular, headaches asa health issue is significantly related to whether or not the Vietnamese prisoners aretreated differently by staff (Chi-squared = 7.66, p=.02). That is, most of the people whoreport no different treatment by staff do not get headaches; however, just over half (6/11)of the people who report being treated differently by staff also report headaches. Thepattern for sleep issues as related to different treatment by staff is similar to the patternfor headaches; however, it is not significant.

Table 28: Different treatment by staff and headaches

Crosstab

Count

1 0 5 6

1 10 4 15

2 10 9 21

yes

no

Health issues

- headaches

Total

yes no sometimes

Other staff treatment

Total

4.6.4 Other issues in prison

Complaints processes

Of the fifteen prisoners who responded to the survey question regarding the officialcomplaints processes, some (4) say that official processes are very effective, threequarters say they are sometimes effective, and one says they are not effective.

Table 29: Effectiveness of official complaints process

Effectiveness of official processes

Process No

Not_effective 1 (7%)

Sometimes 10 (67%)

Very_effective 4 (27%)

Total 15 (100%)

Dealing with issues in prison

Most prisoners responding to this question (11/17) say they deal with issues regardingconditions individually, while just over a third (6/17) said they do nothing.

4.7 Family visits

Family visits do not happen very often among this group of prisoners. The reasons aregiven below.

4.7.1 Frequency of visits




Most people are visited monthly (7/19), or very rarely (7/19). Two are visited fortnightly(one divorced one single) and one (married) is visited weekly. Most of those visited on amonthly basis are single people. Four of the seven who are visited rarely are married or de-facto. Three of these four prisoners with families living in southern states have askedthem not to visit because of the travel and accommodation expenses involved.

Table 30: Family situation and visitation

Martial status * Family visits Crosstabulation

Count

1 0 0 2 0 3

0 0 0 2 0 2

0 0 1 1 0 2

0 1 0 0 0 1

0 1 6 2 2 11

1 2 7 7 2 19

married

defacto

separated

divorced

single

Martial

status

Total

weekly fortnightly monthly very rarely never

Family visits

Total

4.7.2 Transport issuesThe pattern of visitation is significantly different for families with and without transportissues (Chi-squared = 10.4 p<.05). Prisoners who have transport issues are mostlyvisited very rarely, while those without transport issues are mostly visited monthly.

Table 31: Visits and transport issues

Family transport issues * Family visits Crosstabulation

Count

1 0 2 7 1 11

0 1 5 0 2 8

1 1 7 7 3 19

yes

no

Family transport

issues

Total

weekly fortnightly monthly very rarely never

Family visits

Total

Comments given in the survey regarding the relationship between transport and familyvisits are as follows:

I don’t have family in Australia. I came here by myself for study

Because my family lives far away

Because my family lives far away and everybody is busy working

Maybe a bus could come from the railway station to jail

My family is living in Victoria, therefore they have difficulty visiting me although they really want to visit me more often, especially my two children and my wife

My only desire is to have someone take my children to visit me

(Meeting 6 May 2005)

Q. Why the low frequency of visits?




Mainly because my family is interstate. I was charged in Queensland but family livein Victoria

If they visit me every two to three months that’s okay because it’s difficult for family tocome all the time because of work and family pressures

Q. What is the progress of prisoner’s transfer requests?

Person 9: Three years ago I asked for a transfer to NSW but nothing hashappened

Person 2: In 2003 I again lodged a request to be transferred to Victoria – noanswer!

Person 4: I asked for a transfer in 2003 but it was denied because DIMIAhad still not made a decision about my visa

4.8 The future

4.8.1 Release from WCC

The most difficult issues to be faced when released from jail are work (6), money (6),accommodation (4), community support (3), relationships (3).

Equal amounts of prisoners (43%) hope to get support from family and from Centrelinkwhen leaving jail. Four people do not know where they will go.


