WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT
EXCLUSIVE
A prison guard has uncovered the gruesome tactics inmates use to try to manipulate hardened screws to get their way.
As Victorian coroner Paul Lawrie continues to investigate the prison death of motorcyclist Brent ‘BJ’ Reker, WhatsNew2Day Australia can reveal the findings are likely to have little impact on those tasked with policing incarcerated criminals.
“Reker was successfully rehabilitated,” the prison guard bluntly told WhatsNew2Day Australia.
“He will not commit any more crimes.”
Brent ‘BJ’ Reker died in prison after repeated attempts on his own life
The 35-year-old man was found dead in his cell at Ravenhall Correctional Center in December 2019.
He had been behind bars after being held in custody for an alleged beating, described as a revenge attack for the online publication of nude photographs of his friend Tara Egglestone.
Prison officials feared the notorious biker boss was organizing a mass self-harm incident with other inmates in the days before he was found dead in his cell.
Those fears led Reker to be transferred from a specialized mental health unit to another section of the prison just an hour before he died.
He was found hanging in his cell after repeated attempts on his life.
A prison source told WhatsNew2Day Australia that inmates routinely threatened to harm themselves.
‘They use it as currency. “Get me a painkiller or I’ll cut the boss down,” the guard said.
Most have no problem carrying out their threats, causing horrific damage to their bodies with the smallest fragments of metal.
Reker had also ingested metal fragments in the hope that guards would not transfer him to a specialized unit for problem inmates.
“Both their arms will be cut off in an instant and they will bleed everywhere,” the guard said.
“We’ll stay there and talk to them calmly until we think they’re about to faint.”
Reker had been caged at Ravenhall Correctional Center in Victoria (pictured)
Ravenhall prison staff were fed up with Reker’s efforts to cause trouble.
Inmates are known to counterfeit weapons inside prison (file image)
Some inmates taken to the hospital have been known to immediately tear out their stitches upon returning to prison.
‘It’s a horrible thing to see… but you become numb to it. “Next time we’ll bandage them and not even bother taking them back to the hospital,” the guard said.
Inmates threaten suicide daily, and those who attempt and survive receive downtime with a prison psychiatrist.
While briefly kept under observation, troubled inmates are quickly returned to the general population, where the vicious cycle begins again.
Prison doctors feared Reker so much that his transfer to the special unit occurred without a psychiatric evaluation.
A review of his death by the Office of Justice Review and Assurance found that moving Reker to another part of the prison was ill-conceived and went against the original plan.
The coroner heard there was a perception the biker boss had influence over other inmates and had been orchestrating plans for a mass self-harm incident.
In body camera footage of his final moments, guards watched as Reker took photographs before swallowing a small object, left by a shopkeeper, with a glass of milk in an act of self-harm.
Prison staff claimed Reker (center) had influence over other inmates
Reker would shed blood to get what he wanted. But his threats to commit suicide were not in vain.
Last year, another prison whistleblower told WhatsNew2Day Australia that prison management had Reker’s blood on their hands.
“He had a huge, huge risk of suicide. “He attempted suicide several times while in Melbourne Assessment Prison, and that is a maximum security prison run specifically for people with mental health issues,” she said.
Reker’s one-year-old son, Saint, was scheduled to undergo surgery just days after Judge Christopher Beale revoked his bail and sent him back to jail.
“He made it very, very clear that any chance he had if he was alone, he would kill himself,” she said.
At the time of his death, Reker had been in talks with the Finks to leave the club, find legitimate work and had even started removing his tattoos.
The former employee claimed Reker should never have been moved from Melbourne Assessment Prison to the medium-security Ravenhall Correctional Centre.
“Ravenhall is great in theory, but a lot of the staff are very young, very inexperienced and not very well managed compared to what they could be,” the whistleblower said.
In the days before his suicide, Reker complained of being bored and warned prison staff that he would harm himself if he canceled a dental appointment.
‘Do we have to cut back to get what we want?’ she told a guard.
Reker later told a prison doctor that he and other inmates planned to “cut back” if their demands were not met.
The court heard Reker had been desperate to get a job in prison and threatened violence if he did not get his way.
Fed up, prison bosses agreed to move Reker to a unit away from other inmates.
This time, his threat to commit suicide was not a hoax.
The coroner will deliver his conclusions on a date to be determined.
A spokesperson for Victoria’s Department of Justice and Community Safety said it has measures in place to reduce prisoners’ risk of self-harm and suicide.
“We know that people in custody are more likely to experience mental health problems and any attempt at self-harm is distressing,” they told WhatsNew2Day Australia.
“We take these risks very seriously, which is why we have comprehensive training, procedures and mental health support in place to reduce incidents in prison.”
“Staff are trained to identify vulnerable and at-risk prisoners,” the spokesperson said.
“People in custody identified as being at risk of suicide or self-harm at any time are assessed by a mental health professional within two hours of being identified.”