It's also why prisoners were in single cells, he said. He understood these as attempts to convert them: 'They were trying to get them on the 'right' track… They reckoned they could cure them.' He told Audible's podcast series The Greatest Menace that psychologists and psychiatrists were 'coming in all the time' after the jail reopened in 1957. 'īut another former employee, Cliff New, claims it was for less compassionate reasons. 'They were at risk of violence at bigger prisons like Long Bay. We'd red stamp homosexual prisoners with 'N/A': non-association with mainstream prisons,' he tells the BBC. He believed inmates were sent there for their own safety.
Les Strzelecki, 66, started as a custodial services officer at the prison in 1979, and later set up the Corrective Services Museum in Cooma. Until now, even some prison staff say they didn't know the real reason gay prisoners were segregated there. Not only was it reopened in 1957 with the specific purpose of incarcerating men for 'homosexual offences', it was also said to be used as a human testing ground with the ultimate goal of eradicating homosexuality from society.Ĭooma's jail is believed to have been the only known homosexual prison in the world, according to a new podcast. Set in one of the coldest and windiest small towns in Australia, Cooma prison holds a dark secret.
