The malign misuse of neuroscience.,
by Malcolm DANDO, UNIDIR (UNITED NATIONS INSTITUTE FOR DISARMAMENT RESEARCH)
Disarmament Forum one • 2005 SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY AND THE CBW REGIMES
http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/cat/docs/ngos/NSWCCL.Add.1.pdf
NEW SOUTH WALES COUNCIL FOR CIVIL LIBERTIES
Addendum Shadow Report prepared for the United Nations Committee Against Torture on the occasion of its review of Australia's Third Periodic Report under the Convention Against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.
Australia: Shadow Report of the NSW Council for Civil Liberties (Addendum)
About the NSW Council for Civil Liberties: The New South Wales Council for Civil Liberties (`CCL') is committed to protecting and promoting civil liberties and human rights in Australia. CCL is an NGO in Special Consultative Status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations, by resolution 2006/221 (21 July 2006). CCL was established in 1963 and is one of Australia's leading human rights and civil liberties organisations.
Abbreviations:
ASIO Australian Security Intelligence Organisation
CAT Convention Against Torture & other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment
CCL NSW Council for Civil Liberties
HRMU High Risk Management Unit (at Goulburn Correctional Centre, NSW)
ICCPR International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
MRRC Metropolitan Remand and Reception Centre (Silverwater, Sydney, NSW)
NSW New South Wales
2.1.5 placement of the mentally ill in the HRMU....................9
1. Note on Addendum
A1. On 30 July 2007, the NSW Council for Civil Liberties (`CCL') submitted to the UN Committee against Torture a Shadow Report to Australia's Third periodic report (`the Third Report'). 1 The Shadow Report relates to Australia's compliance with its obligations under the Convention against Torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment (`the Convention').
A2. This document is an addendum to that Shadow Report. It offers further material to support CCL's recommendation that:(2) …the State Party invite the Special Rapporteur on Torture to visit the `supermax' prison-within-a-prison (High Risk Management Unit) at the Goulburn Correctional Centre.
A3. This Addendum relates to the High Risk Management Unit (`HRMU') at the Goulburn Correctional Centre in New South Wales. More information about the HRMU, specifically the placement of terrorist suspects in the facility, is available in CCL's Shadow Report.(3)
A26. The case of Mr Scott Simpson illustrates the plight of the mentally ill in NSW prisons. Mr Simpson, a paranoid schizophrenic, was held on remand in the HRMU for almost 12 months. For a considerable amount of that time, Mr Simpson was held in segregation and denied association with other inmates.
A27. On 30 March 2002, Scott Simpson was refused bail and placed in a cell with Andrew Parfitt in the MRRC, a remand facility in Sydney. Within 15 minutes Mr Simpson had brutally attacked his cell mate, inflicting fatal injuries.(32) Two years later, Mr Simpson was found not guilty of Mr Parfitt's murder by reason of mental illness, based on psychiatric evidence that Mr Simpson suffered from paranoid schizophrenia and was suffering a psychotic episode when he attacked Mr Parfitt.(33) Within weeks of the verdict, Mr Simpson was found dead, having hanged himself, in a prison cell in Sydney's Long Bay Gaol. The corrective services officers who discovered Mr Simpson hanging from the bars of his cell did not immediately attend him or attempt to resuscitate him, because they feared for their own safety if Mr Simpson was feigning his hanging.(34)
A28. Throughout his remand and after, Mr Simpson was never transferred to the specialised `D Ward', the acute psychiatric wing in the prison hospital at Sydney's Long Bay Gaol. Instead, Mr Simpson was kept in Goulburn prison, where he was only given anti-psychotic medication and offered no therapeutic treatment.(35) The Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission detailed Mr Simpson's treatment in this way:(36) In April 2002, Mr Simpson was transferred from the MRRC to the Goulburn correctional centre. He was initially housed in the Multi Purpose Unit (`MPU') at Goulburn where he was placed on consecutive segregation orders.