WCC Work Release

Work release program is ineffective because it does not run for long enough to be of anyreal benefit to prisoners:

The work skills we learn here are below the basic employment standards out thereso there’s not much hope of getting a job when we leave here

It’s impossible for me to save much from the wages they pay us in here so how can I survive out there?

Woodford pays us $33 for 4 days work each week so it’s virtually impossible to saveany of this money

4.8.2 Family situation and perspective on future

Of the five inmates that are married or de-facto and who responded regarding the future,2 believe that their life outside of jail will be difficult, whereas 3 believe that they will havea positive outcome.

Of the 12 inmates with children who responded regarding the future, half believe that lifeoutside of prison will be difficult, and half are optimistic about their future.

4.8.3 Support needed

One focus group discussion revolved around what help would be required when leavingWCC. Prisoners asked for the following:




(Focus group meeting 12 November 2004)

Centrelink money and help with finding a job

Some type of counselling service in our own language

Help in finding a place to live

Help with my family and counselling for them and me before I get released

4.8.4 Drug related futures - if support not given

The prisoners in the focus group were very clear that if changes are not made to developtheir skills, that they will probably return to crime when released.


There’s a really chance that we’ll return to selling drugs if we can’t get a job. Our families will be depending on us for money and because of our difficulties withlanguage and also now that we have a criminal record, it will be pretty hard for us tosurvive!

This is like handing us Vietnamese a drug licence to continue to deal drugs. Wedon’t have job skills. The chances of getting work is really low.

4.8.5 Deportation

Future deportation is a real concern for several prisoners, and it is unclear how they can

deal with it.


o Several Vietnamese prisoners confirmed that as permanent residents they weresurprised to discover that they could be deported from Australia back to Vietnam

o Several spoke of recent correspondence received from Department of Immigration advising them that their possible deportation is currently under review

o A 20yr old Vietnamese prisoner confirmed that if he is deported back to Vietnam,he has no family or social support networks there, which is extremely disturbingfor him. A final decision is still pending

(Focus Group Meeting 6 May 05)

Deportation concerns for Person3 and Person4

· If a non-citizen prisoner is sentenced for more than 12 months, DIMIA canchoose to deport the offender.· Such procedures and decisions are undertaken by the Character Section of DIMIA who send out a letter notifying a migrant of their need to consider DIMIA’s right toreview their case for possible deportation. The DIMIA term used in the letter is NOT‘deportation’ but ‘removal’.· Any recipient of a DIMIA letter has 14 days to reply to the letter as to why theyshould not deport them.· Sometimes their VISA is not cancelled but they’re given a warning




· If there are dependent family members they are not deported - just the personreceiving the letter. Family and siblings can choose to stay or go.· Person3 and Person4 both did NOT receive letter from DIMIA. There is no copyon their prisoner file at WCC.· Person3 and Person4 told by WCC that there visas were already cancelled butDIMIA haven’t made their final decision yet· Fax from DIMIA to WCC in 2002 re. Person3 and Person4 was DIMIA requestingsentence details from WCC. Nothing further is on file. CSC to follow up progress of Person3 and Person4 cases with DIMIA urgently.· Another Vietnamese prisoner received letter from DIMIA and replied within 14days and was allowed to stay· Approx. 4-6 other Vietnamese prisoners have received these letters from DIMIA· They only found out about these letters at the WCC 6mthly prisoner review

(6 May 05)o Staff 1 confirmed that the only DIMIA fax received was on 18/2/2002 requesting

eligibility dates for prisoner’s release (Section 501 of Migration Act 1958 )

o CSC Pursuing immediate advocacy intervention on behalf of Person3 andPerson4 on their request to resolve visa matters outstanding with DIMIA

4.8.6 Prevention

Suggestions for Prevention

Of the 10 respondents who thought that some of the steps suggested in the surveywould be helpful in preventing other Vietnamese from ending up in jail, 6 supported theschool-to-work transition program and 7 supported the alternative learning program. Other suggestions given by the inmates to prevent Vietnamese from ending up in jail arelisted below.

