Edmund Tadros - Journalist

Dec 09 2008 ∞

Captive State: A Special Investigation

I was part of a team of reporters at The Sydney Morning Herald who looked at the state’s prison system. We found that inmate numbers in the state have exceeded 10,000 a year and are forecast to reach 12,300 by 2015, with predictions that a new prison will be required every two years.

In addition, each prisoner costs the state about $73,000 a year, and the total cost of Corrective Services was $883 million in 2007-08, according to the latest Auditor-General’s report. The Wellington Correctional Centre, built last year, cost $125 million. Read the main story here.

A punishing regime

NSW jails are the most violent in the country. Former inmates talks about the harsh reality of prison life.Read more here.

Watch the video of Frank and ‘Douggie’ Walsh here.

More prisoners returning to jail

NSW has the highest reoffending rates in the country and is unlikely to meet its own targets to reduce this, according to prison experts. Read more here.

Prison watchdogs lose their teeth

Hard time … former official visitors Michael Brereton, Ray Jackson and Margaret Holm believe the position has become almost meaningless.

THE NSW Government has quietly gutted all of the oversight bodies meant to police the state’s jails over the past five years, according to prison experts. Read more here.

Sep 06 2008 ∞

The farce of the APEC excludable person’s list

In the months before the 2007 APEC forum, the NSW Government passed special legislation so police could create a list of “excludable persons”, who were considered so dangerous they would be immediately arrested if they entered Martin Place and other public areas around the Opera House during APEC Leaders’ Week.

It turns out that university activists and Greenpeace members made up a third of the secret list of 61 people. Pictured above are nine of the excluded. Read more at The Sydney Morning Herald.

This was a freedom-of-information request that came back with a useful police document.

A blog link to this story.

Other stories I’ve done about police and APEC for The Sydney Morning Herald.

August 24, 2007: Cheney protester convicted

June 18, 2007: Spy for us and we’ll drop charge

June 19, 2007: Those on APEC black list ‘know who they are’

June 21, 2007: Protesting at APEC a bad idea, activists told

June 29, 2007: Cages on wheels: APEC plan to keep the peace

Sep 02 2008 ∞

The murder of Jody Galante

On January 7, 2006, pregnant mother-of-one Jody Galante was reported missing by her husband Mark. A week later Jody’s body was found in bushland at Bilpin, in the Blue Mountains. She had died of a single gunshot wound to the head. Police investigated the murder and made an arrest in March 2006. The case came to a conclusion in April 2008.

I covered this story for The Sydney Morning Herald from when it was a missing person’s inquiry and have written a book about the investigation. Buy the book online here. Visit the dedicated website here.

January 10, 2006: Woman vanishes in market mystery

January 12, 2006: Silence meets missing mother plea

January 17, 2006: Missing mother Jody murdered

January 25, 2006: I’d never hurt her says husband

March 2, 2006: A wave then accused wife killer led to cells

April 11, 2008: My daughter’s killer: I held his hand

November 16, 2008: Honours for catchers of wife-killer

BOOK EXCERPT: Blood, tears and lies

Jul 13 2007 ∞

Universities violate privacy laws

Two more useful freedom-of-information searches that came back with useful results about the way universities and the police interact.

July 11, 2007: Uni lets police see personal records

THE University of Technology, Sydney, has given police access to student and staff information during the past two years without the knowledge or consent of those involved. Read more at the Sydney Morning Herald.

July 13, 2007: Police got student data just by asking

THE University of Sydney has provided confidential student information to law enforcement officials without demanding a warrant, subpoena or even an explanation. Read more at the Sydney Morning Herald.

Apr 27 2007 ∞

Bashings, robberies rife at city stations

RAILWAY stations in central Sydney are the most dangerous in the state. Passengers are most likely to be bashed, sexually assaulted or robbed at city stops, confidential police figures show.

Despite a 2005 RailCorp promise to work more closely with police, there are an average of 18 crimes a day across the metropolitan and country rail network.

There were 1300 assaults, 417 robberies and 111 sexual offences committed during a 13-month period to November 2006.

The data, obtained from police under freedom of information laws, show for the first time the extent and location of crime on the rail network. Read more at the Sydney Morning Herald.

April 28, 2007: Rail chief defends network

THE acting head of RailCorp, Rob Mason, says more needs to be done to reduce crime on the rail network.

Mr Mason was responding to a report in the Herald yesterday that showed there were 1300 assaults, 417 robberies and 111 sexual offences in a 13-month period on the NSW rail network. Read more at the Sydney Morning Herald.