After days on life support and a little time breathing by himself, a prisoner taken from Christchurch Men’s Prison died in Christchurch hospital. He was beaten to death.

It has been whispered that three Mongrel Mob prospects were present during the assault that lead to his death. A homicide inquiry is now underway. But it’s not just the state that is looking to exact justice. On many levels prisons run on their own rules.

Jails are full of violent men, but not full of violence. Those on long lags want to get on with their time with as little fuss and tension as possible. Prison leaders help enforce informal codes of conduct to ensure this happens. Then there are the exceptions.

Pride, small disputes that escalate, and gang rivalries are some of the many reasons violence can erupt. Often these events are small and go nowhere: a clean fight, a deserved hiding. Other times, back-up is a certainty. Utu becomes all-consuming. The prison becomes a place heavy with violence. In the small confines, its threat lingers like a thick mist and reverberates around the walls.

Sometimes violence is contagious. Most famously the devastating Mt Eden prison riot of 1965 sparked copycat, though comparatively minor, events around the country. Gang violence can similarly spread.

It is said that in the days following the fatal attack two prisoners connected with the Mongrel Mob were beaten up. The potential for snowballing violence is partially being realised.

Corrections staff will be taking every precaution to ensure the situation does not escalate further. As required, monitoring, long lockdowns and careful segregations are the order of the day.

Despite the rhetoric of some, prisons are not holiday camps. At times like this, that is only too clear. For prisoners and for staff.

In all of this, too, there is a grieving family. If they are lucky – and many are not – criminals, like non-criminals, have those who love them. These are people who often suffer through a prisoner’s crimes and who love them anyway. 

In this instance, a close member of this man’s family has spent time in prison, too. One can only hope, perhaps, that grieving does not lead to more tragedy. And that justice is served by the courts and not in the prisons. 

But again, prisons often run on their own rules.

"In what society can't you hang out with mates?" so asks one bloke in this Sky News clip from Australia. It's worth a watch, because the recent arrests of three Brisbane men have important implications.

With typical humour, Hells Angel Terry McCormick jokes with media about having no time to do his hair as he is led away in handcuffs. His alleged crime stems from riding in a Poker Run organised by his club, the Brisbane chapter of the Hells Angels.

Such events are common all around the world and combine motorcycling with the popular card game. Those with the best hands at the end of the day win prizes.

Under Queensland's so called 'anti bikie' laws, the right to publicly associate has been curtailed. Given these laws are based on faulty logic (see here) it won't be a surprise that I am concerned by the arrests, but for more than just the obvious reasons.

Terry has been public in speaking out against the laws. His arrest, then, will work to threaten free speech and peaceful political dissent. All for the sake of a Poker Run.

When I was researching the Queensland laws I got to know Terry. I liked him. He's got a hint of Aussie larrikinism, but he's a solid bloke and great company. Do I think he's exempt from the law? No, of course not. If he commits a crime he should be prosecuted. But these laws are ill conceived  and dangerous. As a friend, I wish him well.

As an academic, I hope Terry's prosecution acts as a test case by which the High Court will strike these laws from the books (the previous attempt to do so was strangled by a technicality). Regardless of what you think of groups like the Hells Angels, laws like those in Queensland have no place in free and democratic societies. That being so, they should concern us all.

Usually I am all about the words, but this image is amazing. It captures an instant before gang violence erupted between the Tyrants MC and the Nomads leading to a man's throat being cut and eventually a significant law change. I covered the story in PATCHED (p.177) and I republish a slightly edited version here:

In January 1994, as the Mountain Rock Music Festival wound to a close notorious Nomad leader Dennis Hines cut the throat of the Tyrants MC member Tony Nightingale.

The incident occurred after two members of the Tyrants, an outlaw motorcycle club with chapters at that time in Levin and Pahiatua had attacked an associate of the Nomads, a Horwhenua based gang that broke away from Black Power in 1977 and gained a reputation as among the toughest in the country. 

The beaten man asked his friends for back-up and consequently the Nomads went looking for members of the offending motorcycle club. The Tyrants were attending the concert with two other outlaw clubs, the Mothers of Palmerston North and the Templars of Christchurch but these groups and most of the Tyrants had left the concert when the marauding Nomads found Nightingale  (and another member as seen in the photo above). The Nomads quickly set upon Nightingale and proceeded to beat him. During the melee, he became entangled in a fence, at which juncture Hines drew a knife and slashing his face before running the blade across his throat. He then cleaned his knife by repeatedly jabbing it into the ground.

Remarkably, Nightingale survived the attack, but it proved to have major implications for the justice system: leading to law changes that allowed for the use of witness anonymity during criminal trials.