WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT
EXCLUSIVE
A prison guard has lifted the lid on the gruesome tactics inmates use to try and manipulate hardened screws to get their way.
As Victorian Coroner Paul Lawrie continues to investigate the prison death of bikie Brent ‘BJ’ Reker, Daily Mail can reveal the findings will likely have little impact on those tasked with watching the jailed criminals.
‘Reker was successfully rehabilitated,’ the prison guard bluntly told Daily Mail .
‘He won’t be committing any further crimes.’
Brent ‘BJ’ Reker died in jail after making repeated attempts on his own life
The 35-year old was found dead in his cell at the Ravenhall Correctional Centre in December 2019.
He had been behind bars after being remanded in custody over an alleged bashing, described as a revenge attack over the release of naked photos of his friend Tara Egglestone online.
Prison officers feared the notorious bikie boss was organising a mass self-harm incident with fellow inmates in the days before he was found dead in his cell.
Those fears saw Reker transferred out of a specialist mental health unit into another section of the prison just an hour before he died.
He was found hanging in his jail cell after making repeated attempts on his life.
A prison source told Daily Mail inmates routinely threatened to self harm.
‘They use it as currency. “Get me some pain relief or I’ll slash up boss”,’ the guard said.
Most have no issue in following up with their threats, causing horrific damage to their bodies with the tiniest shards of metal.
Reker too had ingested shards of metal in the hope guards wouldn’t move him to a specialist unit for troublesome inmates.
‘They’ll slash both of their arms in an instant and bleed out all over the place,’ the guard said.
‘We’ll just stand there and talk calmly to them until we think they’re about to pass out.’
Reker had been caged within Ravenhall Correctional Centre in Victoria (pictured)
Prison staff at Ravenhall had been fed-up with Reker’s efforts to start trouble
Inmates are known to forge weapons inside jail (stock image)
Some inmates taken to hospital are known to immediately tear out their stitches upon returning to jail.
‘It’s a horrible thing to see… but you become desensitised to it. The next time we’ll just get them bandaged up and won’t even bother taking them back to hospital,’ the guard said.
Inmates threaten to kill themselves on a daily basis, with those who make an attempt and live receiving downtime with a prison psychiatrist.
While kept briefly under observation, the troubled inmates are promptly transitioned back into general population where the vicious cycle starts again.
Reker had been so feared by prison doctors his move to the special unit came without a psychiatric assessment.
A Justice Assurance and Review Office review of his death found moving Reker to another part of the prison was ill-conceived and against the original plan.
The coroner heard there was a perception that the bikie boss had influence over other inmates and had been orchestrating plans for a mass self-harming incident.
In body-worn camera footage of his final moments, guards watched as Reker collected photographs before swallowing a small item, left behind by a tradesman, with a glass of milk in an act of self-harm.
Prison staff claimed Reker (centre) had influence over other inmates
Reker would spill blood to get what he wanted. But his threats to kill himself were not idle
Last year another prison whistleblower told Daily Mail the jail’s management had Reker’s blood on its hands.
‘He was a massive, massive suicide risk. He tried to kill himself multiple times while he was at the Melbourne Assessment Prison, and that’s a maximum security prison that is run specifically for those with mental health issues,’ she said.
Reker’s one year old son Saint had been due to undergo surgery just days after Justice Christopher Beale revoked his bail and sent him back to jail.
‘He made it very, very clear that any chance he got if he was on his own, that he was going to 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 begun getting his tattoos removed.
The former staffer claimed Reker should never have been moved from the 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 it’s not very well run in comparison to what it could be,’ the whistleblower said.
In the days before his suicide, Reker complained of being bored and warned prison staff he would self harm over a cancelled dental appointment.
‘Do we have to slash up to get what we want?’ he told a guard.
Reker later told a prison doctor he and other inmates all planned to ‘slash-up’ if their demands weren’t met.
The court heard Reker had been desperate to obtain a prison job and threatened violence if he didn’t get his way.
Fed up, prison bosses agreed to move Reker to a unit away from other inmates.
This time, his threat to kill himself was no bluff.
The coroner will hand down his findings in a date to be fixed.
A spokesperson from Victoria’s Department of Justice and Community Safety said it has measures in place to reduce the risk of self-harm and suicide by prisoners.
‘We know that people entering custody are more likely to experience mental health issues and any attempt of self-harm is distressing,’ they told Daily Mail .
‘We take these risks very seriously which is why we have comprehensive training, procedures and mental health supports in place to de-escalate incidents in prison.’
‘Staff are trained to identify vulnerable and at-risk prisoners,’ the spokesperson said.
‘People in custody identified as at risk of suicide or self-harm at any time are assessed by a mental health professional within two hours of being identified.’
Brent Reker was not a man to be trifled with