there's our catastrophe

Melbourne asylum seekers engaged in a hunger strike could have just days to live, Australian Medical Association president Steve Hambleton said on Tuesday.

The 28 refugees - given negative security assessments by ASIO - have vowed to refuse food and water until their demands for freedom are met. They began their hunger strike on Monday morning.

”Broadly, one can live without oxygen for four minutes, water for four days and food for four months,” Dr Hambleton said. ”Water’s actually an essential nutrient that very rapidly will render a person very, very unwell … with zero intake. You can become very sick very quickly. It sounds like it’s a silent, extreme desperation.”

Dr Hambleton’s comments came as the AMA announced it would recommend to its members they refuse to force-feed detainees engaged in hunger strikes, under new ethical guidelines.

The AMA’s new position binds doctors to respect the wishes of people who have made an informed and voluntary judgment to refuse food. It argues that under these circumstances, forced feeding of hunger strikers ”is not justifiable”.

loneberry:

I upload some articles and linked to some books I’ve read recently (or somewhat recently) on prisons. Feel free to download and share the links with friends. We should have a conversation about this material sometime. Read it and let me know what you think.

Articles

• Asian American…

very long, very good list

leonineantiheroine:

“CHARANDEV SINGH: It’s nightmarish to be frank. It’s nightmarish.
It’s a place full of fear, it’s a place full of distress, you know. Self-harm issues and suicide issues are extraordinary.
The concentration of people with severe mental illness in high security units and supermaxes and management cells is a stain on this country.

SIMON LAUDER: […] And the treatment on offer is grossly inadequate.
The ombudsman found prisoners suffer significantly higher than average levels of hepatitis, depression, sexually transmitted diseases, self-harm and injury, suicide attempts and hospitalisation.
CHARANDEV SINGH: It’s a critical and long-awaited report. It finally shines a light on what imprisoned people and their families and their advocates have been saying for decades now.

…

BRETT COLLINS: Well look, the hep C issue is just amazing. The hep C issue is actually one where we - 60 per cent - 60 per cent of women in fact are infected with hepatitis C.
I’m afraid prisoners’ health has been very much neglected. There’s a sense almost of, you know, sit in there, just accept what happens to you and to be lucky if you get out.

…

CHARANDEV SINGH: I think because they lose their position in their - in the prison they’re in, in terms of employment, in terms of cells, in terms of visits.
It’s a very austere and hectic and maximum security prison setting and to make access to basic healthcare, you know, subject to those kind of conditions and those kinds of regimes is totally unacceptable.
It’d be unacceptable in the community to - to be subject to those kinds of barriers and it’s unacceptable in prison.

…

CHARANDEV SINGH: Prisoners are proscribed from receiving Medicare services, so all the services are paid for and provided by the state.
Questions of cost and profit, you know, attached to every single treatment decision.
SIMON LAUDER: Brett Collins from Justice Action says cultural change is needed.
Prisons need to be more accountable to the community.”

reblogging to read in full later

charandev singh is really great incidentally

(via leonineantiheroine-deactivated2)

leonineantiheroine:

LEXI METHERELL: […]

And despite it being more than 20 years since the Aboriginal Deaths in Custody Royal Commission, the number of Indigenous people being imprisoned is one of the indicators on the rise. In the 10 years to 2010, the rate of incarceration of Indigenous women rose 60 per cent and 35 per cent for Indigenous men.

Robert Fitzgerald is the convenor of the committee which prepared the report. He says a key reason for the rise in Indigenous imprisonment is mandatory sentencing.

ROBERT FITZGERALD: Mandatory sentencing, you know, two strikes and you’re out sort of policies and what have you. If they’re not very carefully applied, will have a devastating effect in Indigenous communities.

LEXI METHERELL: And those on the frontline warn it’s only getting worse. The North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency in Darwin says new alcohol laws in the Northern Territory will only push up the incarceration rate. Priscilla Collins is the agency’s chief executive.

PRISCILLA COLLINS: You know, a lot of the banning notices were concerned that, you know, people are going to come in contact with the criminal justice system as the result of that because, you know, if you’re going to continue to ban someone for drinking, eventually they’re just going to end up coming into contact with the system and then, you know, they’re back in court.

LEXI METHERELL: A new $300 million prison is being planned in the Northern Territory to cope with the growing prisoner numbers, but Priscilla Collins says that’s the wrong focus.

PRISCILLA COLLINS: If you’ve got a drink driver, you just need to send them to jail all the time, I mean you need to address what the underlying issue is. Now I have seen the structure of the new prison and yes it is good in that, you know, when people go there, there are more education programs and rehab programs. But those programs should be available for people outside of the prison. You know, people shouldn’t have to wait till they get to prison to be able to access those services.

“…[from 2000 to 2010] the rate of incarceration of Indigenous women rose 60 per cent and 35 per cent for Indigenous men.”

talk about the myth of progress, aaargh

(via leonineantiheroine-deactivated2)