Death in custody inquest after 66-year-old Indigenous man passes away in Alice Springs
A man with severe dementia who lost his bail after just one day of freedom will be the subject of a death in custody coronial inquest.
Alice Springs
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An elderly Alice Springs man with dementia so severe he was unfit to make a plea has become the latest Indigenous death in custody.
Territory coroner Elisabeth Armitage has confirmed she will hold a death in custody inquest to examine the final moments of a 66-year-old remand prisoner in Alice Springs.
The man, who the NT News has chosen not to name without his family’s consent, passed away in Alice Springs Hospital on September 12, 2023.
Court records have revealed the 66-year-old passed away just 14 days after his bail was denied following a single day of freedom.
Alice Springs Local Court Judge Carly Ingles heard on August 28 that it took almost 100 days for a 24/7 NDIS supported accommodation placement to be secured for the 66-year-old after he was charged.
The man with severe dementia allegedly assaulted three workers and a police officer at the Jump Inn, an Alice Springs bar on May 23, 2023.
Defence lawyer Tania Collins said her client was unfit to make a plea and was currently held in the G-Block of the prison — a unit to protect vulnerable people from bullying and being taken advantage by other prisoners.
“I don’t believe he is going to follow anything that is being said,” Ms Collins told the court.
Indeed his only response when Ms Ingles explained each of his bail conditions was to repeat “yeah”.
Only a day after his release he was back in court for allegedly threatening disability workers with a stick and a rock.
“Obviously for him it was too difficult, because he had gone from prison to another place with people he did not know,” Ms Collins said.
“And he’s obviously acting out and been quite aggressive.”
Her next plan was to have the Aboriginal man classed as a PartIIAA prisoner — joining the other 15 Territorians locked up indefinitely due to their cognitive disability, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
Ms Collins said his upcoming Supreme Court hearing could remand him to a secure care facility, with the eventual aim of finding him supported accommodation outside of jail.
The 66-year-old passed away eight days before his fitness to plea hearing.
The recently released Disability Royal Commission specifically criticised the Territory’s lack of secure forensic mental health hospital facility, community-based accommodation and support options and called for the end of indefinite detention of disabled prisoners.
A senior consultant psychiatrist Peter Norrie also told the commission that Territorians on custodial orders were being moved from 24-hour custody to placements with limited professional care or supervision.
A Corrections spokesman said while the death in custody was not reported to the public, both police and the coroner were notified “as soon as it is practical”.
“We do not provide public comment on health or personal matters relating to prisoners in our custody,” he said.
According to the Australian Institute of Criminology there have been 43 deaths in prison custody this year, a quarter of whom were Indigenous people.
The 66-year-old’s coronial inquest directions hearing has been set for December 11 at the Darwin Local Court.
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