Officers instruct the woman to return to her cell. She demands her telephone
call and does not comply with staff instruction to walk to her cell. She is held
on the floor, with one officer holding her head, a second officer holding her
right arm, a third holding the left arm and a fourth holding her legs. She is
moved back to her cell where she discovers that her TV had been taken away
by staff. She refuses staff instruction to get down on her knees so that her
cuffs could be removed, and another use of force ensues. Officers exit the
cell, and the woman is charged with an assault. She does not get to speak to
her children at that time.
The paperwork accompanying this incident, as with other incidents, was
appropriately completed, signed-off and filed. It is noteworthy however that the
main ‘lesson learnt’ identified in the Debrief Report was a need for a refresher
course on applying mechanical restraints, with no further reflection on events
following the initial incident. The women’s perspective on the incident was not
recorded or incorporated into the report.
“Decisions to, for example, remove items from a woman’s
cell or to forego a scheduled telephone call were made
in an arbitrary manner, often at the cost of further
aggravating an already fragile situation.”
This review’s case-by-case analysis found little evidence of efforts at conflict
resolution or discussion between the women and staff. As noted above,
deviation from the strict, disciplinarian rules, was responded to immediately and
harshly. This meant that the women, and perhaps also staff, were more likely
to be entrenched in their positions. As one woman said, “you get pushed into a
corner, and you don’t know what to do. No sit-downs with staff, just to talk over
things, get it out of the system”.
It is difficult to see how such a confrontational approach is conducive to
changing attitudes and behaviours and improving relationships. It is also unclear
how withholding family contact or access to means for the women to maintain a
clean environment, is necessary or desirable.
Finally, the limited access to programmes has meant that women at the
Management and Separates Units could not access “interventions and services
that meet their unique risks and needs” in line with Corrections’ Change Lives
Shape Futures, nor could they demonstrate good behaviour which would assist
in reducing their security classification.
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