Mental Treatment and Pharmacy Profit $$$$$

1) Mentally ill kept in solitary despite warnings

2) Pharmacy profits hit a nerve

Mentally ill patients are being kept in solitary confinement within maximum security NSW prisons as punishment, against the most basic principles of human rights law.

For a third time this year the Mental Health Review Tribunal has had to formally remind the departments of health and corrective services of those laws, after finding patients segregated.

Reviewing the case of a schizophrenic man left in solitary confinement nine months after he was found unfit to stand trial, the tribunal noted "serious systemic failures" in the treatment of such patients in NSW jails.

Meanwhile: Pharmacies have enjoyed big rises in profits but have failed to pass on the benefits to customers and do not need the level of protection they now have, a report has found.

Pharmacies' real returns have doubled in the past decade with the help of federal rules sheltering them from competition.

But faith in the current regulatory scheme is misplaced, the draft report commissioned by the Health Department says.

The findings in the confidential analysis, a copy of which has come after the Prime Minister, John Howard, acted before the election to defend pharmacies against competition by regulating to prevent the entry of supermarkets.

The anti-supermarket regulation expires on July 1, but Mr Howard and the Health Minister, Tony Abbott, have indicated they stand by "community pharmacies" against supermarket entry.

The pharmacy report to the Government says that while the growth in pharmacy returns is an "implicit goal" of government policy, "it is a transfer that has come, at least in part, at the cost of pharmacy customers".

Getting back to mentally ill patients: The tribunal's president, Duncan Chappell, described the isolation of 24-year-old "MA" as part of "an appalling situation" which began long before he was declared unfit to face trial.

MA has been in custody since February last year, when he was charged with property offences.

He was first segregated at Silverwater last July after attacking an officer and remained in solitary confinement when transferred to Parklea. On April 20 - two days after it was revealed his nine months of wrongful isolation - he was back in Silverwater, but not in general population custody.

"Despite the assertion made by [a prison officer] that this segregation was not intended to be a form of punishment, there is clear conflicting documentary evidence that this was precisely what was intended," Professor Chappell found.

"Basic principles of human rights law preclude the use of custodial segregation and isolation for persons suffering from a mental illness except in limited and carefully monitored circumstances to prevent self-harm or harm to others."

From the big end of town to the other big end of town: On the issue of quality of service, it says competition between community pharmacists from other sources, such as pharmacies located in supermarkets, "spurs the delivery of higher quality pharmacy services". It says consumer organisation surveys in Britain and Australia "demonstrate that blind faith in the delivery of quality by a community pharmacy model is misplaced".

The report proposes the abolition of location rules blocking new pharmacies setting up within 1.5 kilometres of existing pharmacies.

Titled Location, location, location, the report recommends allowing new pharmacies to open where they choose but with the Government varying the dispensing fees it pays pharmacies, depending on the supply of pharmacies in the area.

The report concludes "it is not reasonable to suggest that the location rules provide a net benefit to the community as a whole".

"While regulation is often justified on the basis of seeking to correct an identified 'market failure', there is no traditional market failure that justifies the regulation of the location of pharmacists," the report says.

Meanwhile: Once MA was declared unfit to stand trial in August, the tribunal was required to determine "as soon as practicable" on the balance of probabilities if he would be fit within 12 months, and where he should stay until then.

In October a hearing was set for December and the tribunal requested a psychiatric assessment from the doctor treating MA at Parklea. She told the tribunal she intended recommending MA be transferred to Long Bay hospital, but as hearing dates passed in December and February, she failed to produce the report.

"No such transfer did eventuate and it was not until inquiries were made about Mr MA's case by the Office of the Ombudsman, and by media sources, that ultimately the tribunal was able to obtain the reports it required to proceed with its reviews," Professor Chappell found.

Big Pharma: Prepared by the Allen Consulting Group and filed with the department in March, the report has surfaced as the pharmacists haggle with the Government over a new $11.75 billion, five-year agreement.

The guild, which has wielded significant political influence through 5000 pharmacies located in most suburbs, sent a letter to all federal MPs on Friday, saying the 30 per cent rise over five years would not keep pace with rising costs and warning that that "pharmacy services in their electorates may be cut".

The guild is also fighting a renewed attempt to enter the field by Woolworths, which says supermarkets could cut $500 million a year from drug costs to the Government and the consumer.

The guild has rejected the Woolworths figures as "fanciful and misleading", saying most of the claimed savings would flow from Woolworths' lower rentals for floor space.

The Allen report said the location rules had led to a scarcity of pharmacies. As a result, Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme provider numbers, which are authorities that a pharmacy must have to dispense subsidised prescriptions, had risen in value in recent years from $50,000 to $250,000. New businesses that buy pharmacies must pay for these as well as any goodwill.

While the volume of prescriptions dispensed had risen by about 60 per cent since 1990, the number of pharmacies had declined by about 10 per cent.

Are you still there MA?

The tribunal admitted it failed MA but he had since been moved to Long Bay and is reportedly keen to get better and face trial.

"Mr MA's case also demonstrates serious systemic failures in the way in which forensic patients are... managed and treated within the correctional system," Professor Chappell found.

"It is to be hoped that others who have not faced public scrutiny and criticism over the handling of Mr MA's case will also acknowledge their deficiencies and take appropriate remedial action."

A spokesman for the Justice Minister, John Hatzistergos, said the Health Minister, Morris Iemma, was responsible for MA through Justice Health.

A spokesman for Mr Iemma, who is also MA's local MP, said the tribunal's recommendations would be examined this week.

How you're treated may depend on what part of the big end of town you're from? It could even be a contradiction in terms!

By Fuckitol 300mg 16 May 05

Related:

Big Pharma:

Drugs firms 'creating ills for every pill'
The power of Britain's multi-billion-pound drugs industry has turned this country into an over-medicalised society that believes in a pill for every ill, a Commons inquiry will claim this week.

