Former Brothers 4 Life gang leader Bassam Hamzy lives a heavily restricted life behind bars, a court has been told, after he was found guilty of supplying drugs from jail.
Hamzy was convicted of supplying a commercial quantity of a prohibited drug, which he co-ordinated through coded phone calls and knowingly dealing with the proceeds of crime.
During a sentence hearing on Tuesday, the NSW District Court was told he spends up to 20 hours a day alone in a cell slightly smaller than a car parking space, with very limited access to interact with other inmates.
Hamzy is being held at Goulburn's High Risk Management Correctional Centre alongside some of Australia's worst offenders, including many convicted of terror offences.
He was originally jailed for at least 21 years for murder and other offences following a shooting on Sydney's Oxford street in 1998.
In arguing for leniency in sentencing over the latest matter, Hamzy's lawyer Dennis Stewart told the court the conditions being imposed on his client are particularly onerous.
The court was told the strict limitations on interactions arose from an incident in which a handcuffed Hamzy was allegedly attacked by another inmate.
Hamzy was himself charged with assaulting another inmate in December 2023, with the offence later proven but dismissed, the court was told.
More recently, Hamzy was granted approval to associate with just one other inmate for periods of up to an hour at a time.
"The two inmates are permitted to sit side-by-side in separate cages," Mr Stewart told the court.
However, manager of security at the prison's high risk unit, Phillip Patricks, told the court it was common for inmates to call out to one other through doors and over walls.
Mr Patricks agreed with Mr Stewart that associations with other inmates are not considered a right but a privilege for inmates like Hamzy.
Hamzy has a only a TV in his cell which can be remotely operated by prison staff, the court was told.
He receives meals through a hatch in his cell and whenever he leaves the cell is handcuffed and accompanied by at least three guards.
Due to an ongoing legal action against Corrective Services, in which Hamzy is representing himself, he was granted access to a room described as "basically an empty space" containing a computer to view legal documents.
A sentence date has been set for February 18.
