EXTRACT FOR
Penal Payback
(Author Unknown)

Chapter 1

     

I was twice blessed in my birth.

     I was fortunate enough to be born to extremely wealthy parents but also in the fact that they were both gifted in the intelligence stakes as well.  Even from my early teens I had been interested in the suffering of women from the horrible crime of sexual abuse and knew where I wanted to take my life as a result.

     I therefore took psychology as my qualifying biomedical degree and then raced through my MBBS (Medicinae Baccalaureus, Bachelor of Surgery) following it up with a specialisation in psychiatry, slanted towards the theory and practice of how to correct and/or punish the perpetrators of sexual crimes, all of which took twelve years at the University of Queensland and was fully funded by my trust fund.

     My parents, not to mention my professors and lecturers were fully acquainted with my admittedly rather outré ideas but none of them tried to dissuade me from studying them and making known my rather outspoken contempt for current thinking.  Actually, I think the reason for their tolerance of my views was that they secretly sympathised with them themselves but were too shy of public opinion to voice them openly.

     What were these rather outlandish ideas of mine, you wonder.  Let me be very blunt.  In the course of that twelve years of a just about single-minded study of the subject, I had come to the conclusion that in probably ninety-five per cent of cases, all the so-called psychiatric sessions and soft pedalling treatment of this scum had them almost literally laughing in their boots.

     In my view and what I was quite openly espousing, was that they be punished, and when I say punished, I mean with physical, corporal and very painful punishment.  Furthermore, as I had also very carefully studied the victims of these crimes, I had come to the conclusion that the best possible way to heal them was first of all cleanse them of the stink of what had been physically perpetrated upon them; and then, to restore their minds to that of the normal bright and bubbly young woman who could enjoy the company of men without being constantly afraid that they were exposing themselves to a repeat of the assault on their minds and bodies by their abuser, by inviting them to take part in their attacker's punishment.

     Oh, perhaps I should introduce myself: my name is Hilary Stafford and my father is a very well-to-do businessman and investor.  We live in Tenerife which is one of the nicest suburbs in Brisbane and have a lovely estate on the river.

     When I was born, both my grandfather and father endowed me with a huge trust fund which would have enabled me to live the high life without ever having to study and then apply myself to some useful occupation.  But that was not in the nature of our family and my younger brother also acquired honours degrees in business and economics and looks certain to join my father in his business activities.

     After graduating, I then concentrated on assessing the existing sexual offenders and to this end, obtained permission from the prison authorities and particularly the psychiatric staff currently overseeing them and while they were very aware of my views on how best to deal with these dreadful people, as long as I didn't make any attempt to interfere with their current methods, they tolerated me, and I think, in many cases secretly approved of them.

     I was particularly scrupulous in recording these offenders' life histories and my own version of their psychological assessments, never once deviating from the established rules and of course I made them available to any qualified practitioner who showed interest in them.

     These studies led me to the conclusion that I mentioned above, that all of the current so-called remedial psychiatric and psychological efforts were totally useless.

     But I also interviewed as many of the victims as would see me and while I made no attempt whatsoever to interfere with their professional treatment by my colleagues, I began to see that here too, they were barking up the wrong tree and that far from being kept as far away from their attacker as possible, if we were to change the nature of his punishment as described above and even allow his victims to take part in them, say caning his naked backside or being present at his castration, would be far more effective than all the sympathy and platitudes currently being applied to them.

     Having mentioned castration, I should here add that I believe that this should be a mandatory part of every punishment awarded to a man found guilty of serious sexual assaults on either women or children.

     As for the latter, no, I certainly wouldn't and haven't ever advocated that they be involved in the punishment of their attacker.  I believe that their minds are not sufficiently developed to understand what is going on and that their already horribly abused psyches must be protected at all costs from any contact whatsoever with their attacker.

