Early lockdown for prison inmates

By Roger Hanney
Changes to the treatment of mental health inmates at Sydney’s Long Bay Prison Hospital have increased fears for their safety and concern for the quality of their care.
On April 2, inmates and staff informed Justice Action that mental health inmates were now being returned to their cells at 3:30 in the afternoon, rather than the customary 9pm lockdown.
Justice Action (JA) spokesperson Michael Poynder has spoken with staff and inmates of Long Bay since the change was implemented. JA is the lead NGO advocating for the rights of prisoners in NSW.
‘The nurses themselves are being asked to provide more powerful medication to calm these guys,’ Poynder said. ‘They’re dosing them up to calm them down. That in itself is pretty shocking.’
People imprisoned at Long Bay have also written to JA, expressing concern that health professionals are prescribing medication and increasing patient dosages without actually meeting or checking up on patients.
JA argues that the worsening restrictions on already disadvantaged inmates have diminished the quality of care available in the prison hospital, and are likely to increase rates of self-harm and even suicide.
Poynder claims this diminished care is due to the prison authorities’ removal of 28 correctional staff from the hospital area because of funding cuts within ‘The Way Forward’ prisons program of Justice Minister John Hatzistergos.
Emphasising that they could not speak in an official or representative capacity, Corrective Services staff at Long Bay confirmed to City Hub that they believe the removal of staff and resultant clamp down on mental health inmates are cost cutting measures. They confirmed nurses and officers had expressed concern that the worsening conditions would lead to greater self-harm and even suicide among prisoners.
The office for Minister Hatzistergos did not respond to questions regarding this information and the level of funding allocated for prison hospitals by the Ministry of Justice.
A spokesperson for the Department of Corrective Services did comment, saying that mental health inmates are simply being locked down at the same time as other inmates. She added that they are adequately supervised and that ‘there has been no increase in harm or self harm incidents among the mental health inmates’ since the changes were made nearly two weeks ago.
The spokesperson allocated responsibility for questions regarding patient medications to Justice Health, the branch of NSW Health with responsibility for prison inmates.
For more information, see www.justiceaction.org.au, www.mhcc.org.au