KEY POINTS:
Australian Rodney Adler has broken his silence about his 2-and-a-half year jail term, describing prison life as "degrading, boring and barbaric".
Mr Adler was released in mid-October after serving time for his part in Australia's largest corporate demise, the $5.3 billion collapse of the insurance giant HIH in 2001.
"If I tried to describe the prison system in a few words they would be 'Darwinian, degrading, outdated, boring and pointless'," Mr Adler writes in this week's The Bulletin.
He pleaded guilty to four charges related to the collapse, including obtaining $2 million from HIH by false or misleading statements and being intentionally dishonest as an HIH director.
In the six weeks since his return to his harbourside mansion, Mr Adler has refused interviews. In his article, he describes in detail his prison experiences, which began at Silverwater Jail in western Sydney and ended at St Heliers Correctional Centre near Muswellbrook.
"Jail is degrading, horrible, at times barbaric, mind-numbingly boring and a waste of time," he writes. "It does not rehabilitate prisoners or prepare them for a normal life outside."
He says assaults are common; one inmate was beaten unconscious for complaining about another person's music.
"I saw raw violence and the crushing effect that drugs and a life of crime had on young people. It was profoundly saddening.
"Yet amidst this bleakness, I witnessed moments of generosity, friendship and compassion among inmates, and came to appreciate the purity of the code of prison life."
Without going into specifics, Mr Adler says homosexuality is part of life behind bars. He soon learnt that prisoners aged between 18 and 25 were most likely to be targeted.
"I looked forward to the lockdown each night as it meant I had survived another day," he writes. "I am not a tough guy - I would never hold my own physically if it came to violence. I would have to rely on other means - social skills, negotiation skills - to survive intact."
An allegation that he tried to smuggle business messages out of prison was untrue, he writes. It led to him being moved from a low-security wing at Bathurst prison to the medium-security Bathurst Main.
"My weeks in Bathurst Main during July 2006, at the height of the conflict between Israel and Islamic militias in Lebanon, were probably my most fraught. Prison authorities, knowing I was Jewish, placed me in a cell block made up of many Muslims, half of whom were openly sympathetic to the Hezbollah movement."
At one point he discovered a plot to stab him, but after a meeting with Muslim leaders came to an understanding that he would not be touched.
"For this I remain grateful."
After dealing with five weeks of solitary confinement and "box visits" behind glass with family members, Mr Adler says prison life has changed his views on human nature.
He has a greater understanding of Aboriginal and Muslim cultures and values, he says, and plans to employ a full-time solicitor to represent, pro bono, people facing prison through lack of legal counsel.
In 2002 Mr Adler was fined $900,000 and banned from being a company director for 20 years after civil action by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission.
Despite strict conditions, he is eager to get back to work. "I will follow my parole conditions and other civil orders to the letter and, consistent with these conditions, I have resumed my business activities."
- AAP