     However I do believe that a great deal of love and nurture from people they can trust together with a very carefully worked out explanation (depending very much on their age) might be the best way forward in their case.  But as I felt myself on less sure ground when it came to how best to deal with children and even teenagers who were sexually assaulted, I was very careful to make known my doubts on this score.

     I felt very much more certain about adult women and the men who had so horribly abused and desecrated them, however.  And so the next five years or so were spent in almost pure research into what made these criminals tick; what motivated them to commit such horrible crimes and how best to deal with them.

     And so far as the women themselves were concerned, how best to heal those awful mental as well as physical wounds.

     During this time, I was tolerated both by the authorities and my professional colleagues and some of the latter even privately admitted to me that they agreed with my ideas but that their professional standing could be irreparably damaged if they were to publicly acknowledge it.  I agreed with them and assured them I would certainly not be betraying their confidence.

     For myself of course, I was not dependent on anyone for my existence.  My trust fund was in the tens of millions and as I am not one to go splurging on expensive cars and clothes, I was happy to live in my little apartment in the family home and just go about my research and investigations to my heart's content.

     

But then there were a rash of horrible sexual crimes.  No-one could explain why but they were certainly occurring and the government was severely embarrassed when a popular columnist picked on my quite well-known theories and asked why this scum were not being treated in the way I suggested but rather mollycoddled and given motel-like accommodation in our modern prisons.

     The Premier, Mr John Blackthorn, invited me into his office.  I had met him on a few occasions before when I had attended various functions with my parents and he had impressed me then as a highly practical politician.  Now he put it to me bluntly: "You will be aware, Hilary, that this recent spate of sexual offences has caught us on the back foot and the pressure is rising for us to adopt your policies with regard to this class of criminal offender.

     "What would you say if I was to suggest that we are thinking about opening a brand new facility dedicated solely to serious sexual offenders and then amend the Corrective Services Act to provide for the special treatment of prisoners of this class in line with your ideas?"

     I stared at him for a few seconds but that was all it took for me to nod and comment, "Well, it took you long enough," but I was grinning at him and he took it in good part and smiled back at me.

     "Well they are pretty radical, girl, but I may tell you now that I have secretly admired you and your ideas for a long time.  I could never do so openly until now but if you will agree to take over the management of that new facility, I will pull out all stops to enact the necessary legislation and to get your facility built post-haste."

     "We won't need much in the way of facilities, Mr Premier.  An abandoned factory with a barbed wire fence around it will suffice very well as long as I can have some funds to make just a few necessary changes to the prisoners quarters and of course upgrade or build comfortable ones for my staff and the victims who agree to stay over for a while.

     You see, sir, I have been preparing for this day for a long time and one of the first things I would do would be to have each of those prisoners allocated to us implanted with a tiny silicon chip that would act as a locating device but also enable us to give them an unholy shock to the gonad if they step out of line, say by going too near the perimeter fence, for example."

     He looked at me admiringly.  "My, my, girl, you really have been doing your homework."  He now smiled and then resumed: "For a start, I think you are old enough now to call me John, for I have taken over the corrective services role as its minister myself and I think we are going to have a lot to do with one another over the next few months and years.  In fact, if things go as I am hoping, Hilary, I suspect you may well be very soon promoted to its director-general for if you are as successful in running the small unit as I suspect you are going to be, then there is going to be an outcry right across the media for you to oversee similar changes right across the board."

     "Well, John, first things first.  I take it I may choose my own officers from the ranks in the department?"

     He nodded.  "Of course."

     "Okay, now secondly, what about Mr Appleby, the present director-general.  How does he feel about all of this?  You must realise if he is in opposition, I am going to be hard-put to operate within his department?"

     "Oh, he is in agreement alright.  In fact I was shocked to discover that he too has been a secret admirer of yours for many years, virtually since you started publishing your weird and wonderful theories.  But like most officers within the Department, he knew that they were so far outside the accepted norm right across the western world that we are going to be in for an enormous amount of flak when we announce what we are doing."

