Talk:Fremantle prison riot

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Did You Know An entry from Fremantle prison riot appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know? column on 21 August 2006.
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[edit] Couple of suggestions

I gave the article a copy edit, but I suggest it takes more of a formal timeline layout. suggest something like:

  • background
    • structure (link to main freo prison article)
    • cause,
    • planning,
  • event
  • aftermarth.

The image cant be ownwork (unless you took the original), need to identify the source(photographer or publisher) of the image then use fair use. Besides that it looks good. --Gnangarra 06:42, 19 August 2006 (UTC)

I've done some of the reformating added a bit of info about the prison, populations of 3&4 divs. Also added a bit on brenden in the aftermarth.
Question how many and how serious were the injuries to the officers and prisoners. Gnangarra 12:54, 19 August 2006 (UTC)

I do not have any knowlege of prisoner injurys, but I understand one officer was badly scalded, the other almost blinded, both were released before the remaining 4, as for references, much of my information comes from prison guards still working at the prison and video footage recorded at the time. Transcripts of the inquest sould be publicly available somewhere. Ghostieguide 13:22, 19 August 2006 (UTC)

thank I've found some possible references to riot, will read then add if appropriate. Gnangarra 13:38, 19 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] DYK

I drop this tag at DYK, hope you dont mind --Gnangarra 07:03, 19 August 2006 (UTC)

  • ... that during the Fremantle prison riot in 1988, seventy prisoners take six guards hostage and started a diversionary fire to enable twelve prisoners to escape ironically the fires intensity prevented the intended escape.

[edit] Hostage count

Just a heads up on a discrepencany in the number of hostges taken during the riot. This source refers to six prison officers being taken hostage, whereas the article itself refers to 15. I note the article orginially referred to 6 hostages, as the DYK submission above shows. Does anyone have the book referred to in the references section handy? -- Longhair 03:17, 20 August 2006 (UTC)

I have the book in hand, It states "Fifteen officers were hearded like sheep into the exercise yards to be held at the mercy of the states most dangerous criminals./Negotiations started with the ringleaders resulting in all but five of the hostages being released." Since this is the only citable account I have to hand that deals with the riot, I`ve gone with that, admittidly I`ve hade problems with this books accuracy before, for instance Ayris states 47 people where hanged at freo, He counted pseudonyms twice, the number was in fact 43 men and one woman according to prison records. Ghostieguide 03:47, 20 August 2006 (UTC)
I'd be more inclined to trust the accuracy of official Supreme Court of Queensland court documents (the reference I provide above mostly concerns Abbott on other matters rather than the riot itself, however it does make mention of the riot and the number of hostages taken). -- Longhair 03:57, 20 August 2006 (UTC)
All the newspapers at the time reported it was 5 prison officers...just to make it even more confusing. Sarah Ewart (Talk) 04:12, 20 August 2006 (UTC)
This report by Aus Law Reform Commission also reports it as 5 officers. Ghostie, if you want access to some of the related newspaper articles on Factiva, let me know. Sarah Ewart (Talk) 05:04, 20 August 2006 (UTC)
The source quoted only deals with Brenden's own involvement with six of the hostages. Newspaper accounts perhaps report only the remaining hostages after the first 10 were released. And yes SE, I would love to read them! I suggest we stay with fifteen until someone can find a usable source to the contrary. I will do some research next week. Thanks all for the interest. Ghostieguide 05:12, 20 August 2006 (UTC)

The offical report confirms Fifteen Officers were injured. Ghostieguide 00:53, 4 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Tense

This article written in strange tense.

Must seem to need a rewrite using simple past tense.

SARCASM. --Dustek 12:19, 21 August 2006 (UTC)

I'm not quite sure what you mean by this comment, "sarcasm" ehh?.. the article is in past tense as far as I can see. Ghostieguide 09:32, 4 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Escape

Big inconsistency here;

In the intro; "The riot was organised as a diversion for an escape that was to take place. Prisoners created a fire as part of the diversion, "

And in 'Aftermath'; "The report suggested that little evidence supports the escape plan theory common in the media, but that the riot was largely the result of an incident of that morning involving the mistreatment of a prisoner"

Also; "The riot highlighted the poor conditions inside the jail and two years after the prison was closed with most prisoners being transferred to the new Casuarina Prison." sounds as though the prison was closed as a result of the riot which is not my understanding

nigell k 13:03, 25 September 2007 (UTC)