A damning Human Rights Watch report released today reveals abuse against people with disabilities, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander inmates, remains commonplace. Prisoners report not only being abused by other inmates but also claim they have been subjected to inhumane treatment at the hands of guards.

In some cases, inmates were forced to wear nappies due to inadequate facilities while others have suffered brutal sexual assaults only to receive poor or no treatment.

Others spent excessive periods in isolation, often as a result of a mental health episode.

The report I Needed Help, Instead I Was Punished: Abuse And Neglect Of Prisoners With Disabilities In Australia calls for an urgent inquiry into the use of solitary confinement.

The 93-page document paints an alarming picture for the country’s most vulnerable prisoners including those with a mental illness.

HRW reveals some inmates spend days, weeks, months and even years locked up alone in detention or safety units. It noted prisoners with disabilities were locked in solitary confinement as punishment for bad behaviour or after a mental illness episode.

The rights group said one man with a mental health condition has spent more than 19 years in solitary confinement, and called for an end to the practice.

It detailed how one prisoner in Western Australia was forced to wear adult nappies because his wheelchair couldn’t fit in the prison’s bathroom or toilet.

“I have to wear a nappy every day. I don’t feel like a man; I feel like my dignity is taken away,” he said.

An Aboriginal prisoner reported urinating into a bottle after having the same problem.

Researchers interviewed 275 people, including 136 current or recently released prisoners with disabilities from Western Australia, Queensland and NSW.

They were given unfettered access to 14 prisons in Western Australia and Queensland and found prisoners with disabilities are often neglected because of staff shortages, a lack of training and limited resources.

SEXUAL ASSAULT SHOCK

The report reveals both women and men have been subjected to sexual abuse. Of those interviewed, 32 reported sexual violence at the hands of fellow prisoners or staff.

Researchers noted that due to stigma and fear of reprisals, sexual violence is hidden and hard to document, but was “ever-present in both male and female prisons”.

HRW found guards were also sometimes the perpetrators of abuse, while others were abused by carers.

According to HRW, some prisoners with high support needs have “prison-carers” where other prisoners are paid to look after them.

In one prison, staff told HRW that six out of eight carers were convicted sex offenders and one of them regularly raped the prisoner with a disability in his charge.

In another case, a prisoner with a cognitive disability described a violent rape, which left him injured and reluctant to report it.

“I was sexually assaulted [by other prisoners],” he told HRW. “I know at least one of them raped me, but I kind of blacked out. I was bleeding, I still bleed sometimes.”

The inmate said he reported it and filled out medical request forms but was told if he went through with it he would spend six months in the detention unit.

Another female prisoner revealed how officers regularly hit on inmates. “They catch you when you’re working by yourself and touch your boobs, bum, or put a hand around your waist. Or they make stupid comments like, ‘You’ve been here a while, you must be horny.’”

RACISM HORROR

HRW found indigenous prisoners suffered appalling levels of racism and humiliating experiences.

One with a psychosocial disability said how he had been tackled and punished for “playing up the day before”.

“The senior officer stood on my jaw while the other hit my head in and restrained me,” he said.

“They said, ‘You don’t run this prison little c**t, we do,’ and they cut my clothes off. They left me naked on the floor of the exercise yard for a couple of hours before giving me fresh clothes. They probably did it to humiliate me. Officers call me ‘black c**t’ heaps of times — it’s normal.”

Inmates were sworn at and regularly referred to by their skin colour by prison authorities, the report said.

Kriti Sharma, disability rights researcher at HRW and author of the report said it was a shocking read.

“Being locked up in prison in Australia can be extraordinarily stressful for anyone, but is particularly traumatic for prisoners with disabilities,” Ms Sharma said.

“The services to support a prisoner with a disability just aren’t there. And worse, having a disability puts you at high risk of violence and abuse.”

HRW said people with disabilities are dramatically over-represented in the criminal justice system in Australia, making up 18 per cent of the country’s population, but almost 50 per cent of those entering prison.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people make up 28 per cent of Australia’s full-time adult prison population with statistics showing those with disabilities are even more likely to end up behind bars, HRW said.

Those with physical disabilities reported humiliating experiences, especially when it came to using toilets and bathrooms.

HRW found that in nine out of 14 prisons, prisoners with physical disabilities had to either wait for access to a bathroom, or else shower, urinate, or “defecate in humiliating conditions because bathrooms were not accessible”.

The report recommends a ban on solitary confinement for prisoners with disabilities and a national inquiry into the issue.

It also calls for screening incoming prisoners for disabilities and providing adequate support and mental health services.

debra.killalea@news.com.au