Ms ROSOL (Bass) – Honourable Speaker, I move –
That the House take note of the following matter: violations of the Convention against Torture.
Yesterday, the Custodial Inspector released the Inhumane Treatment in Dry Cells Review. It is the first report of its kind in the nation and it is devastating reading. Dry cells are cells with no water that are designed to retrieve contraband concealed internally. The cells are situated in the reception areas of prison centres. They are lit 24 hours a day, whether by lights within the room or lights outside shining through the observation windows and doors. The only furniture in the room is not even furniture, rather cold stainless-steel benches lining each wall, with mattresses provided at night but removed during the day despite the inevitable lack of sleep from the lights. Some detainees have been held in dry cells for up to 10 days with nothing to do – no television, reading material, paper or pens, nothing.
CCTV monitors people in the dry cell but this is not reliably monitored and there is no intercom for clients to seek help in a medical emergency. This is despite the risk of illness and death as a result of internally concealed drugs. All the while, there is no opportunity for people held in these cells to appeal for a review because they do not have pen and paper to do it and it must be in writing. To add insult to injury, despite these inhumane conditions, contraband is seldom found and what has been recovered was voluntarily handed over. People detained in the Tasmanian prison system have endured treatment that contravenes the Convention Against Torture for no good reason. Preventing contraband from entering prisons is important, but it does not justify the use of what equates to torture in Tasmanian correction facilities.
The Custodial Inspector described the conditions as worse than those imposed on people who have been segregated for disciplinary reasons. The United Nations provides standard minimum rules for the treatment of prisoners. The use of dry cells in the Tasmanian Prison Service contravenes these rules, the very first of which states that:
All prisoners shall be treated with the respect due to their inherent dignity and value as human beings. No prisoners shall be subjected to and all prisoners shall be protected from torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment for which no circumstances whatsoever may be invoked as a justification.
In addition to this, the UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment provides a definition of torture:
The term ‘torture’ means an act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from them or a third person information or a confession, punishing them for an act they or a third person have committed or are suspected of having committed, or intimidating or coercing them or a third person, or for any reason based on discrimination of any kind, when such pain or suffering is inflicted by or at the instigation of, or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an official capacity.
From this definition it is clear that the way dry cells have been used within Tasmania is in violation of the Convention against Torture.
These concerns about human right breaches are not new in Tasmania. They have also been raised in relation to the treatment of youth at Ashley Youth Detention Centre where the commission of inquiry found that children at the detention centre had in the past been subjected to degrading strip searches. As of June 2023, children in Ashley Youth Detention Centre averaged barely more than six hours per day out of their rooms and the practice of keeping children in solitary confinement is in contravention of the convention and the Nelson Mandela Rules.
It is shameful that these practices are used in Tasmania. It is shameful that Tasmanians have been and are being treated in ways that convenes the UN Convention against Torture. It is shameful that we could amend the Custodial Inspector Act 2016 to protect people who report breaches in Tasmania, but the government chooses not to.
This shameful and awful treatment of Tasmanian needs to end. No matter what a person has done, no-one deserves to be treated in this way. The very least we can do is ensure we are complying with the UN conventions against torture. Everyone deserves to be treated with dignity and respect, and we must do better. I call on the Government to take all actions necessary to ensure the rights and dignity of all Tasmanians are protected.
