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Thinking Outside the Cell
Defined Terms
Baker's Dozen Problems
Articles & Reports - Bibliography
The above Daily Telegraph advert asserts that
58 inmates in NSW jails have been 'tagged'
Never
To Be Released.
What is the rationale for keeping alive
Sadistic, Brutal, Premeditated, Unprovoked Murderers
at a cost to the taxpayer of $175,000 per inmate p.a.
in a tiny steel cage in
Maximum Security Incarceration that
Documented Reports/Journals/Articles
by prison
appointed psychologists and psychiatrists deem
Never
To Be Released because of
their unstable mental states and previous
Sadistic, Brutal, Murders, thereby deemed a risk to society?
The
Marshall Project reports that most
Lifers deemed never to be released are dying
a thousand deaths; experiencing a manic depressive QOL.
The
Huffington
Post article
chronicles
the mental state of many Lifers in U.S. jails and the futility of such
permanent incarceration, in lieu of traditional execution.
A 'Negative Prisoner Mindset' due to Facing A Long Prison Sentence, Exacerbated By Associating With
Other Criminals
evidences that the QOL of most prisoners 'inter alia' that face a
Life Sentence
is manifestly low, many understandably suffer manic depression. How
could there be any QOL with the prospect of being caged indefinitely?
Life Sentence (What is a life sentence?)
provides a welter of statistics of the heinous
crimes that warrant a Life Sentence and the various determents of what tenure a Life
Sentence entails which varies from States and Territories.
It may appear callous to some, but psychiatric
Documented Reports/Journals/Articles
evidence
that Australia's most heinous murderers are 'better off dead'.
History evidences that the proponents that "society has moved beyond Capital Punishment" have NEVER appraised the QOL of the humans that they
are prepared to
allocate
$150,000 p.a. per inmate Admin Cost and $25,000 pa in Capital Works
costs to keep alive in a small steel cage.
Canada has led the way in
considering the rights of prisoners to request 'assisted dying' in
countries that have sanctioned 'assisted dying'. Below are two
pertinent extracts from the
Dalhousie University, Canada paper Assisted dying for prison populations: Lessons from and for
abroad - Aug 20, 2019:
Currently, 15 jurisdictions allow the practice of assisted
dying. Six of these jurisdictions are countries (Belgium, Canada, Colombia,
Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and Switzerland).
Eight are jurisdictions within
the United States (California, Colorado, the District of Columbia, Hawaii,
Montana, Oregon, Vermont, and Washington) and one is a state in Australia
(Victoria).16
The prison context is not mentioned in any assisted dying law in any
jurisdiction with the exception of Canada.17
No law explicitly excludes prisoners from accessing assisted dying or describes
a different legal framework for assisted dying that is specific to prisoners.
We
found no official guidelines specifically regulating assisted dying in prisons
in any permissive jurisdiction, with the exception of Canada.18
Once assisted dying has been decriminalized, in many
jurisdictions, it must be made available to a country’s prison population
because of the principle of equivalence of care. This principle establishes that
a country’s prisoner population must be provided with health care that is
equivalent to what members of that country’s general population receive.19
This principle has received international recognition and is included in the
Standard Minimum Rules for the Protection of Prisoners (known as the Mandela
Rules), one of the main United Nations guidelines for the protection of
prisoners.
Mindful of the lead taken by
Belgium, Canada, Colombia,
Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and Switzerland, eight states in the USA and
Victoria Aust, and mindful that
many
Lifers deemed
never to be released are dying a thousand deaths; experiencing
a manic depressive QOL,
the Australian Govt. should legislate that each inmate
convicted of
a
Sadistic, Brutal, Heinous, Unprovoked Murder/s
and is incarcerated in a maximum security jail
who
has been identified as
Never
To Be Released
should be required to complete a statutory declaration every two years that
s/he declines an offer to be euthanized (assisted dying) by lethal injection. Just as dogs,
cats, horses etc are euthanized when their QOL materially reduces, humans should
be afforded the same dignity when their is no prospect of improved QOL.
Such inmates should also have the right to request euthanasia by lethal
injection at any time in
between the formal written approach every two years.
Below is evidence of manic depression and efforts
to suicide by seven of Australia's most notorious and vicious murderers:
*
In the cell next to him is a rangy Lebanese boy with a Mohawk haircut and a
chest full of tats. I recognise him, too. In April last year he was moved from
Kempsey Prison to the Goulburn's SuperMax after he
bashed his cellmate, doused him in boiling water and carved “E4E” (eye for an
eye) into his forehead. His victim was a former Australian army
reservist and it’s believed this was an ISIS-inspired attack. Certainly it was
enough to get him transferred to SuperMax, where he has since been charged with
plotting a terror attack on Bankstown Police Station. He also allegedly
threatened to cut off the head of Peter Severin, the NSW Corrective Services
Commissioner. He sweeps the floor and glowers at us malevolently.
