An Aboriginal man who died in hospital after attempting suicide in Casuarina Prison near Perth, Western Australia, had been assessed as being an at-risk prisoner after repeatedly threatening self-harm but had not been placed in a “safe” cell.
Bevan Stanley Cameron, 26, died in hospital on 2 November, five days after he was found unconscious in his cell in unit 5 around the time of the 3pm roll call on Thursday 28 October. Marc Newhouse, from the Death in Custody Watch Action Committee, said Cameron’s family considered him to have died in his cell because he never woke up again.
The family, most of whom now live in Perth, have been through this before. In 1998, Cameron’s father, also named Bevan Cameron, committed suicide at Greenough Prison near Geraldton, 424km north of Perth.
Guardian Australia understands Cameron was assessed by a psychologist after making a number of threats to kill himself. According to John Welch, from the WA prison officers’ union, Cameron had been placed on a six-hourly observation schedule but that had dropped back to a 12-hourly observation schedule before his attempted suicide.
“They indicates that at that time they were assessing him to be at less risk, rather than more,” Welch said.
The prison has 12 “safe” cells, in its crisis care unit, where inmates are placed if there is a serious or immediate threat of self-harm.
Department of Corrective Services declined to comment on Cameron’s case while the matter was before the coroner.
Cameron is the fourth Aboriginal man to have reportedly died from self-harm involving hanging at the prison since March 2013.
More than half of the deaths in custody in WA in the past three years occurred at Casuarina, which also houses the prison infirmary. According to figures provided by the Department of Corrective Services, 15 of the 24 deaths in WA prison system since 1 January 2013 occurred at Casuarina, and of those six have been provisionally attributed to suicide.
Seven of the 24 were Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander people, and of that group, six were at Casuarina.
The figures do not include people who died in police custody, like 22-year-old Yamatji woman Ms Dhu, whose name is not used at her the request of her family, who died in the South Hedland lockup in August 2014. All deaths in custody are subject to a coronial inquest, although most on this list have not yet been assigned an inquest date.
In a letter sent to the WA premier, Colin Barnett, on Friday, and provided to Guardian Australia, Greens senator for WA Rachel Siewert and state Greens MP Robin Chapple said that Cameron’s death was “avoidable”.
“Had Mr Cameron been under appropriate supervision given his history, his death could well have been avoided,” the letter says.
“Had real steps been taken to address Mr Cameron’s mental health issues prior to the attempts on his life then there is every chance he would still be with us today.”
The letter urges the WA government to provide greater transparency about deaths in custody, saying, “it is in the best interests of the state to make this information publicly available and act upon it as a matter of urgency.”
The department’s media procedure following a death in custody is to confirm details of a death when asked, but not to publish the press release on its website or distribute it through its normal channels. Any follow up questions are referred to the coronial office within WA police, which does not comment. That means information about a death in custody often does not come out until the inquest, and the average wait time is now more than three years.
Casuarina is WA’s second-largest publicly owned prison, after the Hakea remand and intake prison. It was built for 397 but has been expanded by building new units and double-bunking. The department currently lists its total capacity at 1,033 prisoners and as of Friday it housed 822.
The inspector of custodial services, Neil Morgan, said in a 2014 report that Casuarina was “doing a decent job with stretched resources” but raised issues of overcrowding – the population was then only 631 – and prisoner boredom. He also noted that support services like the infirmary and crisis care unit had not grown at pace with the prison.
The opposition corrections spokesman, Paul Papalia, agreed, saying “the footprint at Casuarina hasn’t changed, and the footprint inside the fence was designed for 397 prisoners”.
“They are getting less time outside their cell per head of population, far less support from education and training and rehabilitation, and they are spending more time in their cells,” Papalia said. “Of course people are going to be more likely to self-harm and commit suicide.”
