FACELESS MEN AND WOMEN AND IMPENETRABLE BUREAUCRACIES

Cooma Prison to Close? by Reuben Rose

»» UPDATE PROVIDED AT THE END OF THIS ARTICLE 31/08/24 ««

One of the features of political decision-making is to guard any bad information that could be electorally damaging and deny anything that could cause political blowback. Witness the story with Joe Biden. Until July, he was the ‘best and most capable’ U.S. president since George Washington! He was said as recently as March this year to be “better than he’s ever been”. His press secretary said that his staff “can’t keep up with him”.

These lies were sustained for a long period until the reality of Biden’s decline was evident to all who had eyes to see at the Trump-Biden debate. This debate now seems a lifetime away but it was only on 28 June. Since then Biden has been on “vacation”.

When governments have major decisions to make that are controversial, the-rule-of thumb in the political playbook is to tell no one but a few 20-something-year-old factional advisors and hope that the information doesn’t get out.

It must be in some type of handbook of politics because this approach seems to be the modus operandi of the Snowy Monaro Regional Council (SMRC). Currently, council has an “operating system” where the default position is to hide information and this also appears to be the default of the management in relation to sharing information. Reasons given for not being transparent include “staff safety” or unnecessary conflict.

SMRC has implemented some clever transparency avoiders: anyone from the public seeking to present to council has to go through a “screening” by senior management; furthermore at the last SMRC council meeting the majority of the councillors voted against increased transparency.

No one knows how decisions are made in relation to whether a presentation by a ratepayer is allowed or not. However, human nature would dictate that issues that could be problematic to council are unlikely to get a hearing. This seems to be a political systems issue. Political systems foster cover-up.

Cooma Prison Closure?

The introduction above is a prelude to a call I had from a ratepayer regarding Cooma Prison, or more correctly Cooma Correctional Centre informing me that the word was out everywhere that the prison was going to be shut down. The Prison Direct website tells us that :“the Cooma Correctional Centre offers more than a glance at the country’s correctional system. It serves as a blueprint for reform, rehabilitation, and integration.” Clearly, the prison is a template for criminal justice reform in the nation and probably should be the “go to list” for tour groups interested in best practices in prisons.

There is a rumour among staff (and I imagine the inmates) that the State Government is going to close Cooma prison. No one can confirm or deny. Union representatives can’t get an answer, but everyone in the corrective services area seems to have heard  the rumour. The accompanying story is that the new Junee prison is coming on line soon and undoubtedly, the NSW Corrective Services bureaucrats would have a document somewhere titled Private and Confidential setting out the case.

Rumours are strange things. They are usually correct. For example when the Challenger Space Shuttle blew up on 28 January 1986, within 24 hours the shares in the company that made the O ring for the propulsion system, plunged. However, the enquiry did not identify the O rings as the source of the problem for many months. The rumours - which resulted in a plunge in share price - were correct.

If Cooma prison was to close it would be devastating for the local community. Governments pay lip-service to the need for decentralisation but then increasingly centralise, because this is the DNA of bureaucracies and bureaucrats.

The History of Cooma Prison

Cooma Prison is one of the oldest operating prisons in New South Wales. It opened 1st November 1873 but was temporarily closed in the early 1900s. Amazingly, it opened again in 1957 as a “gay prison”. It has been operating continuously (with a brief closure in the 1990s) and The Prison Direct website tells us that “Cooma Correctional Centre is at the forefront of reformative justice, providing a range of rehabilitative programs aimed at reducing re-offending, including drug and alcohol support, anger management, and cognitive skills programs.”

Figure 1. Cooma Prison - photograph from The Prison Direct

The prison plays a critical role in the welfare of the local community. There are more than 40 staff that work in the prison (and probably hundreds more if their families are included) who have a range of skills that bring great economic, social and cultural benefit to the Monaro region. And that doesn’t even count the prisoners - there can be more than 200 inmates.

Why would a government even consider closing such an iconic piece of infrastructure in a regional area? Who knows ? But, I can guess because I know how bureaucrats work: “savings” would be mentioned and “economies of scale”, just like the reasons for amalgamation of the Snowy River, Cooma  and Bombala councils. These “savings” and “economies of scale” are, of course, mirages. The amalgamation of the three local councils into the SMRC has created a bureaucratic monolith that now struggles to serve anyone except itself., as demonstrated in the SMRC’s surveys for the last three years.

One hopes that the rumour and what appears to be a secret process involving faceless men and women in backrooms, making a decision to close Cooma prison ends up being a false rumour. However, just like the Challenger’s O rings - it seems likely that when there are rumours like this - they end up being correct.

Residents of the Monaro need to ask for an answer from our local member, Steve Whan. I called Mr Whan’s office this afternoon but it was unattended.

Cooma prison is an iconic facility that not only plays a critical role in modern “reformative justice”, it is an essential part of local Monaro life and must be saved from bureaucrats claiming “efficiencies”!

»» Update 31/08/24 ««

It was good to have a rapid response from our local member about the prison remaining open and no government plans for closure.

Even with these reassurances - rumours often end up being correct. Let’s see what happens in the next five years.