The drugs industry and its watchdog: a relationship too close for comfort? Critics say the drug regulator and the industry are too close. Their proceedings have long been shrouded in secrecy because of the drug companies' insistence on the commercial sensitivity of information relating to their products.

Schizophrenia: talking may help when drugs don't
New research has strengthened the case for using 'talk therapy' in the treatment of schizophrenia, especially for those who don't respond well to drugs.

Prisons, Punishment, Solitary Confinement [Torture] and Mental Illness

'Killing Rational' and Prisoner Control in NSW
Dear Justice Action, I'm writing to you regarding xxxx, he has rung me a few times in the past weeks and has been drugged to the max, he rang today twice and could hardly speak to me, he said he was going to ring you and talk to you about it but he couldn't so I told him I would get in contact with you and see what you could do! He has told them he doesn't want the sedatives but they hold him down and give it to him anyway, they have drugged him 4 times in the last 2 days he said.

Mental Health Tribunal recommendations on forensic inmates
Below is the answer we have received from the Minister for Health regarding prisoners recommended for parole or release by the Mental Health Tribunal FYI

Death in custody: In memory of Scott Simpson
Scott Simpson 34 died in custody on 7 June 2004 leaving behind a child. It is alleged that he hanged himself in a segregation yard at Long Bay Prison Complex. Justice Action has reasons to believe that Scott had been mistreated from the time he was taken into custody and the subsequent events that ensued that led to his sad death. We think that his treatment may well have caused his death.

Doctor Ron Woodham I presume?
"Corrections Health staff provide medical care. However, its staff's authority is essentially limited to making recommendations to corrective services on treatment. Corrective services staff can then decide what treatment can be given."

Isolation, psychiatric treatment and prisoner' control
The 2003 NSW Corrections Health Service (now Justice Health) Report on Mental Illness Among NSW Prisoners states that the 12 month prevalence of any psychiatric disorder in prison is 74%, compared to 22% in the general community, and while this includes substance disorder the high rate cannot be attributed to that alone.

Call for royal commission into NSW prison health system
Mr Tony Ross a social justice activist said yesterday that a royal commission into the health system in NSW should be wide reaching to ensure that the Corrections Health Service is also exposed because of reported widespread cover ups in the prisons health system.

Watchdogs slaughtered in NSW
On Tuesday the Carr Government reduced transparency and accountability yet again and New South Wales is in danger of becoming entrenched with cronyism and intimidations with the Carr Labor Government that continues to slaughter the watchdogs.

Escape proof but not so the prisoners mind
Fewer prisoners escape from prison these days because they're "cemented in" by materials that do not break and by legislation that can keep prisoners in jail until they die.

Carr's Castle the real story H.R.M.U.The High Risk Management Unit Goulburn Correctional Centre. A prisoner writes, " I was unsuccessful in my letters to Dr Matthews CEO of the Corrections Health Service on my problem regarding air - claustrophobic effect the cells have on me. Just recently the management decided my injuries are not seriously affecting me so no further discussions are necessary.

Risdon prisoners' seize prison to protest mistreatment
Apparently one prisoner had been mistreated and held in isolation in an SHU (Segregation Housing Unit) [Solitary Confinement] because, he'd had and altercation with a screw. SHUs cause severe mental harm - regarded as torture - and are a cruel, inhumane and degrading way to keep prisoners.

No Safe Place
In a brief four month span from August 1999, five men died in Tasmania's Risdon prison. Their deaths have put the state's corrections system in the dock and led to the planned demolition of a jail which even the State's Attorney-General now calls an "appalling facility".

Association for the Prevention of Torture
The Optional Protocol requires 20 ratifications to enter into force. All States Parties to the UN Convention against Torture should seriously consider ratifying the OPCAT as soon as possible. National Institutions and others promoting the human rights of people deprived of their liberty need to be informed of their potential role as national preventive mechanisms under the OPCAT.

Corrected or Corrupted
A psychiatrist from the prison Mental Health Team attached to Queensland Health made the comment that 25 per cent of inmates suffer from a diagnosed mental illness.

ICOPA XI International Conference on Penal Abolition
We are excited to announce that ICOPA X1, the eleventh International Conference on Penal Abolition will happen in Tasmania, Australia from February 9 - 11,2006. Please pass this onto all networks.

Ex-Prisoner Locked Out of Prison
The NSW Department of Corrective Services (DCS) has revealed a policy which bans ex-prisoners from entering prisons.

Justice Action: Access to our community
NSW: Justice Action went to the NSW Supreme Court before the last Federal election on the constitutional right for prisoners to receive information for their vote. The government avoided the hearing by bringing prisoners' mobile polling booths forward. We pursued it after the election. This is the report.

Overhaul Department of Justice: Reform Group
WA: The Prison Reform Group of WA is calling for a complete overhaul of the Department of Justice following recent events which have compromised its integrity, placing prison staff, prisoners, their families and the community, at risk. We call for the Minister to publicly apologise for last week's debacle which has seen the public badly let down by the Department of Justice yet again.

Detention Centres, Solitary Confinement
On Friday night the NSW Council for Civil Liberties awarded Sydney solicitor John Marsden honorary life membership. Julian Burnside was invited to make the speech in Marsden's honour. In the course of his speech, Burnside referred to the unregulated use of solitary confinement in Australia's immigration detention centres, criticising it as inhumane and also as unlawful.

2nd Renaissance - Beyond Industrial Capitalism and Nation States Some Practicalities Of Emptying The Prisons [287] Given the importance that prisons and punishment have in maintaining control of increasingly restless populations, the task of achieving the release of the people in the jails and the closure of those institutions, seems daunting. But it is so vital to the 2nd Renaissance that we must find ways to do it.

Mental Health Tribunal recommendations on forensic inmates

Below is the answer we have received from the Minister for Health regarding prisoners recommended for parole or release by the Mental Health Tribunal FYI

NSW: The excuse provided for not providing the exact numbers shows breath-taking arrogance.

ACE would appreciate your input on this matter.

