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Legislative Council - Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1)
2011-05-05 Daily Xml
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CORRECTIONAL SERVICES, PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES

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:

1. 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?

2. 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?

3. 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?

4. 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?

The Hon. G.E. GAGO (Minister for Regional Development, Minister for Public Sector Management, Minister for the Status of Women, Minister for Consumer Affairs, Minister for Government Enterprises, Minister for Gambling) (14:54): I thank the honourable member for her most important questions and will refer those to the relevant ministers—it is probably ministers, given that they do cut across a number of different portfolio areas—in another place and bring back a response. However, I would like to make a couple of general comments, given that it is not an area that I have responsibility for.

The honourable member touches on an extremely difficult issue that we face here in South Australia—and it is not just here in South Australia: it is around the nation and also internationally—in terms of having the sorts of facilities necessary to house or facilitate those people with particularly significant behavioural problems, particularly those with severe behavioural problems, that manifest in a way that either pose a significant risk to themselves or a significant risk to others.

Indeed, we attempt, wherever possible, to place these people in the best and most suitable place possible. I would have to accept that we could do more and need to do more. We have committed extra funding to upgrade the James Nash centre. In the meantime, however, we do the very best with what we have and we do attempt, as I said, wherever possible, to ensure that these people are not placed at risk, nor can they pose a risk to other people, and we do attempt to place them in the most suitable and very best facility available to us.

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