Winning, the Cessnock way

If someone told me just a few years ago that I’d be fighting against a Labor Government’s plan to sell a prison, I’d have locked them up and thrown away the key.

But that’s what happened when one day the NSW Government announced a plan to privatise our prison, the Cessnock Correctional Centre. In the beginning we couldn’t really understand the motives and reasons to sell off Cessnock along with Parklea Gaol. But we fought. And on May Day in 2009, we knew our fight against the sale of Cessnock had been worth it.

Stirring things up: the community rallied to save Cessnock

Back in 2008 the NSW Government announced a plan to sell off both Cessnock and Parklea Gaols. It was a confusing time, I mean, Labor Governments weren’t supposed to sell off public assets. And they certainly weren’t meant to privatise some of the primary functions of the NSW justice system. It took us a while to get our collective head around it, and at first there was just a lot of resentment towards those in charge. But in the following months what happened was a testament to the great people who work at Cessnock, their families, friends and the entire community.

Prison officers and other staff at Cessnock quickly sat up and realised that privatising Cessnock was not only wrong but would directly impact on their jobs and their lives. Our prison has always run smoothly, and it just didn’t make sense.

Back at the prison, the inmates were getting restless too. As our campaign to Stop The Cell Off gained momentum, they knew that we were fighting for their rights just as much as we were fighting for our own. Any restructure of the gaol or sell off would mean longer lock down hours for the inmates. This is not the way a prison should be run.

It wasn’t long before the town got behind us as well. Local businesses started handing out fliers and putting our Stop The Cell Off posters in shop windows. And we had tremendous support from Tanya Roe and the Community Against Privatisation group. Hundreds of people supported us by coming along to our rally. Local Government got behind us, as did other political parties too. Everyone knew that to privatise Cessnock would decimate our local economy, put pressure on families, force people to leave the town and create a prison environment that would in no way benefit the inmates or the people who work with them day in, day out.

If you ask me why we were able to save Cessnock from the chopping block, I guess I would tell you that the place was like a bull ants nest. There were a few people on the top who knew what was going on, but to get some action you had to stir things up. And that’s what we did.

It was when a lot was going on, and I have to say we were not only worried about jobs, but the mental health of our workers and their families as well. Privatising a prison isn’t something that can just happen and no one gets hurt. Marriages break up, people become stressed and selling a prison can have a long term impact on the health of workers and the entire community. This wasn’t just about saving some bricks and mortar. It was about people, families and the community.

On May 1 2009 we were rallying outside Trades Hall in Sydney when the news came that Cessnock would not be sold to a private company due to “economic uncertainty in the region.” If it looks like a win, smells like a win and talks like a win, it’s a win, and we were over the moon that the Government finally listened to the local community over this issue.

Campaigning to save Cessnock gaol was not easy. It was a lot of hard work. But when we realised the impact privatising Cessnock would have on our community and our families and jobs, it was something we were not prepared to take lying down. And with the support of the community and help from the Public Service Association, and MPs like Kerry Hickey standing up for us, we knew we could fight it and win. And we did.

Tony Howen is a prison officer at Cessnock Correctional Centre