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Canberra Today 15°/18° | Friday, March 29, 2024 | Digital Edition | Crossword & Sudoku

Stanhope / Failure upon failure as a young man dies

Steven Freeman… our collective failure as a community and as a society, which is all of us, clearly failed him.
Steven Freeman… our collective failure as a community and as a society, which is all of us, clearly failed him.

THE Philip Moss Report, “So Much Sadness in Our Lives”, into the operations of the Alexander Maconochie Centre does not make for pretty reading.

It chronicles the care (in most instances, its absence) and treatment (at times gratuitously or unconsciously cruel) of one inmate, Steven Freeman, a young Aboriginal man born and raised in Canberra.

The report covers the time from his arrest on April 27, 2015, and his vicious bashing at the AMC one day later until his tragic death while still languishing in custody, on remand, over one year later on May 27.

It is a chronicle of failure upon failure of the ACT Justice and Health systems.

It is also, at a deeper level, a vignette of the tragic consequences of the continuing impact of the racism, discrimination and disempowerment endured by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in Canberra.

While the report focuses on serious failings within the ACT government, it also exposes our collective failure as a community and as a society. Society, which is all of us, clearly failed Steven Freeman.

Philip Moss provides a deeply touching account of Steven Freeman’s early life and the challenges he faced. His diagnosis with ADHD at the age of six and the death of a much-loved sister from a heroin overdose when he was 12. The death of his sister coincided with his first contact with the criminal justice system. Steven did not complete year 8 at school and was, by that time, drinking alcohol. He later turned to drugs. What is left unsaid is the response or reaction to Steven’s circumstances at that time from ACT government agencies and publicly funded community services.

The fear is that the cavalier, if not negligent, approach to Steven Freeman’s care and treatment following his arrest and incarceration in April 2015 is emblematic of the care and treatment that he had received from ACT authorities all his life.

A true appreciation of the extent of the failings identified by Philip Moss can only be obtained from reading the full report. I will relate just one episode of the serial bungling identified.

The bungling, in fact, started on the day of arrest when ACT Policing failed to record or to pass on to ACT Corrective Services information obtained from Steven Freeman following his interview by police about the level of his alcohol, ice and other drug use. The inquiry made a formal finding that this failing “was a factor in Steven Freeman’s assault”.

However, during his induction interview at the AMC by Justice Health Services Steven did again reveal the extent of his drug use and his addiction to ice. He advised that his ice habit was costing him about $300 a day. Despite this admission, no ice withdrawal assessment was made, no care plan was developed in the event he would likely experience withdrawal issues, he was not referred for drug counselling or seen by a doctor.

Justice Health, like ACT Policing, also failed to pass the information about Steven’s ice use and addiction to ACT Corrections.

Within hours of his admission to AMC, Steven was severely beaten, almost to the point of death, and taken to Canberra Hospital where he was placed in an induced coma for four days.

However, Canberra Hospital was also not advised that Steven Freeman was addicted to ice and at no time during the nine days of his admission were the implications of his drug use considered in his treatment including following an incident on May 6 when Steven exhibited high levels of agitation and aggression, symptomatic of withdrawal from ice. The response of the AMC and the Canberra Hospital to this incident was to handcuff Steven to his bed.

At no time in the 13 months that Steven Freeman was in the AMC was he offered rehabilitation or assistance or counselling or treatment for his drug use. On the evidence to be gleaned from the report, Steven Freeman, while in the care of the ACT government, was forced to withdraw “cold turkey” from ice and alcohol (and possibly other drugs) with no medical or other assistance.

Philip Moss did not inquire into the causes of Steven Freeman’s death. That is a question that is subject to a coronial inquest. However, it is impossible to not think that the consequences of the failings and shortcomings identified by the Moss inquiry in relation to almost every aspect of Steven Freeman’s care and treatment should not be the subject of consideration by the coroner.

Philip Moss concluded his report with the following two observations: “Narelle King told the inquiry that, upon hearing of Steven Freeman’s death, she sought to be with her son at the AMC but this request was refused. The inquiry notes that this refusal remains a cause of sorrow for Narelle King.

“Steven Freeman was pronounced dead at 11.11am. Narelle King asked the inquiry when Steven Freeman’s body was removed from his cell on the day of his death. The inquiry notes that it was at 4.43pm. Narelle King told the inquiry she remains distressed that her son lay alone for this period in his cell.”

Jon Stanhope
Jon Stanhope.
Jon Stanhope was Chief Minister from 2001 to 2011 and represented  Ginninderra for the Labor Party from 1998. He is the only chief minister to have governed with a majority in the Assembly.

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