MEMBERS of outlaw motorcycle gangs jailed in Queensland will be sent to a bikie-only prison facility where they will be denied access to gym equipment and kept in their cells for 23 hours a day.
The centre, to be established at the ultra-secure Woodford Correctional Centre, will form a core part of the Newman Government’s attempt to drive outlaw bikie gangs from Queensland.
Convicted gang members imprisoned at the facility will also be denied televisions and be subject to a more stringent regime of drug testing and searches.
All calls unrelated to their legal representation will be monitored and their mail opened and censored while visitor contact will be restricted to one hour a week.
Bikie members already in Queensland prisons will also be transferred to the new facility.
The bikie gang-only facility, likely to draw comparisons from critics with Guantánamo Bay, is aimed at denying them the ability to use prison time to recruit new members and widen their drug distribution networks.
Premier Campbell Newman said the facility would form a core part of his Government’s commitment to get criminal motorcycle gang members off Queensland streets.
“We will use a maximum security facility at Woodford Correctional Centre to incarcerate these thugs,” Mr Newman told The Courier-Mail.
“Consideration will also be given to recommissioning currently unused maximum security units at other prisons across Queensland.”
Attorney-General Jarrod Bleijie said establishing a bikies-only facility would thwart their ability to use prison time as a recruitment drive and business-development opportunity.
“These criminals use their time in prison to recruit new members and continue criminal activities including the distribution of drugs and intimidation of prison staff,” Mr Bleijie said.
Establishing the facility will be an integral part of sweeping legislation to be introduced and passed through State Parliament this week.
The new laws will also automatically ban bikies from accessing bail and hand greater investigative powers to the Crime and Misconduct Commission.
There are fears Queensland’s re-emerging as a police state, with the war on bikies intensifying
Civil libertarians and members of the legal fraternity have condemned the proposed bikie crackdown as unnecessary, ill-conceived and arrogant, claiming it was a return to Bjelke-Petersen era law and order policy.
However, Mr Newman said the Government was determined to ensure violent criminals faced stiff penalties.
“They will do hard time and I make no apologies for that,” he said.
Mr Bleijie said the Government was also considering tougher penalties for crimes committed in prison, including weapon offences, assaults and drug use.
Penalties will also be tough for prison staff caught colluding with gang members.
“Make no mistake, if you do the crime, you will most definitely do the hard time,” he said.
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The state government is banking on “crushing the bikes” to help crush the morale of criminal motorcycle gang members.
The government will push through its anti-racketeering laws, billed as “the toughest laws in Australia” when parliament sits this week.
As part of those new laws, motorcycles belonging to gang members convicted of certain crimes, will be crushed.
Read more: http://www.brisbanetimes.com.
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