In April 2003, he was transferred to the High Risk Management Unit (`HRMU') where, for the most part, he remained on a segregation order. The HRMU houses inmates who require a higher level of security and management than can be provided by mainstream maximum security institutions. During the periods 17 June 2003 to 21 September 2003 and 11 October 2003 to 6 November 2003, Mr Simpson was allowed to associate with one other inmate. However, in the later of those two periods, the association took place through a secure barrier. The decision to terminate all associations in November 2003 was made for security reasons, as the Deputy Governor of the HRMU considered that Mr Simpson posed a risk to other inmates.
At the HRMU, Mr Simpson was allowed out of his cell into the `day yard' for 2.5 hours each day and on occasion from 9am to 2.30pm. Again, the `day yard' is an open air caged in area at the rear of the inmate's cell. It is a little larger than a cell, and contains only a
A29. From his HRMU prison cell, in April and May 2003, Mr Simpson wrote:(37) They took all my property. I'm in a cell with nothing. They are trying to blackmail me by saying, `see the sych and take the medication he wants you to take and we give you a radio and TV etc' ? I will talk to sychs just not jail sychs. I will not take any medication as what I am experiencing is due to the fact certain Agencies mainly ASIO are TORCHERING me and all other Inmates with "REMOTE MIND CONTROL". Everyone knows this is no secret. ? I would rather be dead than get this torcher every day 24/7 non stop. The very fact I'm speaking about this shows how despret I am for this TORCHER to stop. They can kill me with what I said by transmitting a compensating demodulated waveform from a remote location witch in tern effects the neurological (nervis system) and any region of the brain, thoughts and emotions with a single measurement. Better known as "REMOTE MIND CONTROL".
A30. The Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission, as amicus curiae, submitted to the NSW Deputy Coroner that Mr Simpson's treatment amounted to inhuman and degrading treatment and punishment: (38) The Commission submits that Mr Simpson's detention in isolation from all other inmates, for almost two years, was not compatible with the standard of treatment required in respect of a seriously mentally ill person detained on remand, and later as a forensic patient. In all the circumstances, the Commission submits that Mr Simpson's protracted detention in isolation from all other inmates was inconsistent with the right to be treated with humanity and dignity within article 10 (1) and the prohibition on inhuman and degrading treatment and punishment within article 7 of the ICCPR.
2.1.8 political interference
A47. Allegations of political interference in the running of the HRMU are often raised. CCL is concerned that this interference is illegitimate and that there is no remedy available to inmates who are adversely affected by it.
3. Notes
(1) NSW Council for Civil Liberties, Shadow Report (prepared for the United Nations Committee Against Torture on the occasion of its review of Australia's Third Periodic Report under the Convention Against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment), 27 July 2007, <http://www.nswccl.org.au/docs/pdf/CAT%20shadow%20report.pdf>.
(2) NSW Council for Civil Liberties, Shadow Report, n 1, [194].
(3) NSW Council for Civil Liberties, Shadow Report, n 1, [184]-[194].
(32) Inquest into the Death of Scott Ashley Simpson (17 July 2006) NSW Deputy State Coroner, <http://www.agd.nsw.gov.au/lawlink/Coroners_Court/ll_coroners.nsf/vwFiles/SimpsonInquest.doc/$file/SimpsonInquest.doc>,1.
(33) Inquest into the Death of Scott Ashley Simpson, n 32, 1.
(34) Inquest into the Death of Scott Ashley Simpson, n 32, 17.
(35) Inquest into the Death of Scott Ashley Simpson, n 32, 10.
(36) Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission, Written Submissions to the NSW Coroner's Inquest into the Death of Scott Simpson (27 June 2006) <http://www.humanrights.gov.au/legal/submissions_court/intervention/simpson.html>, [4.9]-[4.10], [4.13].
(37) Neal Funnell, `Where the Norm is not the Norm: Goulburn Correctional Centre and the Harm-U', n 17.
(38) HREOC, n 36, [4.16].
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