HEALTH-IMPLEMENTING MENTAL HEALTH TRIBUNAL RECOMMENDATIONS

Dr Chesterfield-Evans: asked the Special Minister of State, Minister for Commerce, Minister for Industrial Relations, Assistant Treasurer, and Minister for the Central Coast representing the Minister for Health

(1) How many prisoners have been recommended for parole or release by the Mental Health Tribunal?

(2)

(a) Of those, how many have been released or paroled?

(b) How many are still awaiting Ministerial approval?

(3) What is the average waiting time between the Mental Health Tribunal recommending release and prisoners being released?

Answer:

(1) and (2) (a) The Mental Health Review Tribunal makes recommendations to the Minister for Health about the detention, care and treatment of forensic patients.

(2) The Tribunal may recommend the release of a forensic patient, subject to conditions, or unconditionally, where satisfied that the safety of the patient or of any member of the public will not be seriously endangered by the person's release. Forensic patients fall into three main categories:

- Persons found not guilty by reasons of mental illness;

- Persons found unfit to be tried;

- Correctional centre inmates who become mentally ill and are transferred to hospital for treatment.

The Mental Health Review Tribunal has now been in existence for over eighteen years.

Searches of individual patient records would be required in order to respond to the question in the level of detail sought. To do so would substantially and unjustifiably divert public resources away from the exercise of core functions.

(b) As at 16 November 2004, there were six persons with recommendations for release being considered. These recommendations are at various procedural stages, as required by the Mental Health Act.

(3) The processes leading to a release differ between the categories of forensic patient. However, in all cases, the Minister for Health must first notify the Attorney General and the Director of Public Prosecutions of the receipt of a recommendation for release. Those officers then have a statutory period of 30 days in which to notify of any objection to the release.

Where there are any concerns about supporting a release recommendation, procedural fairness requires that the patient be advised, usually through his/her advocate, and be given the opportunity to make additional submissions. The length of the period over which the release recommendation is considered may be affected by the time taken by the patient and his/her advocate to respond to the invitation to make submissions.

Measures have recently been introduced to reduce the amount of time consumed in consideration of release recommendations

By Paul Corben 24 February 05

Paul Corben
Researcher to the Hon. Dr Arthur Chesterfield-Evans MLC Australian Democrats

Related History:

At the Minister's Pleasure The case of Michael Kelly

In 1996, Michael Kelly, husband and father of two, shot a stranger on the stairwell in his block of units. Michael was terrified the stranger would harm his wife and children.

He was in the grip of a serious mental psychosis when he pulled the trigger. A court found him not guilty of grievous bodily harm on the grounds of mental illness.

That was six years ago, and Michael is still in gaol.

If he had been found guilty, he would probably have served his sentence and been released by now.

Instead, Michael is still struggling with the frustration of prison routine in the mental ward inside Long Bay Gaol. His wife visits him as often as she can, taking along the kids, who are growing up without him.

Michael is caught up in a particularly cruel version of the game of Cat and Mouse. Because he is classified as a forensic patient under the Mental Heath Act of NSW, the Minister for Health is his master, not the Minister for Corrective Services. And the Minister for health will not let him go.

The Act requires a Mental Health Tribunal to review Michael's case every six months. The legal requirements of the Tribunal under the Mental Health Act is to determine if a forensic patient poses a risk to the community if they don't they should not be held in prison

The Tribunal, who themselves are experts in psychiatry, must call expert witnesses, the treating psychiatrist and psychiatric nurses who have observed him for years, his family and others.

For the past two years the Tribunal has found Michael ready to be placed in the community for treatment and rehabilitation. The expert forensic psychiatric team managing him say he poses no risk to the community. The community psychiatric team has repeatedly reported they are ready to take him into care.

His community placement would be subject to a stringent set of conditions. He would be assessed regularly by a psychiatrist, and case managed by staff expert in forensic case management. He would undergo regular drug/alcohol testing, because he will not be permitted to use mood-changing drugs.

Should he show any signs of mental illness or fail to cooperate with treatment, he can be returned to prison under the restraints of the Mental Health Act. Michael has agreed to all these conditions.

Why then is he still in prison? That is the question we put to Craig Knowles, Minister for Health NSW. The Minister sent us an evasive letter but gave us a clue to his thinking.

"I take very seriously decisions with respect to forensic patients. While the Mental Heath Tribunal is responsible for making recommendations the decision to approve or reject those recommendations rests with me.

I must be certain their mental illness is controlled and they no longer pose a risk."

I point to the Canadian experience of concentration of discretionary powers in the hands of government ministers in the name of the so-called War on Terror.

Knowle's use of power is another example of the same trend. The deliberate undermining of professional psychiatric teams by the Minister's refusal to release mentally ill people under his control must end. Craig Knowles must go and his power to decide these matters must be taken away from him.

ED: How did we give one man, one key, to the roll of abnormality without any qualifications to diagnose one single person's integrity, above specialists in the field of psychiatry?

Review of the Mental Health Act 1990 - discussion paper

Submission of the Indigenous Social Justice Association (ISJA) and Justice Action (JA) to the NSW Health Department's

Discussion Paper on the Review of the Mental Health Act.

In addition forensic matters should not be subject to Ministerial Discretion because it is inappropriate use of Parliamentary powers people with positive reports from the (MHRT) Mental Health Review Tribunal for release, conditional release and transfer (for example to allow people with intellectual disability to transfer to jail Disability Units from jail forensic wards) are kept for years unnecessarily in inappropriate accommodation and in jail.

This is a supreme injustice. We also consider, despite legal decisions regarding States, that separation of powers under the Westminster system is a good idea if the current style of democracy exists - the future is unknown but consider Queensland under Joh Bjelke-Petersen.

