Escalation in Persecution with Transfer to High-Dependence Unit

After having spent most of the last 18 months in a single cell in Yatala Prison B Division, on 5th March 2024 I was transferred to HDU (high-dependence unit) without explanation. My quality of life is much lower on HDU compared with B. The many disadvantages of HDU include:

• there are no single cells; some cells have as many as five prisoners per cell;

• prisoners can only spend $50/wk compared with $80/wk per cell;

• many items are not available for purchase at HDU including peanuts, one of the few things I can eat without experiencing a rise in plasma glucose (I am diabetic [type 2]);

• no access to a gym, table tennis and large grass area for exercise, an important treatment for type 2 diabetes;

• no contact with friends made during 20+ years in goal. These friends will not make it to HDU in my lifetime;

• prisoners are not given their own laundry bag and never know what clean clothing will be available;

• psychotic prisoners yelling and banging doors, harming themselves and having to be taken away in the middle of the night;

• no access to a microwave. We get apples four days a week. Because of bad teeth I can't eat apples unless they've been softened by cooking in a microwave. It is the same for many prisoners and there is usually a cardboard box full of uneaten apples in the dining area;

• TVs on the unit are rejects. They do not allow the correct time zone to be set - the time displayed is 6.5 hours out. It is impossible to set the correct aspect ratio and circular objects appear oval. No information is displayed about the selected program including title, start and finish times. Request for a replacement TV have been ignored;

• prisoners are lucky to get razors three times a week compared to every day on B;

• the unit is locked down two to three days a week during which there is no telephone access;

• the shower drains keep getting blocked every six weeks or so and it can take several days to get the plumber to unblock them.

It is the second-worst place in the goal after G Div, the punishment unit.

After repeated requests to unit officers for an explanation for my transfer and calls to DCS Complaints, I was eventually seen by Ms Zulian, Manager Mental Health, HDU on 10th April 2024. She said I had been transferred because of 'complaints by prisoners about your foot', and added that HDU cells had their own showers. I explained that my foot had healed, that I did not need a shower in my cell, and that there was no basis for any complaint about my foot. When I offered to show her the healed area; she said 'I don't need to see it...we can put you anywhere we want...if we say you'll be in HDU that's where you'll stay.' She didn't want to see that there was no problem with my foot because she wanted to use it as a pretext for the transfer.

There are three groups of prisoners in HDU; younger prisoners with psychiatric disorders; old frail prisoners with walking frames or in wheelchairs; prisoners who need special care eg. continuous oxygen. Most of these are happy to be in HDU where they do not face the risk of being assaulted or stood over as they would in the general population. I have never been mentally ill. I am 68 years old but I am not frail. I wear normal shoes and walk unassisted at a normal pace, including up and down stairs. I am not receiving any medical treatment. In no way can I be categorised as 'high-dependence'. I would much prefer to be in B Div. than suffer the poor quality of life in HDU.

Not only is being in HDU unpleasant, it is also detrimental to my health. Low-carbohydrate/high-protein diet and exercise are important in the treatment of type 2 diabetes. With a buy limit of $50/wk I can't buy enough protein to substitute for carbohydrate and keep my plasma glucose down, and I don't have access to exercise options effective in lowering mean plasma glucose, such as resistance training.

The recent escalation in my persecution followed my appeal against sentence on 16th August 2023. The next day the media reported my claims that the gaol water had caused me visual loss and that Tobin had tried to have me killed in 1994. On 22nd August 2023 I was transferred against my will to James Nash House, a psychiatric unit operated by D.C.S. In 20+ years of gaol I have never harmed myself or threatened to, never engaged in any violent act, threatened anyone or been found with a weapon. Even though I didn't say anything or behave in any way that could be interpreted as evidence of mental illness, I was placed under an inpatient order and kept in JNH. As my appear against the order was about to be heard, the order was revoked. However I was told that a guardianship order would be sought on the grounds that my refusal to comply with prescribed treatment for my foot was the result of 'delusional beliefs' which prevented me from becoming properly informed about my medical conditions thereby making decisions which put me at risk!? In fact my medical training makes me the best-informed prisoner in the gaol re medical conditions. In June 2023 the toes of my right foot were amputated leaving a 6cm x 4cm open wound. The wound required daily dressings and antibiotic treatment. I had to wrap the foot in a plastic bag to have a shower. There was no suggestion then that I needed to be in the infirmary or HDU. The JNH doctor and the surgeon who reviewed images of the foot claimed the wound was necrotic (gangrenous) and therefore required further surgery. I disagreed with this purported assessment and managed the wound conservatively with general hygiene and wound protection. The wound has subsequently healed without dressings or antibiotics proving it could not have been necrotic as claimed by the JNH doctor and the surgeon. These doctors were prepared to lie to try to get a guardianship order, an abuse of process aimed at forcing me to have an unnecessary higher level amputation.

On 30th December 2023 officers falsely claimed my foot was malodorous and told me I would be sent to the infirmary. When I refused I was unlawfully sent to G Div. (punishment unit). The next day a nurse came to my cell wanting to swab the wound for MRSA! It is pointless to swab an uninfected wound as the culture will grow organisms that live on the skin but are not causing infection (including staph aureus). A doctor then wanted to see the wound because he'd been told it had a foul smell. I took off my shoe and sock to demonstrate there was no smell. Next a G Div. officer tried to coerce me into accepting transfer to the infirmary because I was 'a danger to other prisoners' because I had 'MRSA'. The wound was infected in June 2023 but responded to flucloxacillin and has not been infected since July 2023. On 3rd January 2024 G Div. officers walked into my cell, handcuffed me, forced me into a wheelchair and wheeled me into the infirmary. I refused to let the doctors and nurses see the wound to deprive them of the opportunity to give false evidence about the wound in support of a guardianship application like the JNH doctor and the surgeon had done.

On 9th January 2024 I was transferred to B Lower East and placed in the only cell in the unit with its own shower. To create the impression that I presented a danger of infection, for my whole stay at BLE I was not allocated a cellmate, and at morning unlock officers would not come into my cell to perform the routine daily cell check. Some nurses and officers fuelled a rumour among prisoners that I had 'MRSA' hoping prisoners on the unit would force me to accept transfer to the infirmary. I showed the wound to the other prisoners to demonstrate it would present no danger to healthy adults as the organism only spreads by direct contact, does not penetrate intact skin, and would need a portal of entry such as a wound, ulcer, cannula etc to enter the body and cause infection.

The application for a guardianship order was eventually withdrawn.

My transfer to HDU is payback for resisting efforts to place me in the infirmary and successfully contesting the application for a guardianship order. It is punitive, arbitrary, unnecessary, unjustified and unfair. it is the latest of many instances of abuse of power amounting to persecution.