Copyright © 2001 NLThomas
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"Last night, Monday, March 12, 2001, in Hakea prison a young Aboriginal man took his own life. It must be hoped that this death brings processes to bear that have been wanting over the past decade" said Murray Jones the Chair of the Deaths In Custody Watch Committee of Western Australia.

Many questions need to be answered here, but one in particular will certainly be the identification of persons at risk of self-harm, those threatening self harm, and most importantly; the response of the system to these events.

Over a decade ago the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths In Custody noted:

        'The evidence before the Commission clearly establishes that any person who makes an attempt to commit an act of self-harm or who threatens to do so should be presumed to be at risk'....and...'medically untrained persons such as police and prison officers are not in a position to distinguish between threats or attempts which are genuine and those that are spurious: no attempt or threat to engage in acts of self-harm should be dismissed out of hand.'

"The Watch Committee offers its deepest condolences to the family of this man, and we would expect this new government, and its officers, to implement a regime that is infinitely more compassionate than that of the previous government. But not only that, with our shameful history of leading the nation in a per-capita rate of deaths in custody, the prevention of self-harm in custody must be a the top of any list of priorities that the new Attorney General gives to his Ministry of Justice." said Murray Jones.

Murray Jones can be contact by phone: 08-9265-6668 or 08-9265-6644.