     "Oh I don't think so, John.  I suspect you are going to find that under the surface probably a vast majority of the population will embrace the ideas and take to them with open arms, realising that at last a government has stood up to the stupidities of the do-gooders who have wrought so much pain on Western civilisations with such stupid notions as 'allowing a child to develop in his own way without discipline, criticism or punishment' which have in my opinion undermined our societies appallingly."

     "Alright, now it's going to take a few months to draft and enact the necessary legislation but would you be willing to start planning your new unit straight away?"

     "More than willing.  Eager, in fact.  But I had better make an appointment to see Charles Appleby pretty soon, John."

     He grinned at me and then pressed a button on his desk.  His door opened and DG Appleby strode in with his hand outstretched to shake mine.  Of course he nodded to his boss but then told me how much he had admired my ideas for years and was now looking forward to working with me to facilitate the pilot scheme on the abuser-scum.  Yes, he actually used that word and I smiled to myself at his vehemence but was now doubly glad that I had accepted the Premier's offer for I found I liked this high government official very much.

     The Premier then suggested the pair of us go up to the executive dining room and discuss the details of my new appointment and I almost felt that we were leaving the Premier's office arm in arm.  We weren't, of course, but it did sort of feel like it.

     

I'm not going into the details of our joint efforts in finding a suitable building which we could adapt to my needs or in my selection of a dozen of his best officers to assist me in running this new unit.

     Suffice it to say, nothing was too difficult and even before the legislation was enacted, we had the building ready to go the moment it received the governor's assent.  Until that moment of course, we couldn't go public but once the law was proclaimed, we invited all branches of the media to come and inspect the premises and to be treated to an explanation of how the sexual offenders transferred here were going to be dealt with.

     The Premier had asked me to be the person who would do the explaining but after the tour, he gave me a wonderful introduction and then I stood up and addressed them all.

     "Many of you may be aware already that I have for years espoused the notion that criminals who commit serious sexual offences ought to be treated very differently from others in the prison system.  This government has now enacted legislation allowing this to proceed and what you have seen around this building today provides the means for us to make life as horrible as possible for its inmates.

     "For a start, they will be stripped naked and not permitted a single rag of clothing during the time they are here with us.  This is partly to shame them and partly to underline to them that they are no longer human beings worthy of being clothed.  And this will be augmented by dipping them in the hot tank to permanently remove all hair below their eyebrows as well as any tattoos they may have.

     "Secondly, each one of them will be implanted with a tiny silicon chip to his right testicle.  This is easily achieved by making a tiny slit in his scrotum, peeling off the wax paper on the glued side of the chip and then placing it on the skin of the gonad itself.  A Band-Aid over the tiny wound to the scrotum is all that will then be necessary.

     "This chip is inviolate.  The moment they place even a finger anywhere near it, they will receive an unholy shock to the testicle and if they even try it once, I'm sure that will be the last time.  That unit also acts as a recipient for various signals from their supervisors.  I won't go into the details but be assured they are soon going to learn that disobedience of any kind will result in horribly painful punishments.

     "But in addition there are also those corrections that the courts are going to order in the case of all new sexual offenders.  These will be in the nature of corporal punishments but as you are aware, in my various theses, I have suggested that it will be very helpful to the victim if she is permitted and encouraged to carry out these punishments on the naked bodies of her attacker.  They will be in the nature of such punishments as a caning of the buttocks or perhaps a flogging of the back.  But the ladies will also be encouraged to act as their guards during their sessions at hard labour for we are now going to return to the old days when the chain gangs were whipped into harder and harder labour.

     "You will have noticed the motel style suites upstairs and wondered what they are for, well now you know.  We would like and encourage victims to come and stay with us for as long as they liked as I believe their taking part in this return to physical, corporal punishment is going to help them to revert to a normal happy emotional state and will be able to look their attackers in the eye and see his fear of them as they wield the whip or cane on his body.

     "I think I've spoken long enough.  Are there any questions?"

