WINNUNGA Nimmityjah CEO Julie Tongs is questioning why the ACT government has prevented CCTV footage of an Aboriginal woman, who was strip-searched in front of male prisoners at the Alexander Maconochie Centre (AMC), from being released in the ACT Supreme Court. 

Yesterday (March 10), the ACT government brought in one of Canberra’s most senior barristers to a bail application hearing, with the aim of ensuring that CCTV footage would be kept secret, she said.

Support for the bail application of Julieann Frances Williams, 37, was argued that better medical treatment will be delivered in the community rather than in custody. Her bail was refused today.

The point of contention was over that correctional staff rather than medical staff had to administer treatment inside for the inmate suffering shortness of breath and chest pain after Justice Health Services had warned ACT Corrective Services of the ailments five days before use of force was allegedly applied to Ms Williams.

Following the suppression of the footage of Ms Williams being strip-searched, Ms Tongs suggested that the ACT government is petrified that if made public, it will explode and will reveal the depth of their incompetence in the operation of the AMC.

“The treatment meted out to the Aboriginal woman, the subject of the bail application and the victim of the forcible strip search captured on the CCTV footage, is a brutal illustration of the reality of life for Aboriginal peoples detained in the prison. A reality the ACT Labor/Greens government is determined that the people of Canberra and the rest of Australia not see,” she said.

“There can only be one reason the ACT government is so determined to ensure that you, the people of Canberra, are prevented from seeing with your own eyes how vulnerable Aboriginal women in prison in the ACT are treated.

“What you will see is horrible and it will reveal the government not just for its hypocrisy but the extent of its failure to take seriously the needs of the Aboriginal community of Canberra.

“The incident involving the strip search of this extremely vulnerable, traumatised Aboriginal woman, with serious health issues and a survivor of rape, should be a catalyst for change, not a cover-up.

“This incident demands, as minimum an independent, external investigation. Nothing else will satisfy the Aboriginal community or any fair-minded person concerned to ensure that Aboriginal peoples are treated fairly and equally. As a first step, if the ACT government really does have nothing to hide, release the CCTV.”

Ms Tongs further condemned the AMC as not being human rights compliant.

“The fact that the ACT has the highest Aboriginal recidivism rate in Australia, at a staggering 90 per cent, puts the lie to the claim that the major focus at the AMC is the rehabilitation of detainees,” she said.

“The fact that only one in 10 of all Aboriginal detainees at the AMC do not have prior convictions reveals the extent of the failure of the AMC to rehabilitate, in particular, Aboriginal detainees.

“The sad reality is that there is barely a data set relevant to the welfare or status of Aboriginal peoples which does not reveal the ACT government has either the worst or among the worst record in Australia in meeting the needs of Aboriginal peoples.

“This year’s Productivity Commission report on Government Services reports, for example, [revealed] that the ACT now had the highest Aboriginal incarceration rate in Australia with an Aboriginal person in the ACT 19.4 times more likely to go to prison than a non-Aboriginal person.

“The ACT also has the greatest rate of increase in indigenous incarceration with an increase of 279 per cent in the last decade, which is five times higher than the average across Australia. By comparison, in the same period, the increase in NSW was 48 per cent.”

Woman fights to be released after ‘traumatic’ strip search