These situations can be somewhat resolved by following 2003WHO/1991UN principles, and international standards on Human, Civil and other Rights - monthly reviews for involuntary patients and 3 monthly for voluntary; protection of Indigenous ethnic groups and minorities via cultural respect, autonomy, community controlled mental services etc; and removing the Minister's duty and power of sign off on the MHRT decision. As per Q30, less demand (via originally having social/community support and services) for MHRT hearings would increase effectiveness and allow higher frequency.

Rights of review and oversight for patients must not be diminished. The extent of video-conferencing and phone hearings is an injustice (as described in Q30). Accessibility could be increased by employing more members, as there are currently exceedingly few.

Free legal representation must be available by right for hearings before the MHRT for reasons the same as for Magistrates hearings.

We have never heard anyone, from conservative bodies to activists, support the Ministerial Discretion power. It must be discarded.

'Killing Rational' and Prisoner Control in NSW

The prisoners are deprived of all basics and made to earn small things in order to survive. DCS do this until the prisoner's head caves in or self harms. Once the damage is done DCS send them to the Long Bay Mental Health Facility and put them on drugs to control them.

Mental illness and the criminal justice system

Carol Berry, Solicitor – Health Policy and Advocacy, Public Interest Advocacy Centre

US: Mental Illness and the Criminal Justice System

Today, some 283,800 inmates are identified as having a mental illness. This represents 16% of the inmate populations of state and local jails. Jails have effectively become America’s new mental institutions; they house a larger volume of mentally ill people than all other programs combined. However, these inmates rarely receive the treatment that they need and have a right to. The criminal justice system is overpopulated and under equipped to deal with those with psychotic disorders requiring mental health care services.

Relationship Between Mental Disorder And Violence

Similar scrutiny must also be applied to the theory that people with a mental illness are more violent than the general population.

Violence and violent crime are commonly regarded by the public as the domain of the mentally ill (Australian Institute of Criminology, 1990). Public misconception about the true nature of mental illness, as distinct from personality disorder or behavioural disorder, frequently links extreme violence with mental illness. This misconception is enhanced by media depictions of the involvement of the 'schizophrenic' or 'psycho' in violent crime. The Victorian Government's health information website, BetterHealth Channel, gives the following content analysis:

People with Mental Retardation in the Criminal Justice System

How many people with mental retardation are in the criminal justice system?

Based on the 1990 census, an estimated 6.2 to 7.5 million people in the United States have mental retardation. Various studies have suggested between 2 percent to 10 percent of the prison population has mental retardation. Denkowski & Denkowski (1985) found that about 2 percent of all inmates in either state or federal prisons have mental retardation (about 14,000 people). Another study conducted by the state of New York found similar results: between 1.8 percent and 2.2 percent of people with mental retardation were imprisoned (Sundram, 1990). Residential programs that house offenders with mental retardation support another 12,500 people who have been convicted, or suspected of, committing a crime (Noble & Conley, 1992).

Related:

Parklea Prison: No calls for six days
The last calls that were made out of Parklea Correctional Complex by my partner, an inmate in remand at Parklea, was on Wednesday 2 February. The phone lines for the inmates have been out of service to this date.

'Killing Rational' and Prisoner Control in NSW
I'm writing to you regarding xxxx, he has rung me a few times in the past weeks and has been drugged to the max, he rang today twice and could hardly speak to me, he said he was going to ring you and talk to you about it but he couldn't so I told him I would get in contact with you and see what you could do! He has told them he doesn't want the sedatives but they hold him down and give it to him anyway, they have drugged him 4 times in the last 2 days he said.

Prison visits in crisis in NSW
The reason I am writing today is to address a difficult situation that my husband and my family are going through. My husband is currently serving a sentence at Lithgow Correctional Centre in NSW.

Prison boom will prove a social bust
Hardened criminals are not filling NSW's prisons - the mentally ill and socially disadvantaged are, writes Eileen Baldry.

The prison system requires assiduous oversight
As NSW Attorney General Bob Debus noted in 1996: "The kinds of complaints which occur in the system may seem trivial to outsiders but in the superheated world of the prison, such issues can produce explosive results."

Goulburn Jail breaches UN standards
NSW: Greens MP Lee Rhiannon has called on Justice Minister John Hatzistergos to bring Goulburn Jail's Maximum Security Wing into line with United Nations standards, after a prison inmate's covert survey of his fellow inmates revealed problems with rehabilitation programs and basic amenities.

Isolation, psychiatric treatment and prisoner' control
The 2003 NSW Corrections Health Service (now Justice Health) Report on Mental Illness Among NSW Prisoners states that the 12 month prevalence of any psychiatric disorder in prison is 74%, compared to 22% in the general community, and while this includes substance disorder the high rate cannot be attributed to that alone.

Where the Norm is Not the Norm: HARM-U
In the absence of public policy, this paper is an attempt to shine a light through the rhetoric and test for coherency in the policy and function of NSW’s only supermax prison, the High Risk Management Unit. Its present use will be compared with the ‘vision’ flogged by the Premier and the Department of Corrective Services (the Department) at its inception in 2001.

Crime and Punishment
Mark Findlay argues that the present psychological approach to prison programs is increasing the likelihood of re-offending and the threat to community safety.

NSW Greens lose bid to stop jail boss getting more power
She said the regulation represents "shades of Guantanamo Bay", with the Carr government using draconian measures which fed the resentment and unfairness that caused terrorism.

NSW Prisoners' linked to Osama Bin Laden: Ten News
Allegedly Osama Bin Laden issued a "Fatwa" that was posted on an Islamic Website this morning. Osama Bin Laden's demands included visiting NSW prisoners' at the HRMU for Xmas!

Justice Denied In NSW Corrective Services
There used to be a (VJ) or Visiting Justice who would go into the prison and judge any claim or accusation that was made by any prisoner or prison guard. If it were found that a prisoner had offended then punishment was metered out.

Prison guards test positive for drugs
NSW prison visitors banned from using the toilet The visit is only for about one hour and any thing less than that is an insult. If it's proved that a visitor has broken the rules the punishment should apply to them. But collective punishment on all visitors should not be made general when others haven't broken the rules especially if it restricts all visitors from normal human needs like using a toilet.

