Victorian taxpayers could be forced to fork out millions to upgrade the state’s maximum‑security prisons, allowing some of the country’s worst criminals more comfortable conditions.
It comes after drug kingpin George Marrogi won a Supreme Court case granting him more access to ‘open air’, the Herald Sun reports.
Marrogi, who is serving a 38‑year sentence for murder and drug smuggling, has planned a jailbreak, kicked a police officer, squirted faeces at a guard and twice set fire to his cell while incarcerated.
But he also enlisted a team of barristers to argue that his rights had been breached at the Olearia, Acacia and Melaleuca Units of Barwon Prison, along with the Exford Unit at the Metropolitan Remand Centre.
Marrogi told the court: ‘Given the walls of the management unit exercise yards are concrete (except for the rare window), the lack of open air and unobstructed sunlight, and the fact that I was there by myself, it really just felt like an extension of my cell, so it was depressing and brought me no relief from my situation.’
It was argued that he wasn’t given access to ‘open air’, and Justice Claire Harris agreed this week that exercise yards in the Exford Unit, two cells in the Olearia Unit, three yards in the Acacia Unit and two yards in the Melaleuca Unit were illegally built.
While in those cells, Marrogi was not able to feel sunlight, wind or rain during his time outside each day, Justice Harris concluded after visiting the prisons herself.
‘There is no clear bright line delineating what will constitute a space which enables a prisoner to “be in the open air”,’ she said.
Killer George Marrogi won a case arguing he didn’t have access to open air while in prison
It was found that parts of Barwon Prison were built illegally and didn’t consider the rights of inmates – who claimed they couldn’t feel sunlight, wind or rain
‘It is to a significant degree an evaluative exercise having regard to factors including whether the space permits access to the sun, rain, wind and other aspects of the prevailing weather; and whether it otherwise provides a sense of being exposed to the weather and in the open air.’
While some parts of the prisons in question were fine, Justice Harris said there was ‘no sensation of being exposed to the weather’ at the Melaleuca Unit at Barwon Prison.
‘The construction of the yards, with the double sets of bars at the end, creates a strong feeling of being enclosed,’ she said.
It was argued that Marrogi was a significant security risk, having run a drug syndicate with a mobile phone, and that keeping maximum-security cells more ‘open’ could increase the risk of escape.
A Victorian Government spokesperson told Daily Mail: ‘We are aware of the court’s decision and will consider the findings. We make no apology for ensuring the highest risk prisoners in the state are securely kept.’
A psychologist who assessed Marrogi found he was ‘paranoid’ about prison staff and believed the prison was out to harm him.
Marrogi, who was born in Iraq and migrated to Australia in 1996, has already spent most of his life behind bars, having been sentenced to a minimum of six years for manslaughter as a youth.
He had been charged with murder after becoming involved in a wild brawl in 2005 in which he stabbed and killed a man.
Marrogi is serving a 38-year sentence for murder and drug smuggling
It was found that parts of Barwon Prison created a strong feeling of being enclosed
On release, he continued to offend and was later jailed for arson.
Five months later he would be charged with murder for a second time – this time it would stick.
Justice Harris also found the way Marrogi was strip-searched on dozens of occasions was a breach of prison regulations.
Marrogi’s case will return to court at a later date.
The court considered only the cells Marrogi was housed in, but the outcome is set to reshape conditions across the state’s prisons.
Meanwhile, more prisoners have filed cases against the conditions at the Carlton close supervision unit at the Western Plains Prison, arguing they are also unlawful.
