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Prison inmate 'was left hanging in his cell'
by Elisabeth Wynhausen
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,17408993-1242,00.html
FOR more than five minutes after they saw Long Bay
prisoner Scott Simpson with a noose around his neck,
hanging from bars in the window of his cell, two prison
officers and a nurse waited outside for a more senior
colleague to arrive and give the order to cut him down.
Yesterday at the inquest into Simpson's death at Sydney's
Glebe Coroners Court, nurse Colleen Murray gave evidence
that when she saw Simpson that evening in June last
year, "I said ... go in, cut him down."
Corrective Services officers Greg McCormack and
Brian Brooke had "noose-cutters" with them, as far as
Ms Murray knew. But one of the officers said "call the
senior first", she said.
Though Simpson looked as if he were dead, they did
not go in to confirm it until the senior officer arrived,
she said.
Ms Murray told Deputy State Coroner Dorelle Pinch she had stood on tiptoes outside
the double-locked doors of the cell to peer at Simpson through the slot in the door
and through the locked perspex door beyond it.
The Coroners Court heard that Simpson, a diagnosed paranoid schizophrenic, had
attempted to commit suicide years before in the very same cell in which he finally
hanged himself. Though a court had found him not guilty of a murder committed in
prison by reason of mental illness, ruling that he was to be treated in a prison
hospital, Simpson remained in isolation, locked in 23 hours a day for 26 months until
the day he died.
He was in segregation in Goulburn prison in NSW in March 2003 when Chris Ricardo, a
registered nurse at the prison, wrote to Anne Doherty, the director of mental health
services for Corrections Health (subsequently rebranded Justice Health) that he
"cannot be given the psychiatric attention he requires at Goulburn".
In his evidence to the Coroners Court yesterday, Mr Ricardo said that although "it
was unusual" for him to write such a letter, he had been concerned that Simpson was
not receiving the treatment he required.
"It was simply not possible for the psychiatrist to see Scott once a fortnight," Mr
Ricardo said.
At a prison such as Goulburn, where the psychiatrist who visited every two weeks
could see only a few prisoners at a time, nurses could do little more than offer
"first aid".
Mr Ricardo was appealing to Ms Doherty to transfer Simpson to the acute care
psychiatric ward at Long Bay Prison hospital. Simpson was still waiting for a bed in
that hospital on the day he died.
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I intend to last long enough to put out of business all *****-suckers
and other beneficiaries of the institutionalized slavery and genocide.
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"The army that will defeat terrorism doesn't wear uniforms, or drive
Humvees, or calls in air-strikes. It doesn't have a high command, or
high security, or a high budget. The army that can defeat terrorism
does battle quietly, clearing minefields and vaccinating children. It
undermines military dictatorships and military lobbyists. It subverts
sweatshops and special interests.Where people feel powerless, it
helps them organize for change, and where people are powerful, it
reminds them of their responsibility." ~~~~ Author Unknown ~~~~
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