NSW prison visitors banned from using the toilet
The New South Wales Government has introduced several initiatives to stop contraband getting into prisons they said last Friday. But under the guise of "stricter rules" the department had also introduced banning all visitors including children from using the toilet unless they terminate their visit at any NSW prison after using the toilet.

Carr Govt dramatic increases in the NSW prisoner pop...
Following the opening of the 500 bed Kempsey prison, and a new 200-bed prison for women at Windsor the Council of Social Service of NSW (NCOSS) and community organisations specialising in the rehabilitation of prisoners, have expressed concern....

The ALP's fascist police states
Welcome back Sid-in-knee. Old Falangist Samaranch would surely feel right at home in any number of fascist police states around this wide brown land today. Who needs Franco when you have Beattie, Rann, Carr, Bracks and co. Flamin' fascist fucks the lot of them.

Death in custody: In memory of Scott Simpson
Scott Simpson 34 died in custody on 7 June 2004 leaving behind a child. It is alleged that he hanged himself in a segregation yard at Long Bay Prison Complex. Justice Action has reasons to believe that Scott had been mistreated from the time he was taken into custody and the subsequent events that ensued that led to his sad death. We think that his treatment may well have caused his death.

Doctor Ron Woodham I presume?
"Corrections Health staff provide medical care. However, its staff's authority is essentially limited to making recommendations to corrective services on treatment. Corrective services staff can then decide what treatment can be given."

Sentencing: Violent crime and practical outcomes
In addition introducing restorative justice programs giving the offender a chance to interact with the offended person if they wish and visa-versa. People are not "dogmatic" therefore should be given a second chance opposed to Life means Life!

Government justice not personal justice
Mr Brett Collins of Justice Action said, "Victims should be looked after properly by implementing restorative justice measures and victims should be compensated for their pain and suffering. " However prisoners are entitled to serve their sentences in peace and privacy as well."

You have choses Bob The Barbarian!
New laws to make it difficult for people charged with terrorism offences to get bail have been whisked through the New South Wales Parliament after only being introduced earlier today.

Conditions in the HRMU
Justice Action is trying to obtain documents on behalf of prisoners held in the Goulburn High Risk Management Unit (HRMU) from the Federal Attorney General's Department, Corrective Services Minister's Conference regarding the process described below, in which the Standard Guidelines for Corrections in Australia were adopted. This documentation will help explain the justification for the conditions in the HRMU.

Call for royal commission into NSW prison health system
Mr Tony Ross a social justice activist said yesterday that a royal commission into the health system in NSW should be wide reaching to ensure that the Corrections Health Service is also exposed because of reported widespread cover ups in the prisons health system.

A TOTAL ABUSE OF POWER
We the prisoners at the High Risk Management Unit at Goulburn Correctional Centre would like to ask you for help in receiving equal treatment and opportunities as other prisoners throughout the system. As we are told that we are not in a segregation unit but we are treated as though we are in one.

On the treatment of prisoners at the NSW HRMU
Prisoners sister's letter from her brother: Following our phone conversation some weeks ago I would like to set out a few points on the treatment of prisoners in the High Risk Management Unit at Goulburn (Super Max) (Guantanamo Bay).

Review of Justice Ministers claims about conditions at HRMU
There is no fresh air in our cells only Air conditioning pumped out of an 8 x 8-centimetre vent over our beds. Conditions change with filthy moods of the prison guards. Induction clothing "one set" mostly shorts and a prisoner remains there for two weeks depending whatever suits the staff. If a prisoner shuts up about the abuse, and freezing conditions (Goulburn cold in winter hot in summer taking into account you're housed in concrete) then you may go to units 8 or 9.

Watchdogs slaughtered in NSW
On Tuesday the Carr Government reduced transparency and accountability yet again and New South Wales is in danger of becoming entrenched with cronyism and intimidations with the Carr Labor Government that continues to slaughter the watchdogs.

Escape proof but not so the prisoners mind
Fewer prisoners escape from prison these days because they're "cemented in" by materials that do not break and by legislation that can keep prisoners in jail until they die.

Carr's Castle the real story H.R.M.U.The High Risk Management Unit Goulburn Correctional Centre. A prisoner writes, " I was unsuccessful in my letters to Dr Matthews CEO of the Corrections Health Service on my problem regarding air - claustrophobic effect the cells have on me. Just recently the management decided my injuries are not seriously affecting me so no further discussions are necessary.

Police to uphold law not decide mental health

A diagnosis of mental illness could be made over the phone instead of in person, and involuntary psychiatric patients could lose the right to have their case reviewed by a magistrate, under proposed changes to NSW mental health laws.

The same right taken off prisoner to have internal claims made against them by the corrupt Department of Corrective Services.

EDITORIAL:

Justice Denied In NSW Corrective Services

There used to be a (VJ) or Visiting Justice who would go into the prison and judge any claim or accusation that was made by any prisoner or prison guard. If it were found that a prisoner had offended then punishment was metered out.

The reason for a VJ meant that the wide ranging discretion that the commissioner has in relation to the "Good order and security of the prison" could not be conducted on false premise say because some politician, police or prison guard took offence to a certain prisoner who was unpopular, either politically or personally.

The Ombudsman cannot ask the Department of Corrective Services to prove that some type of internal offence has been committed because under the wide-ranging discretion the Commissioner has there is no clause to force the commissioner to produce such evidence?

Therefore an unpopular prisoner can be isolated at say the (HRMU) High Risk Management Unit at Goulburn Correctional Centre, denied visits, without any fresh air or sunlight, no constructive lifestyle, freezing and starving for as long as the Commissioner of Corrective Services want them to.

The evidence shows that after a prolonged duration the prisoner will either, commit suicide, self-harm or suffer brain damage. Mental illness is then addressed by sending the prisoner to Long Bay Prison Hospital and placed on medication - forced on the prisoner -possibly for the rest of the duration of the prisoner's sentence.

