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Coroner Calls for Clean Jail Syringes |
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By Rosemary Desmond
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,21085820-1702,00.html
January 19, 2007 07:15pm
Article from: AAP
CLEAN syringes should be available to Queensland prisoners, given the inability of Corrective Services to keep drugs out of the system, the state coroner says.
Speaking during an inquest into the death of a prisoner by overdose, Michael Barnes noted that the inmate also had hepatitis C, and the availability of clean syringes would at least help to control the spread of viral diseases.
Darren Michael Fitzgerald was found dead around 2am (AEST) on June 13,
2004, at the Woodford Correctional Centre, two days after a contact
visit from his girlfriend.
He was serving a life sentence for murder.
Prison officers conducting a routine head count of the unit in which Fitzgerald was housed noticed him slumped at his desk.
A nurse was called and she and the correctional officers entered the cell and found him dead.
The officers saw an orange syringe cap lying on the desk close to where
Fitzgerald's head had been and a small syringe and a needle on the
floor under the desk.
Mr Barnes said an autopsy found Fitzgerald was found to be suffering
from Hepatitis C and that he had a total morphine level at the high end
of the fatal range, and that he had ingested heroin within 12 hours of
death.
Delivering his findings in Brisbane Magistrates Court today, Mr Barnes
said he did not believe any other prisoner or prison officer directly
contributed to the death.
"I am satisfied that Mr Fitzgerald accidentally caused his own death by
unintentionally injecting more heroin than his body could effectively
metabolise," he said.
Mr Barnes said Fitzgerald had a history of drug abuse in prison and had
returned positive drug tests on urine samples on 15 occasions.
There was no compelling reason why the Department of Corrective Services should not issue clean syringes to prisoners, he said.
"In view of the inability of the Department of Corrective Services to
keep prisons drug-free, and in recognition of its obligation to
minimise the spread of blood-borne viruses among the prison population
and those prisoners will come in contact with after release, I
recommend that prisoners be given access to clean syringes," Mr Barnes
said.
He said evidence at the inquest indicated illicit drug abuse remains a
significant problem at the Woodford jail and throughout Queensland
jails generally although there had been an improvement in the past 10
years.
In other findings today, Mr Barnes recommended hanging points be
removed from all prison cells after Leon Mark Carroll was found on
December 1, 2003 by prison staff hanging in the cell in the Arthur
Gorrie Correctional Centre near Brisbane.
He had used a white piece of cloth fashioned into a noose with the
other end tied around bars in the louvre windows above the bunk.
It was noticed that Carroll had rolled up towels and clothing on his
bed under the blanket fashioned in a manner to make it appear that
someone was sleeping in the bed.
A suicide note was found nearby.
Although he had been assessed on entering the prison as "high risk", it
raised the question of why the assessment was later reversed.
Mr Barnes said the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody
had recommended hanging points be eliminated from watch houses and
prison cells.
"The state government accepted that recommendation and committed to implementing it," Mr Barnes said.
"Obviously this had not occurred at the Arthur Gorrie Correctional Centre at the time of Mr Carroll's death."
"I recommend that as a matter of urgency the Department of Corrective
Services cause the cells at the Arthur Gorrie Correctional Centre to be
modified to remove hanging points."
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