WA’s prison boss has vowed to make the lives of disruptive inmates “uncomfortable” after Aboriginal prisoners raised concerns about bikies following the alleged murder of an inmate.
Eight prisoners have been charged with murdering Alf Deon Eades, 46, who was found injured in his Hakea Prison cell on February 26 and died about two weeks later.
Corrective Services Commissioner Tony Hassall told 6PR radio on Wednesday he could not confirm reports Mr Eades called his family hours before he was allegedly beaten.
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Media reports have suggested Mr Eades told his family that he feared for his safety and had asked to be locked in this cell for his own protection.
Mr Hassall said he couldn’t comment on the claim because it was pertinent to the investigation into Mr Eades’ death.
Asked whether there was intelligence that the Comanchero bikies were recruiting people in prison, Mr Hassall said he couldn’t comment on that specifically.
But he said when he attended the memorial service for Mr Eades, some Aboriginal prisoners expressed concerns to him about bikies.
“There had been issues with outlaw motorcycle gangs in the prison, which we knew about and we were managing,” he said.
“They won’t know the actions that we take as the prison administrators.”
Mr Hassall said a disruptive prisoner protocol was introduced a couple of months ago to address the small number of bikies who are causing trouble in jail.
“We are going to make their lives pretty uncomfortable,” he said.
“They will get moved around the state … they won’t have time to settle in prison.”
Mr Hassall described the death of Mr Eades as very tragic and expressed his sympathy to the family.
“Whatever somebody’s done to end up in prison, they don’t deserve that and they deserve justice,” he said.
Mr Hassall said it was impossible to constantly supervise prisoners.
“Something has gone wrong in this particular case and we need to wait for the police investigation and the court case to find out exactly what has happened,” he said.