As you can see by the above example this opens the door for police corruption again and you could not only be terrified by police corruption but completely blocked from being able to tell someone about it as has happened in the case of Clover Moore V's Gregory Kable.

Gregory Kable went to Clover Moore to complain about police corruption and police picked up Kable from Clovers Paddington office [abduction] and was drugged and taken to a mental health facility and released three days later by a Magistrate Pierce.

Pierce who claimed the arrest was unlawful based on the fact that Kable committed no crime for posting an article on the parliamentarian's office claiming police harassment and corruption in the highest order!

As well, police and nurses could order emergency medication for involuntary patients without a doctor being present, under options being considered to address a chronic shortage of psychiatrists and judicial officers outside major centres.

Again the police convinced not only the doctor at Caritas Mental Health facility that Kable needed medication but also the nursing staff. But if the case had been examined by some type of forum then the doctor could have been struck off for incompetence. So imagine that a nurse made the very same decision without the doctor? That means the Carr Government would get out of it if found to be derelict for the cost of a nurses reputation.

Beverley Raphael, director of the NSW Health Department's Centre for Mental Health, said changing legislation was not ideal. "We certainly don't pretend that's the principal solution to the shortage of professionals," Professor Raphael said. She added the state would fast-track specialist mental health training for regional and rural doctors.

But NSW could not meet the requirements of the present Mental Health Act - which governs how patients are diagnosed and reviewed - amid a continuing worldwide dearth of psychiatrists, she said.

Also on the table is an expansion of the categories of people who can be detained for extended periods. For the first time, people who are not mentally ill but who have drug or alcohol problems or are in the grip of an acute personal crisis could be held under the same terms as those suffering psychiatric illnesses.

The options are contained in a discussion paper for a review of the act, for which public submissions close on Saturday. A spokeswoman for NSW Health said it was expected draft legislation would be presented to the Health Minister, Morris Iemma, early next year.

Extending ongoing involuntary care to the "mentally disordered" would "effectively supersede the current definitions of a mentally ill person" and potentially erode patients' civil rights, the discussion paper acknowledged. "One concern that is raised by some clinicians is that increasingly broad interpretations are being given to this term to use the [law] as a tool to control difficult or dangerous individuals who, for various reasons, cannot be dealt with by other agencies."

Likewise, the paper pointed out that shifting responsibility from a magistrate to a tribunal for the first review of a person held against their will would "substantially dilute the protections the act currently provides". And a further option to consider extending the 12-hour maximum time a person can be detained before their first psychiatric assessment "makes inroads into the liberties of the patient".

Barbara Hocking, executive officer of the Sane charity and advocacy group, said the proposals put expediency ahead of patient welfare. It was "appalling that because we're offering third-rate services we adjust the law accordingly", she said.

Louise Newman, chairwoman of the NSW branch of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists, said police needed powers to take people to hospital for assessment, but said that should not extend to matters of medical judgement such as describing a person's symptoms to a psychiatrist by phone so that drugs could be authorised. "The issue of police making clinical decisions, we'd be very cautious about ... resource issues are impacting on clinical decision making," Dr Newman said. It was "fundamentally unethical" to compromise recognised standards of patient care because of practical difficulties meeting them, she said.

By Julie Robotham and Nuts 28 October 04

Related:

ASIO, AFP, NSW POLICE, HRMU: THREAT!
COMMUNITY URGED TO RAISE THEIR THREAT LEVELS TO HIGH ALERT! ASIO, AFP, NSW POLICE, HRMU: TERROR CELLS LINKED! LET YOU BE THE JUDGE!

Justice Denied In NSW Corrective Services
There used to be a (VJ) or Visiting Justice who would go into the prison and judge any claim or accusation that was made by any prisoner or prison guard. If it were found that a prisoner had offended then punishment was metered out.

BREAK AND ENTER: NSW POLICE
Police will be able to break into your home without your knowledge and no less than a common criminal not tell their victims that they are doing it.

AFP: The unlikely CRIMINAL
It was born of a bombing and it made its name after a far more devastating act of terrorism. But for most of the 25 years in between, little was known about the Australian Federal Police force or the work it did.

Police offer protection to family following gang rape allegations
The parents of a 14-year-old girl claim their daughter was gang-raped in Sydney earlier this year, and have raised concerns about corrupt policeman Detective Sergeant Christopher Laycock's review of the case.

Policeman draws blank on fake raids
A suspended Sydney policeman has told an inquiry that he has "little recollection" of the details of fake police raids he set up.

Officer planned to kidnap criminals
A senior Sydney police officer who has admitted taking money for tipping off a child porn suspect had also been planning to kidnap criminals and extort money from them, the Police Integrity Commission heard yesterday.

NSW police prosecutor charged with child porn possession
A New South Wales police prosecutor has been charged with the possession of child pornography.

The ALP's fascist police states
Welcome back Sid-in-knee. Old Falangist Samaranch would surely feel right at home in any number of fascist police states around this wide brown land today. Who needs Franco when you have Beattie, Rann, Carr, Bracks and co. Flamin' fascist fucks the lot of them.

You have choses Bob The Barbarian!
New laws to make it difficult for people charged with terrorism offences to get bail have been whisked through the New South Wales Parliament after only being introduced earlier today.

Carr Govt dramatic increases in the NSW prisoner pop...
Following the opening of the 500 bed Kempsey prison, and a new 200-bed prison for women at Windsor the Council of Social Service of NSW (NCOSS) and community organisations specialising in the rehabilitation of prisoners, have expressed concern....

Up there Khasali: Innocent man new bail laws
The New South Wales Supreme Court has asked innocent man Bilal Khazal to increase to amount of surety offered, before the bail is formally continued.

Islamic movement denies links to Al Qaeda
The Islamic Youth Movement has denied having any links to Al Qaeda and says it is considering legal action against the Four Corners program. In a statement released early this morning, the group rejects allegations it is helping coordinate any kind of terrorist network inside Australia and says it is being unfairly targeted.

