Heightened tensions over Queensland deaths in custody

Updated March 12, 2010 08:25:28


Tensions are high in the north-east Australian state of Queensland, after another death in custody of an indigenous teenager. More than a hundred people rallied outside Queensland's Parliament on Thursday after an Aboriginal prison chaplain blamed racist hatred for the death of an 18-year-old remand prisoner.
It's claimed the boy was repeatedly denied medical help before being found unconscious in his cell. The teenager's mother broke down at the protest, and later met Queensland's Prisons Minister demanding answers.


Presenter: Annie Guest
Speakers: Donna Smith, mother of deceased prisoner; Reverend Alex Gater, Prison Chaplain; Nicole Clevens, Protestor; Neil Roberts, Prisons Minister; Kelvin Anderson , Corrective Services Commissioner

(Didgeridoo plays)

DONNA SMITH: He was only 18. We just want some answers, why he was left suffering for 10 days without help in the prison.

(Didgeridoo)

ANNIE GUEST: As supporters gathered behind her, Donna Smith, as she wants to be known, held a photo of her son in her shaking hands; one of her eight children.

DONNA SMITH: He was only a boy, only a baby (crying).

ANNIE GUEST: Her son Sheldon Currie was on remand in Brisbane's Arthur Gorrie Correctional Centre for misdemeanours, including alleged car theft.

DONNA SMITH: What I heard from another inmate was that he was in pain for days and he was just given Panadol and sent away. It must have been pretty serious because he was found on his face in his cell by an inmate.

ANNIE GUEST: Do you have faith in the justice system to fairly investigate his death?

DONNA SMITH: No, I don't.

ANNIE GUEST: Why don't you have that faith in the justice system?

DONNA SMITH: Because I was treated badly at the hospital. I was sleeping on the floor in the hospital and then I was sent away from his bed the night before I lost him.

ANNIE GUEST: She says prison guards asked her to leave the bedside. Donna Smith blames negligence, not racism for her son's death.

Others disagree, including the prison chaplain, Reverend Alex Gater who aired the allegations on AM this morning, saying fellow inmates had to carry the sick teenager. She also alleged an officer said if he could go to the toilet, then there was nothing wrong with him.

ALEX GATER: This is about racial hatred, attitudes towards Aboriginal people. They're deliberately turned away and told her there's nothing wrong with him.

ANNIE GUEST: Some at today's rally outside Queensland's Parliament agree with the chaplain. As protestor Nicole Clevens addressed the gathering of more than 100 people, she directed her outrage at the unseen politicians behind Parliament's walls.

NICOLE CLEVENS: This poor young fella's dead. Every single death always gets swept under the carpet. What do we have to do to stop this? Do we have to start writing and fire-bombing this place here? Because that is a life. What value do you put on our lives?

ANNIE GUEST: But the Prisons Minister Neil Roberts says prison staff are being interviewed. He met Sheldon Currie's family to reassure them this afternoon.

NEIL ROBERTS: These are always very sad occasions and my heart just goes out to this family; they're suffering extreme sadness and grief as a result of the loss of their son and family and friend.

Queensland Corrective Services has been doing as much as possible to support the family during this difficult time and that will continue.

We've now got a difficult process to go through, particularly for the family. The coroner obviously will conduct his own investigation. In the end, and I've made this clear to the family; all of the issues, any claims, any concerns that they're raising will be on the table for investigation.

ANNIE GUEST: The Corrective Services Commissioner Kelvin Anderson has dismissed the allegations that Sheldon Currie's health was neglected, but he told The World Today the chief prisons inspector will investigate.

KELVIN ANDERSON: We responded appropriately to this man's health needs and we were very responsive to the needs of the family after this tragic event.

ANNIE GUEST: Your department issued a statement saying that there were no suspicious circumstances surrounding this death; do you stand by that?

KELVIN ANDERSON: Yes, on everything that I've seen to date, we stand by that statement.

ANNIE GUEST: Meanwhile, the simmering tension over the teenager's death comes as the police officer acquitted over a death in custody on Palm Island in 2004 takes the stand at a new coronial inquest.