Community advocates are calling on ACT police to address major gaps in the way they deal with First Nations communities, following the release of a report by Commonwealth and ACT Ombudsman Michael Manthorpe into ACT Policing.
The report examined police engagement with the territory s Indigenous community, focusing on the effectiveness of programs, policies, procedures and training.
We observed a number of gaps in ACT Policing’s policy framework where either no policy or procedure exists, or where an existing policy or procedure was incomplete, the report reads.
There are currently no written policies or procedures for members to reference when conducting a field contact, carrying out an arrest, or referring an individual to the Front Up program or the Police Community Youth Club.
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“Our family’s experience of the interaction between the mental health and the justice systems for our family member was as traumatic as the incident that led to them being held in custody,” says our lead letter this week.
WE write to echo concerns of racism in the Alexander Maconochie Centre prison expressed in Jon Stanhope’s column “The shameful politicians who don’t give a stuff” (CN March 4).
As Canberrans, we struggle to get a voice to be heard, but how do we alarm those who put this in the “way-too-hard basket”?
The case Mr Stanhope outlined was not an isolated incident of strip searching a female detainee in view of male detainees.
AMC. Photograph: Andrew Finch
THE ACT government has wiped its hands clean of any political interference from a Supreme Court bail application that would expose the state inside of Canberra’s embattled prison.
But allegations of human rights abuses inside the Alexander Maconochie Centre already are being investigated as part of an independent review separate from the government.
Lawyers for a female Aboriginal remand prisoner, who was allegedly strip-searched naked by four prison guards hidden from sight wearing full riot gear, have accused authorities of denying her human rights after the act was also conducted in front of male inmates.
AN Aboriginal woman, who vehemently complained over being strip-searched in front of male inmates against her will, is fighting to be released after suffering trauma from the incident at Canberra’s prison.
Support for the bail application of Julieann Frances Williams, 37, was argued that better medical treatment will be delivered in community than in custody from Aboriginal health service Winnunga Nimmityjah.
The application from barrister Peter Tierney needs to prove that either a change or special exception of circumstances are relevant for granting the one-time sexual assault survivor bail that was supported by a report from clinical psychologist Greg Aldridge.