DON'T TAKE AWAY THEIR SUPPORT WHEN THEY NEED IT MOST

Queensland prisoners on suicide and self-harm precautions should not be unnecessarily isolated from their support networks. We are calling on Queensland Corrective Services (QCS) to review telephone and family-contact restrictions affecting prisoners placed in Detention Units under Safety Orders because they are at risk of suicide or self-harm. When someone reaches a point where they are considered at risk of taking their own life, the response should be about protecting them, supporting them and keeping them alive. It should not unnecessarily disconnect them from the people helping them hold on. A person placed in a Detention Unit because of suicide or self-harm concerns is not necessarily there because they have committed a disciplinary offence..They may be there because they are experiencing a mental-health crisis. Yet placement in a Detention Unit can result in dramatically reduced telephone access, cancelled visits and significantly less contact with family, partners and established support people. For someone already struggling, that connection can matter enormously.

WHY I STARTED THIS PETITION

I started this petition after seeing firsthand what can happen when someone inside a Queensland correctional centre is placed in a Detention Unit because of concerns for their mental health and risk of self-harm. I completely understand the need for suicide precautions. If someone is at risk, they need to be protected, monitored and provided appropriate mental-health care. What I struggle to understand is why that can also mean significantly reducing contact with their only support person on the outside. When someone is already at their lowest, further isolating them from a safe and approved person they trust seems completely backwards.

This isn't about asking for unlimited phone calls. It isn't about removing suicide precautions or interfering with legitimate security requirements. It's about asking a simple question: If someone is in a Detention Unit because they're struggling with suicidal thoughts rather than being punished for disciplinary behaviour, why should meaningful contact with their support person automatically be taken away or dramatically reduced? QCS's publicly available prisoner communications procedure recognises staff-facilitated telephone access in Detention Units and provides for consecutive calls so access can be tailored to individual prisoner needs. Yet I have been unable to find a publicly available statewide rule requiring someone placed under suicide or self-harm precautions to automatically be limited to one personal telephone call per day. That's why I'm asking questions And that's why I'm asking for change.

WHY THIS MATTERS

Suicide and self-harm in custody are not hypothetical risks. Over the past decade, approximately two dozen deaths in Queensland prison custody appear to have involved suicide or other self-inflicted causes, based on available deaths-in-custody data. Some recent deaths remain subject to coronial determination. Every one of those deaths represents a person  and people outside those walls who lost someone.

When a prisoner has already been identified as being at risk of suicide or self-harm, maintaining safe and meaningful connection with their established support network should be considered part of protecting their wellbeing wherever clinically and operationally appropriate. Mental-health intervention should not unnecessarily create further isolation.

WHAT WE ARE ASKING QCS TO DO

We call on Queensland Corrective Services to:

1. Review telephone restrictions for prisoners placed in Detention Units because of suicide or self-harm risk.

2. Ensure restrictions are individually assessed rather than automatically imposed solely because someone is physically housed in a Detention Unit.

3. Allow additional staff-facilitated telephone calls to approved family members, partners or support people where there is no identified clinical, safety or security reason preventing that contact.

4. Require a prisoner's established support network to be considered when developing and reviewing suicide and self-harm management arrangements.

5. Clearly distinguish protective Safety Order arrangements from disciplinary punishment.

A person should not automatically experience disciplinary-style restrictions simply because protective measures have required them to be accommodated in a Detention Unit.

6. Publish clear information explaining telephone and contact arrangements for prisoners accommodated in Detention Units and prisoners subject to Safety Orders.

Families should not have to search through legislation, policies and procedures simply to understand what contact their loved one is entitled to.

7. Establish a clear process for prisoners and approved support people to request additional contact where mental-health circumstances warrant it.

THIS ISN'T ABOUT SPECIAL TREATMENT

We understand that correctional centres must maintain safety, security and good order. There may be circumstances where telephone contact needs to be supervised, facilitated by staff, temporarily delayed or individually restricted because of a genuine safety or security concern. We are not asking QCS to compromise those responsibilities. We are asking that someone experiencing suicidal thoughts is not automatically deprived of meaningful contact with safe, approved support people simply because they have been moved into a Detention Unit. Family members and partners cannot replace psychologists, mental-health nurses or other qualified professionals. Nor should they be expected to. But professional mental-health treatment and safe contact with someone's existing support network do not have to be mutually exclusive. Sometimes a phone call isn't just a phone call. It's hearing a familiar voice. It's knowing somebody outside still cares. It's being reminded that there is still a life beyond those walls.

It's somebody saying: “I'm still here. Keep going.”

WE CAN KEEP PEOPLE SAFE WITHOUT UNNECESSARILY CUTTING THEM OFF

If someone says they want to die, take them seriously.

Watch them.

Protect them.

Give them appropriate professional mental-health care.

Keep them safe.

But where it is clinically and operationally appropriate: Let them remain connected to the people helping them hold on. Restrictions should be based on an individual's circumstances, risk and needs not automatically imposed simply because of the unit they have been placed in. Mental-health intervention should protect life while preserving safe human connection wherever possible. When somebody is already struggling to hold on, that is the last time we should unnecessarily make their world smaller.

Please sign and share this petition if you believe people experiencing a mental-health crisis inside Queensland correctional centres deserve appropriate protection, professional support and safe connection with the people who care about them.