*
On 26 January 2009, Ivan Milat cut off his little finger with a plastic knife,
with the intention of mailing the severed digit to the High Court. He was taken
to Goulburn Hospital under high security; however, on 27 January 2009 Milat was
returned to prison after doctors decided surgery to reattach the finger was not
possible. Milat had previously injured himself while imprisoned in 2001,
when he
swallowed razor blades, staples and other metal objects. In 2011, Milat
went on a hunger strike, losing 25 kilograms in an unsuccessful attempt to be
given a PlayStation.
*
Martin Bryant
attempted suicide on 25 March 2007 by slashing his wrist with a
razor blade. On 27 March he cut his throat with another razor blade and was
hospitalised briefly. As of 2015, Bryant is housed in the maximum-security
Risdon Prison near Hobart. Whilst in prison Bryant was diagnosed with
having borderline intellectual functioning, Asperger syndrome and antisocial
personality disorder.
*
As of 2006, Peter Dupas is serving his sentences between the
maximum security protection unit of Port Phillip
Correctional Centre, at Laverton[21] and HM
Prison Barwon in Lara, a northern suburb of Geelong. He
has attempted suicide several times while imprisoned.
*
Anita Lorraine Cobby was
a 26-year-old Australian registered
nurse and beauty
pageant winner
who was kidnapped, sexually
assaulted and murdered while
walking home from Blacktown railway station after
dining out with two Sydney Hospital colleagues
in Surry Hills, New
South Wales,
just before 10p.m. on 2 Feb 1986. Two days after being
reported missing, Cobby's body was discovered on a rural
farm in Prospect.
Investigations led to the arrest of five men (John
Travers, Michael Murdoch, Michael, Garry & Leslie Murphy)
who were later convicted of her abduction, rape and
murder on 10 June 1987 and each sentenced to life
imprisonment,
without the possibility of parole,
on 16 June 1987.[1]
*
Mad, bad and too dangerous to go free:
Rebecca Butterfield, 41, stabbed a fellow inmate 33
times, slit her OWN throat, stabbed a guard in the face and once head butted a
wall until her skull cracked
"Rebecca Butterfield
was charged with grievous bodily harm after that incident and was serving a
non-parole period of three years when she killed a fellow inmate Bluce Lim-Ward in 2003. Butterfield's violent history began at the age of 21
and she has been diagnosed with several personality disorders - pictured is
Silverwater Women's Correctional Centre where she will continue her
sentence. Justice Stephen Rothman justified his reasons for extending her jail
sentence claiming an unsupervised Butterfield is a risk.
'The
combination of disorders and psychoses suffered by the defendant and
her history of criminal violence leads inexorably to the view that
if unsupervised this defendant would more likely than not commit a
serious violence offence,' he wrote.
He also noted that Butterfield's suicidal tendencies are a deliberate
attempt to lure officers to her cell and injure them.
'There is
evidence that some of the defendant's threats of self-harm or
engagement in self-harm are premeditated for the purpose of forcing
officers to enter her cell and enabling her to increase her
opportunities for violence against the officers.'
Butterfield has been diagnosed with mental health problems including several
personality disorders."
*
Paul Haigh murdered six innocent people in the late 1970s in a
series of shootings and stabbings, including a 10-year-old boy.
"Earlier, Haigh
cross-examined psychiatrist Dr Yvonne Skinner and challenged her
view that he did not have borderline personality disorder.
Haigh cited a
number of serious instances of self-harm in prison, but Dr
Skinner told the court she believed his actions were carefully
thought through, rather than impulsive.
But she said she
was concerned he might behave impulsively and aggressively if he
was released, particularly in light of his drug use.
She said that
drug use would reduce his chances of proper reasoning and
judgement in heated situations."
*
John Wayne Glover was an English-Australian serial
killer convicted
of the murders of six elderly women (aged from 60 to 93), over a period of 14
months from 1989-1990 in Sydney's North
Shore. The fact that the victims were all elderly women, led to Glover attaining
the nickname by the press as the "Granny Killer". Following his arrest in
1990, he admitted to the murders and was sentenced to consecutive terms of life
imprisonment without the possibility of parole.
He committed suicide by hanging himself in prison on 9 Sept 2005.
*
David John Birnie and Catherine Margaret Birnie were an Australian
couple who were serial killers. They murdered four women
ranging in age from 15 to 35 in their home in the 1980s,
and attempted to murder a fifth. These crimes were referred
to in the press as the Moorhouse murders, after the Birnies'
address at 3 Moorhouse Street in Willagee, a working class
suburb of Perth, Australia. They
murdered Mary Neilson, 22, Susannah Candy, 15,
Noelene Patterson, 31 and Denise Brown who was
21. David
Birnie was found dead in his cell at Casuarina Prison on 7
Oct 2005. He committed suicide by hanging; he
was due to appear in court for the rape of a fellow prisoner
the next day.
*
Deaths in custody: ‘I’m homicidal, I’ve told them that for days’
- Crikey -
June
01, 2011
"Careless or inappropriate jail or cell placement has contributed to at
least 20 deaths in NSW prison custody in the past decade, according to a
Crikey
analysis of coronial reports. In three of those cases, inmates were
killed by a cell mate whom prison authorities had previously identified
as dangerous, violent or even homicidal."
What Death Penalty Opponents Don’t Get
- Huffington
Post - Dec 01, 2014
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