'Intractable' - a vivid insider's perspective

The chapters do not provide pleasant reading, because they document plenty of beatings where “my kidneys and lower back exploded as one of the screws slammed his baton into me”; humiliations as “batons rained down” over his naked body for a “nude man is totally vulnerable”; and much name calling with “maggot” being one of the gentler epithets shouted at the screws - and all of that is just from a page or two!

On the other hand it is also a rollicking good yarn. There are some humorous stories that reveal the seductive aspects of juvenile offending as Matthews talks of the “heart-pumping adventure where the excitement of defeating security guards and burglar alarms far out-weighed the prospect of getting caught. It was like a game of cat and mouse and the victor took the spoils”.

It is also replete with colourful language, imaginative sayings or the argot of the criminal subculture such as “a dingo’s breakfast” or “cold as a frog’s tog” and for that, potential readers will be grateful that there is an extensive glossary.

Clearly, it is very fast moving and sometimes mentally taxing as it lurches from armed robberies to prison escape plans to horrific beatings to reminiscences about soberly fronting up to the visiting prison justices.

Above all, though, its honesty is manifest - for Matthews discloses his own levels of brutality about incidents where he stabbed or bit screws, as well as acknowledging the psychological consequences to victims of armed robberies that he might have been involved in.

It is hard to imagine the relatively ancient and austere atmosphere of the prison infrastructure just a few decades ago when Matthews was housed in the quarters previously used for newly-transported female convicts. Now with massive prison rebuilds such overcrowded and unsanitary conditions are no longer paramount as media depictions paint prisons cells as being “motel-like”. In reality of course, the horrendous conditions are not far from the surface in time and space.

And given the recent announcement by the Queensland Government of a giant new prison precinct at Gatton (for 300 women, 500 men plus hospice facilities for elderly prisoners) valued at $500 million, many of the issues raised in Bernie’s book require some serious re-visiting.

Super-max prisons, like many of our criminal justice options, are imported concepts from the US and unfortunately we don’t know much about them. One survey has been conducted to reveal that even in the US such facilities were rare only 20 years ago, but have now spread to 44 states, where inmates are confined alone for all but one hour a day.

According to this research such facilities are three times more expensive than other prisons, and there is disagreement about whether they help thwart gang formation, riots, recidivism, escapes or generally act as successful deterrents to crime.

Intractable demonstrates otherwise and should help to resolve this academic debate. Matthews’ analysis shows that those inmates who went in as monsters invariably came out as worse monsters, and that the legacies of super-max prisons live on for decades.

Our current correctional landscape still operates under “get tough” rules. The facilities are highly militaristic, they often house inmates in solitary confinement and they focus on warehousing rather than rehabilitation (despite the UN Standard Minimum Rules for the treatment of prisoners).

One can only concur with Justice Michael Kirby in his foreword, who says “Bernie Matthews gives us a vivid insider’s perspective” and that any kind of imprisonment “offends basic human dignity”. For these two reasons Intractable is invaluable.