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Article 11 requires every State Party to: ‘Keep under systematic review interrogation rules, instructions, methods and practices as well as arrangements for the custody and treatment of persons subject to any form of arrest, detention or imprisonment in any territory under its jurisdiction, with a view to preventing [such treatment or punishment].’ proposed ratification of opcat The proposed ratification by the Rudd ALP Government of the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman of Degrading Treatment or Punishment (OPCAT) requires State Parties to ‘set up, designate or maintain at the domestic level one or several visiting bodies for the prevention of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment – national preventive mechanisms (NPMs)’. 72 In December 2008 the Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) released Implementing the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture: Options for Australia, a report to the Australian Human Rights Commission. 73 This Report argues that the national coordinating NPM must play a ‘proactive, visits-based role, ... be truly independent’ and be based on an existing agency. 74 The Report identifies the AHRC as the appropriate agency but notes that it must be properly funded. As the Report puts it: ‘the evidence is clear that fully accountable detention processes work for the ultimate benefit of the detaining authorities, the persons who work in places of detention and, above all, for detainees themselves’. 75 The recommendations of the AHRC Report and the requirement for an NPM are currently the subject of consultation between the Commonwealth and State and Territory governments. In NSW, the ALP government abolished the position of Inspector General of Prisons in 2003 and has since refused to extend the Ombudsman powers. A NSW Ombudsman official dealing with prisons has confirmed that ‘the Ombudsman does not have the power to conduct unannounced visits into prisons and only has the resources to visit some prisons every two years.’ 76 In addition the role of Official Visitors has been cut back so they cannot initiate their own inquiries and a number of the more independent Official. image unavailable Correctional officers in the exercise yard of the high-risk management unit (HRMU) at Goulburn Correctional Centre NSW, 2001. Narelle Autio, SMH. 72. Committee Against Torture (CAT), First Annual Report of the Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture 29 April-16 May 2008 para 6. 73.
cAse sTudy scott simpson, an inmate who was clearly mentally ill, was held in segregation on remand at the hRMu for almost 12 months, given anti-psychotic medication but no therapeutic treatment. When later he was placed in a cell at the MRRc he killed a cell mate within 15 minutes. two years later he was found not guilty of murder on the grounds of mental illness. two weeks after the verdict he hanged himself in a cell at Long Bay. the report of the coroner is available at http://www.agd.nsw.gov.au/lawlink/coroners_ court/ll_coroners.nsf/vwFiles/simpsoninquest. doc/$file/simpsoninquest.doc see also www.humanrights.gov.au/legal/ submissions_court/intervention/simpson.html ‘supermAx’ Supermax is an American term which has recently gained currency in Australia. In the US something like 25 000 prisoners are in designated supermax facilities, whereas their take up in Europe has been minimal. Australia still has relatively small numbers of prisoners in designated ‘supermax’ facilities such as Goulburn High Risk Management Unit (HRMU) in NSW and Barwon in Victoria. The extent to which ‘supermax’ is presented as something completely new is highly misleading, as it obscures the long history of ‘secondary punishment’, ‘intractable’, ‘punishment’ and ‘segregation’ sections and conditions in Australian prisons from the penal colonies on. The emergence of ‘supermax’ must be put in the context of the particular Australian history of punishment sections, of the ‘prison within the prison’, from places like Port Arthur, Morton Bay, Norfolk Island, through to Grafton, Katingal, Pentridge, Jika Jika, and Goulburn HRMU. An insight into ‘supermax’ practices and into the potential for the ratification of OPCAT to lead to monitoring of conditions in Australia’s ‘supermax’ prisons is provided by the NSW Council for Civil Liberties in its Shadow Report prepared for the UN Committee against Torture, 27 July 2007 and the Concluding Observations of the Committee Against Torture in Relation to Australia, 15 May 2008. The Shadow Report recommended that ‘the State party (Australia) invite the Special Rapporteur on Torture to visit the ‘supermax’ prison within a prison (HRMU) at the Goulburn Correctional Centre’. In an Addendum to the Shadow Report the Council for Civil Liberties later considered the HRMU in greater detail 77 and after setting out a brief history of the HRMU it argued that: > the conditions in the HRMU are having an adverse impact on the mental health of its inmates; > mentally-ill prisoners are being placed in the HRMU under segregation conditions rather than in the specialist acute psychiatric wing of the prison hospital at Long Bay; > those held on terrorism related charges are not, but should be permitted to see the Official Visitor; > there is no mechanism for HRMU inmates to challenge their placement and continued detention in the facility. The courts have no power to intervene and the NSW Commissioner of Corrective Services has suggested that some HRMU inmates will remain in the facility for the term of their natural lives; > there have been allegations of political interference in the running of the HRMU and a constant stream of selective government and departmental leaks from the HRMU to the popular media. The UN Committee Against Torture in their Concluding Observations in relation to Australia stated that it was concerned over the harsh regime imposed on detainees in ‘supermax’ prisons’ and in particular ‘over the prolonged isolation periods detainees, including those pending trial, are subjected to and the effect such treatment may have on their mental health.’ The Committee recommended that the ‘State Party should review the regime imposed on detainees in super-maximum prisons, in particular the practice of prolonged isolation’. 78 The Committee also recommended that the Australian government should advise on what they done about this within one year. 79 The Committee also noted with concern the situation of overcrowding in prisons, the disproportionately high number of Indigenous Australian incarcerated and the continued reports of Indigenous deaths in custody. 77. NSW CCL, Addendum Shadow Report, 2007; available at www.nswcch.org.au/issues/prisoners/hrmu.php 78. Concluding Observations of the Committee Against Torture in Relation to Australia, 15 May 2008 para 24. 79. As above, rec 37. 18 HOT TOPICS 67 > Prisoners
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Prisoners - Legal Information Access Centre - NSW Government

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