Former NSW prison boss fears gay inmates will now want to marry and have sex

Former NSW prison boss fears gay inmates will now want to marry and have sex

A former New South Wales prison governor has expressed concern that with marriage equality will come a flood of inmates requesting permission to marry each other.

Writing in The Daily Telegraph, John Heffernan said despite his concerns he is not homophobic, Out in Perth has reported.

“Most Australians voted to support marriage equality,” he wrote.

“And it hasn’t taken long for the inevitable question to be raised, namely, do those same rights and privileges extend to that section of the community who are imprisoned?”

Heffernan, former governor of the Grafton Correctional Centre in northern New South Wales, said requests for marriages between inmates will create new challenges for corrections staff.

“A prescribed policy would be compelled to recognise that sex between a married inmate couple is bound to occur and therefore direct prison staff on how to best manage that situation, both from a moral and dutiful standpoint,” he wrote.

“That said, a significant number of officers would have a great deal of difficulty in accepting such a situation be it on religious grounds or their own individual moral views.”

A spokesperson for Corrective Services New South Wales suggested Heffernan’s concerns could be misplaced.

“CSNSW does not allow marriage between inmates, same-sex or otherwise,” said the spokesperson.

“Inmates can apply to marry non-inmates, but prison chaplains discourage it and the Commissioner in any case has indicated he would not approve it.”

Other countries have had to determine policies for marriage between prison inmates after legalising same-sex marriage.

Two men both serving life sentences became the first to marry in a UK prison in 2015.

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4 responses to “Former NSW prison boss fears gay inmates will now want to marry and have sex”

  1. I am a doctor who worked in prisons over 30 years. Inmates have relationships and sex already… Always have and always will. Love is never a threat to anyone but denial, hate, prejudice and ignorance can be. I can’t understand why elements of society criticize us for promiscuity but deny us having committed relationships or maybe even monogamy. If Rehabilitation is the main mission of imprisonment, then fostering loving, caring, responsible, mutual relationships is a good thing. Already from the Victorian Prison system, we know that prisons that allow conjugal visits function better with less violence and Governors find such visits a ” useful tool” in encouraging good behaviour. Most inmates are there because they have never experience unconditional love and worth, so fostering love would actually be the best thing ever. Dr. Wendell Rosevear O.A.M. “…..make Love infectious”

  2. Exactly, Dave.

    In my opinion though, I think prisoners get too many rights. If someone is in jail, they really must have done something terrible, given how lenient the courts are, so as long as they are incarcerated, they shouldn’t have such rights. Allowing prisoners to marry at all, is a joke and should never be allowed to happen. Why oh why are they even allowed to access the Internet? Especially rapists and murderers, they should have nothing but enough food and water to survive on, treat them like the animals they are. Many prisoners have it better than many of our law-abiding pensioners.

  3. Really? “… a significant number of officers would have a great deal of difficulty in accepting such a situation be it on religious grounds or their own individual moral views”.

    Apparently Prison Officers are happy to accept that there is sex for favours, sex for drugs, and even sex as ownership (i.e. rape), but they have a problem with consenual sex between inmates for love?

    As Dave said above, what an idiot!

  4. What an idiot. He really believes there’s no sex in prisons. Also, civil marriage is a civil right. When you’re in prison your civil rights are suspended (but not your human rights). So prisoners could apply to get married but that would be at the discretion of prison authorities, also their rights as a married couple would not be greater than the rights of any other prisoners because that’s what being in prison means.