Cutting The Bars

I joined the New South Wales Department of Corrective Services on 10th May 1971 as a Probationary Prison Officer. During my training school I was told many times that I would be advised to leave work at work and never go home or to the pub and talk about Gaols. What happens behind the walls was to stay behind the walls.

It was not until after my service came to an end, did I come to realise that the type of secrecy that had been embedded into my brain was very wrong on many levels. My wife and family, my parents, my siblings and extended families, as well as my friends would watch in horror at the news headlines knowing I was there, yet rarely spoke about it. Headlines such as “Gaol Riots”, “Death in Custody”, “Prison Officer Bashed” and “Prison Officer Taken Hostage”, just to give a small example of occurrences that happened were common place, as I worked my way through the ranks, ultimately reaching the high and distinguished rank of Senior Assistant Superintendent, a Commissioned Officer.

There was never a signing of any secrecy act or some kind of formal agreement, it was, simply put, the recommended thinking of the era. It was the way Gaols were run in those days. They were harsh, disciplined places to be in, regardless of which side of the bars you were on. I can see now that the old secrecy behind the wall achieved nothing for either the prisoners or the Prison Officers than to protect the wrong doers and inflame political groups and agitators such as the “Prisoner’s Action Group”.

Thus very few books have been written about New South Wales prisons by Prison Officers, whether it is because of some misguided loyalty to the unofficial code of silence, or for some other reason I’m not entirely certain. With few exceptions, there is a huge void in literature revealing the history of the prison system during the time I worked in the New South Wales system in the 1970’s and 1980’s, written by the people who were actually there, namely Prison Officers.

My first book “ITS ALL IN THE FALL” was about my personal experiences in which I was directly involved or was sitting on the peripheral edge of every event depicted in the book. I have an abundance of factual stories to tell you in this book that occurred in which I was personally involved during my time working in the Prison system and I will also be telling factual stories that happened during that time that had nothing to do with me. My aim is to open up the New South Wales Prison System to the public and show the reader what it was really like behind the secret walls of the Gaol that I loved to work in. This is why I have given my book the emblematic name of “Cutting the Bars”. I invite you to sit back and enjoy this factual and fascinating read as we explore the New South Wales Prison System in the period during the 1970’s and 1980’s

Peter T. Egge
Senior Assistant Superintendent (resigned)