DOZENS of prison officers committed criminal offences last year, including bashing inmates, assaulting and bullying co-workers and stealing, according to a confidential Corrective Services report. The department held 162 misconduct hearings into staff between last January and June and found enough evidence to warrant disciplinary or further action in 65…
Dead at 19: killed by a drug cocktail in his cell
JOSHUA CAMERON was 19 when he overdosed on a cocktail of prescription drugs in his cell at the maximum security Long Bay Correctional Complex. Tests would later show he had four drugs – the painkillers codeine, morphine, paracetamol and tramadol – in his system, any one of which could have…
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…
Book Review: What The Mother Knew
Buy a copy of the book here. A review of my book in the Sydney Morning Herald: PICK OF THE WEEK WHAT THE MOTHER KNEW By Edmund Tadros Fairfax Books, 160pp, $29.95 We have become so used to faux gruesome murders on television cop and crime shows that recounting the…
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…