Australian Prisons
HM Prison Langi Kal Kal
Location:	Trawalla, Victoria Victoria (Australia) Victoria is the second most populous state in Australia. Geographically the smallest mainland state, Victoria is bordered by New South Wales, South Australia, and Tasmania on Boundary Islet to the north, west and south respectively....
Status:	Operational
Classification:	Minimum Security
Capacity:	120
Opened:	1951, 1993
Closed:	1965 (later reopened)
Managed by:	Corrections Victoria Corrections Victoria Corrections Victoria is the Victorian government department established in 2003, responsible for Victoria's corrections system. Corrections Victoria manages approximately 50 Community Correctional Centres in Victoria and is also responsible for the management of the states public prisons as well as...

HM Prison Langi Kal Kal is an Australian prison located at Trawalla, near Beaufort

Beaufort, Victoria

Beaufort is a town in Victoria, Australia. It is located on the Western Highway midway between Ararat and Ballarat, in the Pyrenees Shire local government area. It is 387 metres above sea level. At the 2001 census, Beaufort had a population of 987...

, Victoria

Victoria (Australia)

Victoria is the second most populous state in Australia. Geographically the smallest mainland state, Victoria is bordered by New South Wales, South Australia, and Tasmania on Boundary Islet to the north, west and south respectively....

, Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

. The prison is a minimum security prison farm and all inmates

Prison

A prison is a place in which people are physically confined and, usually, deprived of a range of personal freedoms. Imprisonment or incarceration is a legal penalty that may be imposed by the state for the commission of a crime...

 are required to work during their stay unless over retirement age. It is a minimum security pathway for protection prisoners from Ararat Prison.

Accommodation

Accommodation consists of two main units, Ripon and Lexton, and 5 cottage-style units - Acorn, Cypress, Wattle, Hakea and Sheoak. The two main units house just over half of the prison's population and contain mostly C1 classified prisoners. They are locked down after 10pm each night and unlocked again at 6am after a correct head count. Most prisoners have an individual room, while new prisoners are placed into a shared room (with 1 other person) until a single room becomes available when a prisoner is released or transferred to another prison. The cottage-style units house C2 classified prisoners and are not locked overnight allowing prisoners to use the veranda to smoke.

While the rooms are not officially called cells, as they are not individually locked, prisoners and officers still refer to them as "cells" due to the institutionalisation that occurs after spending long periods of time in the prison environment.

Communal kitchens (including a fridge, microwave and sinks) and bathrooms are available in each unit allowing prisoners to interact with each other a lot more than in other prisons. This is helpful to the inmates as it brings a sense of normal life.

Employment

All prisoners work on any of the following teams: farm (3000 head cattle

Cattle

Cattle are the most common type of large domesticated ungulates. They are a prominent modern member of the subfamily Bovinae, are the most widespread species of the genus Bos, and are most commonly classified collectively as Bos primigenius...

 and sheep farm), wooden products, maintenance, laundry

Laundry

Laundry is a noun that refers to the act of washing clothing and linens, the place where that washing is done, and/or that which needs to be, is being, or has been laundered...

, kitchen

Kitchen

A kitchen is a room or part of a room used for cooking and food preparation.In the West, a modern residential kitchen is typically equipped with a stove, a sink with hot and cold running water, a refrigerator and kitchen cabinets arranged according to a modular design. Many households have a...

 or executive kitchen, or bush gang. Some prisoners are employed as unit billets, being responsible for cleaning their unit, collecting and delivering menu order forms and other tasks as directed. There are also billets for administration/canteen, programs and education.

Prisoners are paid an allowance of roughly A$

Australian dollar

The Australian dollar is the currency of the Commonwealth of Australia, including Christmas Island, Cocos Islands, and Norfolk Island, as well as the independent Pacific Island states of Kiribati, Nauru and Tuvalu...

6.15 per day, with which they can buy items such as soft drink

Soft drink

A soft drink is a non-alcoholic beverage that typically contains water , a sweetener, and a flavoring agent...

, tobacco

Tobacco

Tobacco is an agricultural product processed from the leaves of plants in the genus Nicotiana. It can be consumed, used as a pesticide and, in the form of nicotine tartrate, used in some medicines...

, and personal care items from the canteen on Wednesday mornings.

Meals

Breakfast

Individual boxes and packets of breakfast cereal are distributed to each prisoner with the evening meal. Milk is available in each unit as well as bread and butter for toast.
A small selection of cereals are also available for prisoners to purchase from the canteen.

Lunch

Lunch alternates between a cooked meal and cold meat and salad sandwiches or rolls.

Dinner

Prisoners are given a choice between 4 options for dinner. The options include a high fat dish, vegetarian dish and two medium fat dishes. Option 1 is usually the most popular with prisoners. Order forms are provided each Tuesday or Wednesday for prisoners to indicate which option they would like.

Meals are cooked by prisoners, who are not qualified chefs, under supervision of prison officers. While some prisoners choose to eat their meals in the prisoner dining room, most choose to walk back to their rooms and eat whilst watching TV.

Visits & Communication

Visiting days are Saturdays and Sundays, certain status prisoners have visitors on Saturdays, others on Sundays. The visitor area includes a barbecue

Barbecue

Barbecue or barbeque , used chiefly in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, New Zealand and Australia is a method and apparatus for cooking meat, poultry and occasionally fish with the heat and hot smoke of a fire, smoking wood, or hot coals of...

, grassed area and picnic tables. Visits can last the entire open period from 10am to 3:30pm (with restricted visits from 9am to 10am).

A kiosk, staffed by two prisoners, is available for prisoners and their visitors to purchase things including tea and coffee, barbecue meat packs, soft drinks, milkshakes, chocolate bars, chips, ice creams.

Visitors can leave property and money (up to $140 per month) for prisoners.

Prisoners are permitted to send and receive as much mail as they like (writing pads, pens, stamps and envelopes can be purchased at the canteen) and have access to calls of up to 12 minutes on the telephone in their unit. As almost all calls made are long distance and the cheapest time to call is between 7pm and midnight, the phones are busiest between 7pm and 10pm.

Recreation

While not working or on visits, there is a large amount of time available to prisoners for recreation. Each room contains a television, with many prisoners spending evenings and weekends watching TV.

The facilities available to prisoners include pool and table tennis tables (in Ripon and Lexton), a library and music, pottery and leatherwork rooms. Outdoor faciltiies include an asphalt area, a grassed oval and a 3 km walking track (6 km round trip). While there are restrictions on when the walking track can be used by prisoners (such as when other prisoners are on visits), the other recreational facilities are available to prisoners at any time. On occasions games of Aussie rules football, cricket, basketball and volleyball are organised by the prison's sport & recreation officer, as well as 10 km walks and 6 km bike rides.

Langi Kal Kal had a nine-hole golf course for prisoners to utilise but due to a political over reaction to photos in the herald sun newspaper it was destroyed.

History

Langi Kal Kal Prison is 140 kilometres west of Melbourne on the Western Highway

Western Highway

Western Highway may refer to:*Western Highway, Victoria in Australia*Western Highway...

 at Trawalla. Originally a 70000 acres (283.3 km²) farming property in 1838, a substantial farmhouse was built in 1900. After World War Two the land was subdivided and the central area, including the farmhouse, was set aside for prison purposes. The first prisoners arrived in September 1950, and the prison was officially opened in February 1951. In 1965 the prison became a Youth Training Centre, but again became an adult prison in June 1993.

External links

• Langi Kal Kal Prison