     There were many but none important enough to comment on here.

And that night, the news items on TV were full of it.  Programs ran for over an hour showing off our new facility and my little closing speech was played in its entirety.  I just hoped I hadn't bitten off more than I could chew.

     

Let me now turn to the admission of our first group of prisoners.  DG Appleby and I had pored over the files of the inmates of the various prisons in and about the Brisbane, Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast metropolitan areas and had come up with a couple of dozen of sexual abusers and child molesters whom we thought would be an excellent first set to test the working efficiency of my officers.

     We had had a month to get to know each other and to establish basic rules and programs that would very quickly apprise our prisoners that they were no longer going to be treated with silk gloves but would in fact be worked every day to the limit of their strength and for vastly longer hours than in any prison in the Western world over the last century or so.

     In selecting these officers, and they were about fifty-fifty male and female in numbers, I stressed that we were going to be using corporal punishments without mercy when they erred or, in the future, when and if a judge ordered such corporal punishments as part of their sentence.  To a man (and woman) they were in agreement with my methods and assured me that they would have no qualms about administering or assisting a victim to administer, severe corporal punishments utilising such implements as a rattan cane, a belt or strap, whips of many kinds as well as the miniature taser they would all wear strapped to their left side (a rattan cane fitted with a rubber handle was worn on the right side).

     Additional to these implements, they would all be issued with a brooch pinned to the left collar of their shirt.  But these tiny devices were not ornaments.  I have already mentioned the silicon chips glued to each prisoner's right testicle and detailed some of its capabilities and functions.

     I should perhaps expand on the technology behind these remarkable little slivers of silicon.  I am not technically minded and therefore can only simply marvel at the incredible functionality that has been built into these particular so tiny wafers.

     I mentioned above that they were possessed of a GPS function that informed the person controlling them of the whereabouts of the wearer anywhere in the world.  So, for example, if a prisoner did happen to escape and make his way in some miraculous manner to London, his location would be reported to his controller in graphic detail and he would find himself picked up by a London Bobby before he could say Jack Robinson.  Alright, I know that's an extreme example but I am assured that if such a situation occurred with one of our prisoners, any one of us could read off his exact location on an iPhone or tablet wherever he was anywhere in the world.

     But that is only one of their remarkable features.  Each prisoner upon his arrival would have a collar permanently locked around his neck and this would feature his name front and back.  The program that controls the interaction between these chips and our brooches is updated with every new prisoner and his silicon chip name and so if we wished to call one of them to our presence, we would merely say his name and then the words 'come to me' and the computer would then send him tiny painless signals that would direct him to our location wherever it was.  Those signals are not that many and are easily learned by the prisoner.

     If necessary, we can also use them to punish one or a number of them by inflicting a horribly painful punishment zap to his testicle which is identical to that which he will feel if he moves his fingers too close to the unit glued to his gonad.

     It stands to reason, that with these tools at our disposal and our willingness to use them without compunction every time a prisoner errs, the use of the cane or taser was largely unnecessary.  But as I stressed to the officers at our first meeting, "It will be up to you entirely as to which method of punishment you deem appropriate in the circumstances on every occasion you deem it necessary.

     "I want to make it very clear that painful physical punishments are to be used unstintingly to show these scum that we will not tolerate the slightest deviation from our rules and therefore that if they don't want to have their naked bodies covered in welts and bruises, they had better learn, and learn quickly, to obey every order instantly."

     By the same token, I also pointed out that wanton sadism was not on our agenda, either.  Punish, and punish hard when called for but gratuitous attacks on their bodies would be viewed very seriously.  "It is my aim to put the fear of God into these bastards so that a return to our 'care' would be viewed with total and absolute horror.  But if any one of us began to punish them simply for his or her own pleasure, I believe that would negate all the good that we are aiming for with this so draconian regime.

     "Do I make myself clear on that point?"

     I looked around the room and noted understanding and agreement on all their faces and nodded and then went on to the next topic.