He was an undercover agent for the blues
He was my journalist, he was working undercover. The fellow knew all of the moves.... He really had me romping, bare footing stomping. He just kept igniting my fuse....

Mamdouh Habib: Taunted and Tortured!
Four Corners [Walls]: Terrorist - or Taunted by the Australian Defence Force who sacked him as a cleaning contractor? Who is Mamdouh Habib? And why was he harassed by the Australian Federal Police? Then tagged and labelled as a spy? Why was he vilified by the community? When he fled to Pakistan how did he end up being tortured in Egypt? And how did he end up at Guantanamo prison camp reserved for the men America calls "the worst of the worst

Putting Your Finger on the Line: Biometric Identification Technology The NSW Department of Corrective Services has progressively been implementing biometric identification technology (BIT) for use on all entrants into maximum security prisons since August 1996. It currently operates in seven prisons in NSW and is scheduled for introduction at Parklea prison later this year. BIT has raised the ire of many community agencies, the legal fraternity and government authorities. Framed examines what the controversy is all about and what the implications of this technology are.

WHY WE SHOULD OPPOSE HOME DETENTION
The ACT Government has drafted a new Bill to implement Home Detention This very discriminatory type of sentence also punishes the family. It is questionable that it has been successful anywhere it has been tried.

Partners in crime - history!
Roger Rogerson, the old hero, who never faced a result in the Lanfranchy, or Huckstepp murders, was let off in my opinion when the New South Wales Government rolled the legal system (deciding what evidence to give the police prosecutor) to have the jury believe the illusion they (the Government wanted to create).Similarly, Peter Ryan facing the Police Integrity Commission for questions about his involvement in the demise of the dysfunctional reform unit. Chess in the court (rolling the legal system).

Clive Small, NSW Inspector Gadget
NSW Police has revived controversial plans for a specialist discriminative squad to tackle the wave of violent crime that has plagued Sydney's south-west for more than a decade.

'Police Integrity Commission' Why do you lie like that?
A Police Integrity Commission inquiry which took more than a year, heard more than 50 witnesses - many of them senior police - and cost millions of dollars, has recommended that no action be taken against anyone.

2,500, crooked detectives? Or a corrupt Government?
The Wood Royal Commission into police corruption. Where did the police learn their trade skills? Led by example perhaps?

Australia's Political Underworld...And their enforcers
The promotion of law and order means money to big business. Profits from insurance, security fixtures, patrol services and the like can only continue to grow if the perceived threat of uncontrollable crime wave escalates. In the past few months there have been many examples of the true nature of our blood thirsty politicians and their sinister attempts to spoon-feed a not so gullible public with their repetitious rhetoric.

Lord Denning
Interesting how a member of the Police Board Mr. Tim Priest would hold grave fears for his safety from dangerouse senior police but fails to name them or have them sacked. Rather Priest resigns as if he had no powers. Could that mean what he was saying is that the Governments are also corrupt?

Black Nexus
The Separation of Powers Doctrine is nowcontaminated witharangeofcolours, now leaving us with a black shirt on a once blue bridge that crossed that thin blue line. The 'Amery and Woodham show'.

A TOTAL ABUSE OF POWER
We the prisoners at the High Risk Management Unit at Goulburn Correctional Centre would like to ask you for help in receiving equal treatment and opportunities as other prisoners throughout the system. As we are told that we are not in a segregation unit but we are treated as though we are in one.

Police Chronology 1994-2001
View events in the NSW Police Force since the Wood Royal Commission began in 1994. 1994 May Justice James Wood is appointed Commissioner of the Royal Commission into the NSW Police Service ('WRC').

International:

Govt tests airport security eye scanner
Technology that identifies people by scanning their eyes could be introduced into Australian airports as early as next year.

law and order days over, says Blair
Their 3D-iD system is ideal for both stationary assets, such as large physical inventories or for mobile assets like people and portable equipment.

Fingerprints now required for US visas
United States consulates in Australia have begun taking fingerprints from Australians applying for visas.

I won't be a criminal for you!
The only looming rules are for fools giving up personal details to the Devil in the first place when visiting the US.

Welcome to the MatrixB
US - In what civil liberties advocates call the most massive database surveillance program in US history, the Multistate Anti-Terrorism Information Exchange, or Matrix, continues to compile billions of records on law-abiding citizens and receive federal funding, despite public outcry and suspicion.

At the Minister's Pleasure The case of Michael Kelly

In 1996, Michael Kelly, husband and father of two, shot a stranger on the stairwell in his block of units. Michael was terrified the stranger would harm his wife and children.

He was in the grip of a serious mental psychosis when he pulled the trigger. A court found him not guilty of grievous bodily harm on the grounds of mental illness.

That was six years ago, and Michael is still in gaol.

If he had been found guilty, he would probably have served his sentence and been released by now.

Instead, Michael is still struggling with the frustration of prison routine in the mental ward inside Long Bay Gaol. His wife visits him as often as she can, taking along the kids, who are growing up without him.

Michael is caught up in a particularly cruel version of the game of Cat and Mouse. Because he is classified as a forensic patient under the Mental Heath Act of NSW, the Minister for Health is his master, not the Minister for Corrective Services. And the Minister for health will not let him go.

The Act requires a Mental Health Tribunal to review Michael's case every six months.The legal requirements of the Tribunal under the Mental Health Act is to determine if a forensic patient poses a risk to the community if they don't they should not be held in prison

The Tribunal, who themselves are experts in psychiatry, must call expert witnesses, the treating psychiatrist and psychiatric nurses who have observed him for years, his family and others.

For the past two years the Tribunal has found Michael ready to be placed in the community for treatment and rehabilitation. The expert forensic psychiatric team managing him say he poses no risk to the community. The community psychiatric team has repeatedly reported they are ready to take him into care.

