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The hooded prisoners
SERIAL spitters in Queensland watchhouses are having hoods tied over their heads in an Australian-first trial which civil libertarians have compared to measures used in the notorious Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay prisons.

Queensland police are carrying out a 10-week trial of the spit hoods in 11 watchhouses around the state in a bid to protect its officers and other visitors from diseases such as hepatitis and HIV. Two types of the overseas-made hoods, made from soft fabric and mesh, have been used nine times since the trial began in August.

The police Ethical Standards Command is already investigating several complaints about the use of the hoods.

Acting deputy police commissioner Kathy Rynders said today the hoods were a necessary measure to protect officers from prisoners who spit and bite. She said spitting was an increasing problem, with up to 30 per cent of all calls to a police help hotline coming from officers who had been spat at. "Certainly the masks don't look the best, however we need to remember that we are dealing with an issue of safety, for not only our officers but also for unsworn members of the organisations who work in watchhouses,'' she said.

"What we have tried to do is balance our duty of care with having something that effectively controls people who are serial spitters.'' The hoods are tied in such a way that they cannot be taken off by a prisoner and they do not impede vision or breathing.
A crack in the chops with a nightstick would also control the problem very effectively...
But Australian Council for Civil Liberties vice president Terry O'Gorman said the hoods were humiliating and degrading. "It invokes images of Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib, and frankly we say it's a totally unacceptable practice which should be stopped until the (police) minister (Judy Spence) can demonstrate by evidence ... that there's a need for it,'' he said.
The people are spitting -- isn't that evidence enough?
He said the trial had begun without public consultation. "It started off with capsicum spray, it's currently going on with the trialling of the Taser gun, now this, where huge changes in police procedures are occurring without any vote by parliament or external oversight or proper evidence that it's needed,'' he said.
He then collapsed in a fit of the vapors.
A Queensland Police Union spokesman welcomed the move and said the union would lobby the state government to introduce the hoods permanently. "It's been a concern of ours we've had a long time about people spitting on police officers,'' the spokesman said.

Premier Peter Beattie said no decision had been made on whether to make the hoods a permanent fixture in watchhouses. "Of course we want to make sure that people are protected but for too long our police have been bitten, scratched, kicked, spat on,'' he said. "I don't want to see a police officer get HIV/AIDS or any of the various hepatitis.''
Posted by: Oztralian 2006-10-20
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=169190