What goes on in Melbourne’s most dangerous women’s prison
Inside Victoria’s biggest women’s prison is a hierarchy where killers employ charm, fear or physical menace to jostle for position. Here’s what really goes on inside the Dame Phyllis Frost Centre.
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A black widow murderer, a gangland matriarch nicknamed “The Queen” and a femme fatale bookworm.
They are some of the colourful individuals living behind the imposing grey walls of the state’s biggest women’s prison.
Inside the Dame Phyllis Frost Centre in Deer Park lies the kind of firm hierarchy common to male and female prisons everywhere.
Near the top is convicted killer Vicky Efandis, regarded as one of the most respected inmates at the jail, on the outer edge of Melbourne’s west.
Efandis is serving 24 years for the murder of her lover George Marcetta, who she drugged and left to die in a burning bedroom at Bellfield in 2004.
Now in her 60s, she continues to maintain innocence of the killing but has been able to navigate to a position of authority with what has been described as a smiling, good-natured approach to life.
“If anything goes wrong, the girls go to her. She’s well-liked,” a source with knowledge of the jail’s power structures said.
“She’s got plenty of pull. Everybody knows it.”
Judy Moran, jailed for the murder of her brother-in-law Desmond “Tuppence” Moran, has lost any of the physical menace she once possessed.
Illness has her largely confined to a mobility scooter and she is more than double the age of most of the inmates.
But she is looked after and afforded some of the old-fashioned respect that might be expected from the younger prisoners.
“She’s got a personal carer. Some people call her The Queen,” a source said.
Others say Moran’s influence has dimmed in line with the deterioration of her health.
Vicky Soteriou – jailed over a plot to murder her husband – walks the prison to stay trim and is said to be eagerly awaiting her looming release date.
Stripper-turned-murder Robyn Lindholm, another to have made Dame Phyllis her home in recent years, is sometimes seen piloting a mower as part of her duties.
The Herald Sun has been told Lindholm has a quiet existence punctuated by visits to the prison library where, observers say, her knowledge of literature makes it clear that her posh private school education was not a complete waste.
“She gets along with people. She’s quite highly intelligent. She has good social skills,” a former inmate said.
Despite her chaotic life on the outside, convicted killer Danielle Kerr is said to be big on rules.
Kerr is doing a 21-year stretch for the brutal 2013 murder of William Stevenson in bush near Bendigo.
“She’s known throughout the prison as very difficult to live with,” a former inmate said.
Date-night strangler Jamie Lee Dolheguy is someone treated with caution by inmates and staff.
The troubled Dolheguy has threatened to kill and harm other prisoners since being locked up in 2018.
A forensic psychologist has assessed her as presenting an “ongoing high risk of violence”.
Inside the 600-inmate capacity DPFC are two special cell blocks which can hold up to 20 of the prison’s most violent or high-profile detainees.
Others are kept in medium and minimum security accommodation, including units with individual kitchens and dining facilities.
Prisoners are able to cook their own meals and do their own washing, ironing and cleaning in an environment where rehabilitation is regarded as a major priority.
It is the only jail in the state to allow kids behind bars.
Some mothers are allowed to serve their sentence with infants and children up to the age of five in shared living units.
Strict dress codes apply throughout with female prisoners prohibited from wearing “revealing” undergarments.
G-strings and “inappropriate underwear” is strictly banned as are bras with removable inserts used for padding.
Visitors are also made to follow strict clothing guidelines and are warned not to wear miniskirts, high cut shorts, midriffs or see-through clothing when entering prison grounds.
On Guard – an eight-part podcast – uncovers what really goes on behind bars as former correctional officers share shocking secrets from the frontline of working with some of Australia’s most infamous criminals. Listen below.
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