Correction Services, People With Disabilities
05/05/2011
The Hon. K.L. VINCENT (14:52): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the minister representing the Minister for Correctional Services questions regarding people with disabilities, including mental illness, being held in our state’s correctional facilities.
Leave granted.
The Hon. K.L. VINCENT: Just last month, our nation heard the distressing tale of a man with an intellectual disability who was held for nine years in Western Australian prisons, despite not being convicted of any offence, or waiting to stand trial. I am sad to say that he is not the only person who was or, indeed, is detained in correctional facilities despite being declared unfit for trial or not guilty by reason of mental incompetence. I must say that this is not only a sad but an outrageous state of affairs.
Recently, I was told of a young man with an intellectual disability who was not guilty by reason of mental incompetence but was, nonetheless, held in a high security cell block at Yatala for his own safety, after no alternative facility was available to house him. This is not surprising, in view of the fact that James Nash House is, seemingly, the only facility that comes close to being appropriate in such circumstances. My questions for the minister are:
- During the calendar years of 2008, 2009 and 2010, how many people were detained in our correctional facilities despite being found not guilty or deemed unfit to stand trial by reason of mental incompetence?
- As at today’s date, how many people are currently detained in our correctional facilities despite being found not guilty or deemed unfit to stand trial by reason of mental incompetence?
- Since January of 2008, what is the longest period that someone has been detained in our correctional facilities despite being found not guilty or deemed unfit to stand trial by reason of mental incompetence?
- Finally, when will the minister make adequate arrangements, such as a forensic disability service, to detain people with intellectual disability who have fallen foul of our criminal justice system?
