HM Prison Pentridge

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HM Prison Pentridge

Location:	Coburg, Victoria
Status:	Closed
Capacity:	?
Opened:	1850
Closed:	1997
Managed by:	?

Main entrance

HM Prison Pentridge was an Australian prison built in 1850 and located in Coburg, Victoria. The prison officially closed on May 1 1997. Pentridge was often known by the nickname The Bluestone College. The prison has since been partly demolished to make way for a housing development. The front gate area remains. While the wall around the back has been lowered to a more friendly level for the new homes. The 1994 Australian film Everynight ... Everynight details prison life inside Pentridge's H Division.

1 Divisions
- 1.1 Jika Jika high security unit
- 1.2 1987 Jika Jika prison fire
2 Grave sites
3 Notable prisoners
4 Timeline
5 External links
6 References

Divisions

The prison was split into many divisions, named using letters of the alphabet.

A - short and long-term prisoners of good behavior
B - long-term prisoners with behavior problems
D - remand prisoners
E - similar to “A”
F - remand and short-term
G - psychiatric problems
H - high security, discipline and protection
J - long-term with record of good behavior
Jika Jika - maximum security risk and for protection, later renamed to K Division

Jika Jika high security unit

The Jika Jika exercise yard. The enclosed roof was to avoid attempts to escape by helicopter

Jika Jika was the name of a 'gaol within a gaol' maximum security section, designed to house Victoria's hardest and longest serving prisoners. It was awarded the 'Excellence in Concrete Award' by the Concrete Institute of Australia before being closed in the middle of controversy after the deaths of five prisoners in 1987. The design of Jika Jika was based on the idea of six separate units at the end of radiating spines. The unit comprised electronic doors, closed-circuit TV and remote locking, designed to keep staff costs to a minimum and security to a maximum. The furnishings were sparse and prisoners exercised in aviary-like escape proof yards. In 1983 four prisoners escaped from ‘escape proof’ Jika Jika. When two prison officers were disciplined in relation to the Jika Jika escape a weeklong strike occurred.

1987 Jika Jika prison fire

In a protest initiated by conditions in Jika Jika, inmates Robert Wright, Jimmy Loughnan, Arthur Gallagher, David McGauley and Ricky Morris - from one side of the unit - and Craig 'Slim' Minogue and three other inmates on the other side sealed off their section doors with a tennis net. Mattresses and other bedding were then stacked against the doors. The windows in the day room were then covered with paper so the prison officers couldn't identify which prisoners caused the ensuing damage. Plumbing was then torn from the walls in the cells to enable the prisoners to breathe after the fire started, as Jika Jika was a climate controlled division and devoid of any fresh air circulation. In spite of the men's attempts to avoid the toxic black smoke by breathing through the plumbing, prisoners Robert Wright, Jimmy Loughnan, Arthur Gallagher, David McGauley and Ricky Morris died in the fire. Convicted Russell Street bomber Craig Minogue and 3 other inmates survived. Victorian Attorney General and Minister for Corrections Jim Kennan ordered the closure of Jika Jika immediately afterwards.

Grave sites

Main article: Ned Kelly

Ned Kelly the day before his execution by hanging. His remains are buried at the former Pentridge Prison site.

The grave site of bushranger Ned Kelly and also Ronald Ryan lies within the former walls of Pentridge Prison. Kelly was executed by hanging at the Melbourne Gaol in 1880 and his remains moved to Pentridge Prison in 1929, after his skeleton was disturbed on April 12, 1929, by workmen constructing the present Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) building. The gravesite, as of 2005, is covered in many weeds and is largely unkept by the developers, who have fenced off the area until a decision is made on its upkeep. Reverend Peter Norden, former prison chaplain at Pentridge Prison is campaigning for the sites restoration.

Notable prisoners

Dennis Allen, oldest member of the Pettingill family. (d. 1987)
Garry David, (d. 1993), also known as Garry Webb, responsible for the Community Protection Act 1990
Peter Dupas, Australian serial killer
Christopher Dale Flannery, aka Mr Rent-a-Kill, hitman
Ned Kelly, bushranger
Julian Knight, murdered 7 people in the Hoddle Street Massacre
Eddie Leonski, the Brownout Strangler
Derryn Hinch, Author and broadcaster
Clarrie O'Shea, trade unionist
Craig 'Slim' Minogue, Russell Street Bomber
John Nicholls, Carlton footballer
Kevin Murray, Fitzroy footballer, Brownlow Medal winner
Frank Penhalluriack
Victor Peirce, member of the Pettingill family, acquitted of the 1988 Walsh Street police shootings. Killed in 2002.
Harry Power, bushranger
Mark Brandon "Chopper" Read, Ex-criminal and author
Gregory David Roberts, Author of Shantaram, escapee of Pentridge who fled to India
Ronald Ryan - last person to be executed in Victoria in 1967
Maxwell Charles Skinner, constant escapee, infamous for commandeering a Coburg Tram in one of his escapes
Squizzy Taylor, gangster
Stan Taylor, actor and convicted Russell Street bomber
John Zarb, first person to be found guilty of having failed to comply with his call up notice during the Vietnam War

Timeline

1850's 'F' Division opened
1870's 'G' Division opened as an Industrial Reformatory School
1894 Female prison at Pentridge ('D' Division)
1951 Last woman executed in Australia, Jean Lee is hanged.
1967 Last execution in Australia - Ronald Ryan (between 1842 and 1967, 186 prisoners were executed)
October 1987 - Five prisoners die in a fire in Jika Jika during riots over prison conditions. Craig Minogue and 3 other inmates survived the fire.
May 1, 1997 - Pentridge Prison is closed.