Table 31: Suggestions for preventing other Vietnamese from offending

Other ideas to prevent other Vietnamese

Asian club, entertainment centre

Educated life. E.g. jail drug<-----|------> not drugs, live happy.

Good behaviour

Having a job

Police community youth club is helpful for the youths growing up

Programs that encourage young people, jail is not a place to end-up, no future.

Youth club for the youth to teach them to be aware of their actions

(Focus Group Meeting 6 May 05)

• A longer business transition so that work release funds saved by WCC (on behalf of prisoners) and skills / experienced gained are all at a more optimum level thatwill be beneficial on release from prison

• Getting straight into employment is a significant deterrent from resuming anyillegal business activities

• Having access to appropriate networks to study, establish own business or acquire

gainful employment with existing skills




Conclusion

Most of the questions and issues raised by Centre Management and Council in the initialmeeting were addressed in the survey or during the focus group discussions. In thisway, the project has achieved some of the original aims. However, while the prisonershave provided many of the required answers so far, it is in the process and the flow of action/inaction resulting from the feedback from the group discussions where we see aset of unanswered issues. The important issues that were dealt with in the survey and inthe focus groups and the subsequent highlighting of procedural blocks to change aredepicted in Figure 10 below.

Figure10: Relationships between overall issues raised showing procedural and languageblocks to improving everyday quality of life and effective rehabilitation

Videos NewYear Food Music Books/Mags Visits

Procedures/rules blocking these from occurring

Effective legal

assistance

Timely & equal

access to courses

Language and procedural blocks

Positive

review & paroleFair sentencing

Effective

interpreter help

Effective

education

& rehab

Positive daily outlook

Positive prospectsfor the future

Trust in

prison

processes

Good healthCultural additions

to everyday life

Culturally

competent staff

Phone calls

The bottom line in the figure above shows the main issues that were raised byVietnamese prisoners involved in the study. The discussions revealed how theseeveryday concerns are related prisoners’ higher goals, shown in the links to the higher nodes of Figure 10. These higher goals of effective education and rehabilitation, positivereview and parole, helping to instil in prisoners a positive daily outlook on life and a trustof prison processes designed for rehabilitation, all resonate with the goals of theWoodford Correctional Centre administration as revealed in the initial consultationmeetings.

The upward links show how addressing the issues along the bottom line would be aneffective strategy for attaining the higher goals of both the prisoners and the

administration. However, it was revealed over the course of the study, that a solution tonearly each and every issue that was raised for action was blocked somewhere or came




to nothing due to prison rules and procedures or due to difficulties with language andunderstanding.

The results suggest that the problems for attaining positive outcomes for all are not justproblems of isolation or discrimination towards prisoners by any particular staff member

but systemic problems that arise from applying the same set of rules and procedures toVietnamese prisoners that are used to give other prisoners access to cultural pleasures,self development and legal rights. These same rules restrict the cultural pleasures, self development and legal rights of Vietnamese prisoners.

To effectively help Vietnamese prisoners then, requires some flexibility within the systemas it stands or a complementary set of rules and procedures for Vietnamese prisonersthat sit side by side with those for other prisoners.

Treatment programs need to be developed specifically for NESB Prisoners, if we aregoing to help to change and adapt those aspects of their values, beliefs, attitudes andbehaviours that are not acceptable under Australian law. As statistics show, there has

been an increase in NESB Prisoners incarcerated over the last decade and it isforecasted that this increase will continue. Prisoners are recommended to participate ina range of treatment programs to address their offending behaviour, thereby reducingthe possibility of re-offending. Thus, as Hollin (1995) points out, it becomes imperativethat these programs are developed and delivered in a manner that maximizes eachparticipant’s understanding of the program concepts.

