Oral History Interviews Spotlight People With Disability Australia miragenews.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from miragenews.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Disability RC hears how criminal justice system fails people with disabilities
Content warning: Descriptions of abuse Melanie at that stage was dressed in a safety smock. She had a big lump on her forehead. There was blood on her forehead, which seemed like fresh blood. There was dried blood down the front of her smock. And her room was bare. There was sort of sofa without a back or ottoman that was long, perhaps a little bit longer than this table, maybe a little more narrow, that was covered in a brown vinyl. The thing that stood out to me the most about that room is that Melanie had graffitied the room with her own blood. The smell of dried blood mixed with body odour and the sight of that graffiti is something that will be with me until the day that I die.
Mr Thomas explained his disability meant he had trouble making decisions.
He also has epilepsy and told the hearing that sometimes his medication would be taken from him in jail. It s always been a struggle to get back to society after being in prison, he said.
Things turned around when he met a lawyer from Shopfront Youth Legal Centre who would remind him when he needed to be in court and explain orders to him, commissioners were told.
He was last sent to prison in 2004 and said another lawyer from Intellectual Disability Rights Service helped waive the fines that had built up to about $8,000.