His community placement would be subject to a stringent set of conditions. He would be assessed regularly by a psychiatrist, and case managed by staff expert in forensic case management. He would undergo regular drug/alcohol testing, because he will not be permitted to use mood-changing drugs.

Should he show any signs of mental illness or fail to cooperate with treatment, he can be returned to prison under the restraints of the Mental Health Act. Michael has agreed to all these conditions.

Why then is he still in prison? That is the question we put to Craig Knowles, Minister for Health NSW. The Minister sent us an evasive letter but gave us a clue to his thinking.

"I take very seriously decisions with respect to forensic patients. While the Mental Heath Tribunal is responsible for making recommendations the decision to approve or reject those recommendations rests with me.

I must be certain their mental illness is controlled and they no longer pose a risk."

I point to the Canadian experience of concentration of discretionary powers in the hands of government ministers in the name of the so-called War on Terror.

Knowle's use of power is another example of the same trend.The deliberate undermining of professional psychiatric teams by the Minister's refusal to release mentally ill people under his control must end. Craig Knowles must go and his power to decide these matters must be taken away from him.

By Tony York 11 December 2002

ED: How did we give one man, one key, to the roll of abnormality without any qualifications to diagnose one single persons's integrity,above specialists in the field of psychiatry?

Related:

EX-PRISONER UNEMPLOYMENT: SENTENCED FOR LIFE
Name removed by request served time in prison decades ago. Shes still being punished today. According to commonwealth and state legislation, ex-prisoners applying for jobs must declare any conviction that fits into the following categories: less than 10 years old, more than 10 years old but served more than 30 months in prison.

ARE YOU INNOCENT?
The Australian Law Reform Commission had recommended that the Innocence Panel be independent and have the power to investigate alleged miscarriages of justice.

NSW Department of Corrective Services attack right to privacy
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Litigants are drowning: in the High Court
There were so many self represented litigants appearing in the High Court that more than half of its registry staff's time was taken up in dealing with them. The "go it alone" litigants have to take on tasks well above their qualified league causing them stress. This growing problem cannot be left unchecked.

Everyone wants to get out of 'jail' but 'Framed' wants life: Rotten Ron on the ropes On 2 May 2002, Justice Action received a faxed letter from Manager of DCS Operations Support Branch saying that, in his view, articles in Framed edition #42 'lack balance and integrity' and he is therefore 'not prepared to recommend this issue of Framed for placement in to correctional centre libraries.' Prisoners and those concerned about prisoner issues have very few sources of information.

Methadone addicts formed within: 'NSW Prisons'
The New South Wales Opposition has accused the State Government of turning jailed heroin users into Methadone addicts.

Murder charge first for DNA data bank link, but not the same as solving the murder Mass DNA testing of prisoners has [allegedly] led to the first NSW case of a person being charged with a previously unsolved murder as a result of a controversial gene-matching data bank.

Medical Records: Alex Mitchell's lost world
Perhaps we can get your medical report and spew it around publicly so you can see how it feels. But surely we do not have to go that far. And of course we are law-abiding citizens and I should think it would be enough to remind you of your ethics to report at all.

Prisoners can prove innocence for $20?
Les Kennedy Daily Telegraph reported today that" Prisoners who believe that DNA will prove they were wrongly convicted will have the chance to prove their innocence for a mere $20 administration fee. The move comes 20 months after NSW inmates were asked to provide DNA for comparison with a databank of DNA from unsolved crime scenes for possible convictions.

NSW opposition pledges review of detention laws
A spokesperson for Justice Action Ms Anal Advice said " NSW Prisons are a sex offence if you have been raped, bashed and squatted down to be strip searched. People should be diverted from going there at all material times".

Civil libertarians condemn planned changes to prisoners' privacy rights The New South Wales Government is using a recent case involving [framed] serial killer Ivan Milat to justify its decision to remove the privacy rights of prisoners. But really just another attack on Ivan Milat from Parliament House.

RESTORING TRUE JUSTICE:
Australian prisons are fast becoming the new asylums of the third millennium. The prison industry is booming, while Australia spends far less on mental health services than similar countries.

The punishment: Is the 'crime'
The punishment is the crime according to retired chief Justice of the Family Court of Australia Justice Alistair Nicholson. "Smacking a child ought to be seen as assault".

Mr. & Mrs. Mandatory Sentencing
Well congratulations to the bride and groom. Could you please be upstanding and raise your glasses for Mr. And Mrs. Mandatory.

Just wipe your arse on Ivan again Minister?
Mr Amery Minister for Corrective services has a problem with finding a toilet roll to wipe his bottom. Justice Action is appalled at the attacks by Amery and others in parliament on Ivan Milat's right to privacy and their attacks on the Privacy Commissioner and his office.

NSW prisons - primary industry bailed up!
In many quiet regional centres around NSW there is a new primary industry shaping up. It has something to do with Bail but not with bales. The minister for Agriculture Richard Amery who also has the prisons portfolio is now committed to farming prisoners.

NSW Parliament Bitter Pills To Swallow?
One delusion pill: So people who investigate their own mistakes make sure there was no mistake or someone else made the mistake. Perhaps you're not biased and you will be honest about it.

The Government is likely to abolish the Inspector General of Corrective Services position The Mulawa inspection report recommendations below strictly illustrate how important he is.

Black Nexus
The Separation of Powers Doctrine is nowcontaminated witharangeofcolours, now leaving us with a black shirt on a once blue bridge that crossed that thin blue line. The 'Amery and Woodham show'.

Prison Mind Games-Do they exist?
Directives are given inside the prison system that are not consistent with the law in NSW. And not in the good interests of the health and well being of the prisoners.

Chronology - A History of Australian Prisons
[Allegedly:] The events that have shaped NSW prisons - from convict days through royal commissions, to the Supermax of today. [I say allegedly because no one should trust Four Corners [Walls], why? Because they spill out the propaganda of the day for the Government, whether it be wrong or right. A government that lies and has no remorse about it.]