Current treatment programs do not appear to be working for NESB Prisoners. TheCognitive Skills program (for example) requires Prisoners to demonstrate through writtenand oral communication, their ability to empathize with the victim of their crime. Aspreviously noted in this proposal, the Vietnamese people do not say “sorry” as not only isit not in their vocabulary but it is very important part of their culture of “saving face”.

Consequently, exit reports for Vietnamese Prisoners from this program, usually implythat they are less empathetic than “mainstream” Prisoners. A further example withprogram content is evidenced in the Anger Management program where Prisoners arerequired to identify their own psychological symptoms for anger and rate their responsesaccording to their level of anger. Also as part of “saving face”, Vietnamese do notdisplay anger in public. As noted throughout this proposal, the majority of VietnamesePrisoners are incarcerated for trafficking drugs and drug use. The existing Drug andAlcohol treatment program does not address the issue of drug trafficking.

Whilst acknowledging that the focus of this proposal has been on the VietnamesePrisoners, as they represent one of the fastest growing Prisoner population groups, I amacutely aware that the Vietnamese Prisoners are not a homogenous group nor are all

the NESB Prisoners. Therefore, treatment programs would have to be developed takingthese factors into consideration.

To reiterate, if intervention programs are to successfully address the criminogenic needsof NESB Prisoners, they need to reflect:-

• Cultural, linguistic and religious/spiritual differences and difficulties.

• The concept of “saving face”.

• The dimension of collectivism vs individualism.




References

Australian Bureau of Statistics, (2004). 4517.0 Prisoners in Australia. (On Line).www.abs.gov.au

Australian Bureau of Statistics, (2003). 4517.0 Prisoners in Australia. (On Line)www.abs.gov.au

Australian Institute of Criminology, (2000). 150. Australian Corrections: Maindemographic characteristics of prison populations. (On Line.) www.aic.gov.au

Australian Institute of Criminology, (1999). Ethnicity and crime. Trends andIssues in Crime and Criminal Justice 117. (On Line) ww.aic.gov.au

Beck, J. (1995). Cognitive behaviour therapy. New York:The Guilford Press

Beyer, L. (2003). Inadequacies of published statistics: Policy and debate onheroin in the community. Paper presented at the Evaluation in Crime and Justice:Trends and Methods Conference. Criminology Department, University of Melbourne.

Beyer, L. Reid, G. & Crofts, N. (2001), Ethnic based differences in drugoffending. The Australian and New Zealand Journal of Criminology. Vol 34 No2 pp169-181.

Burley, J. (1990). The Vietnamese and the law. Legal Service Bulletin Vol 15,pp200-203

Cuthbertson, D. (1999). Prison services slammed. Brimbank Messenger,Tuesday 02 February, p3.

Department of Corrective Services Strategic Plan 2003-2007. (2003). (On Line).www.dcs.qld.gov.au

Fromkin, V., Blair, D., & Collins, P. (1999), An introduction to language.Sydney: Harcourt

Hassen, R., Healy, J., McHenna, R., & Hearst, S. (1991). Ethnic family values inAustralia. Institute of Family Studies. Sydney: Prentice Hall.

Hollin, C. (1995). The meaning and implication of “programme integrity”. In JMcGuire (Ed) ,What works: reducing re-offending; guidelines from research and practice. (pp195-208). Chichester: Wiley

Home Office Findings 233. (2004). An evaluation of the literacy demands of general offending behavior programmes. (On Line).www.homeoffice.gov.uk/publications.

Managing Differences (1998). Cross-cultural briefing. Melbourne.

Poh-Ling, T. (Ed) (1997). Asian legal systems law, society and pluralism in EastAsia. Melbourne: Butterworths.




Traan, V., (2004). Vietnamese culture, compiled and translated: the Vietnamesefamily.(On line) www.vietcatholic.net/culture/family.htm

Victorian Government Health Information (1997). Drugs in a multiculturalcommunity: An assessment of involvement. (On line)www.health.vic.gov.au/drugservices/pub/drugsmulti.htm

offenders and prisoner 2

Documents