By Sean Martin-Iverson
PERTH — On January 25, 18-year-old Neil Holt was found hanging in a Canning Vale prison cell where he was being held awaiting trial for traffic and stealing offences.
According to prison sources, Holt had been violently beaten by prison guards, shackled while in his cell and forced to wear a restraining mask. His parents saw bruises on his body and his father, Ivan Holt, said "he was chained up and bashed, treated like an animal".
Kath Mallott, executive officer of the Deaths in Custody Watch Committee, described WA's prisons as "absolute hell-holes". Amnesty International is planning an investigation into prison conditions and human rights abuses.
"Overcrowding and lack of resources is reaching breaking point for many prisoners. It is absolutely sickening to see the most vulnerable people in the prison system dying, while the premier and attorney general play political games", Mallott said. "Once again, a young man has decided that a noose is preferable to being a remandee in a maximum security prison in WA."
In 1997, deaths in custody reached an average of one each month in WA. There have been three deaths since the start of this year. Watch committee chairperson, Glenn Shaw, told Green Left Weekly there has been no review or change in prison conditions for 10 years. Due to a "rationalisation of services", the numbers of prison staff on the ground have been cut, while top administration has grown.
"Prisoners are the losers. While some staff are genuinely concerned with the treatment of prisoners ... they are a definite minority. Generally, they are over-zealous and power-hungry in their management of people. Neither prison officials nor the justice ministry have a clear understanding of human rights, or the international documents the Australian government has signed regarding the treatment of people in correctional institutions. The use of drugs, shackles and 'observation cells' — nothing more than punishment cells — are meant to 'realign the thinking' of prisoners, to crush their spirit, rather than rehabilitate them."
Shaw said that the watch committee has learned that Holt, after being assaulted, was manacled in his cell while sleeping, which is against international agreements on the treatment of prisoners. The use of a mask is a gross violation of human rights.
The justice ministry has refused to comment on these claims, or to make public the regulations on the use of restraints. The ministry requested that prisons introduce "Hannibal Lecter"-style masks (like the one used in the movie Silence of the Lambs) for use on prisoners who pose a "health risk" to staff. WA prison officers union secretary Ric Stingmore said prison officers rejected the request.
With Premier Court's law and order policies filling WA's prisons beyond capacity, and a prison culture of violent repression, prisons like Canning Vale have become pressure cookers. Too often, as in the case of Neil Holt, the tension and brutality leads to despair and suicide.
On February 7, the state Ombudsman announced an inquiry into why so many prisoners were dying in WA prisons.