Mentally impaired Indigenous people held in Northern Territory jails

The Aboriginal Disability Justice Group has come out claiming that at least seven severely mentally impaired Indigenous people are currently being held in maximum security prisons in the Northern Territory, as there is “nowhere for them to be released which is safe and secure.”

This comes as a result of legislation introduced in 2002, allowing mentally ill patients to be detained indefinitely under custodial supervision orders. The group has now launched a campaign to raise awareness of the legislation, and is filing actions with the Australian Human Rights Commission and the Federal Court of Australia to have the practice banned.

Meanwhile, an ABC Radio story has labelled conditions in Northern Territory jails as “third world,” and claimed that “overcrowding has reached crisis point.” Principal legal officer at the Central Australian Aboriginal Legal Aid Service, Mark O’Reilly, spoke of one mentally ill man housed within the maximum security block because “there’s no designated psych unit within the prison… the rationale behind that is that it’s for his own and other people’s safety.”

Northern Territory Attorney-General Delia Lawrie has responded to the concerns, saying that a secure mental health facility is slated for construction next year as part of the new Darwin prison precinct. Furthermore, amendments to the Criminal Code will allow a court to make custodial supervisions orders committing mentally ill people to places other than prisons – for example, to residential facilities.

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