Holtze women attempting suicide as support evaporates: ex-prisoner

WOMEN in the female section of Holtze Prison have made multiple suicide attempts since the start of the year, while psychological support services inside are virtually non-existent, insiders say

Renae ‘Rocket’ Bretherton shared her experiences inside Holtze Prison with delegates at the Reintegration Puzzle Conference in Darwin on Thursday. Picture: Katrina Bridgeford

WOMEN in the female section of Holtze Prison have made multiple suicide attempts since the start of the year, while psychological support services are virtually non-existent, insiders say.

Speaking on the sidelines of a prisoner rehabilitation conference in Darwin on Friday, Renae “Rocket” Bretherton — who was released from Holtze last month after serving 18 months on drug and weapons charges — said the situation had reached crisis point.

Ms Bretherton said a number of her friends had attempted suicide before her release and the unit’s only psychological support worker had been transferred to Don Dale after the December riot and not replaced.

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“After the first suicide attempt there was (support) but after the one where we had to try and talk our friend down there was nothing,” she said.

“(The worker) came to me, she was in tears and she said ‘Rocket, I’ve got to go, I’m going to Don Dale’ and I thought ‘Why, what have I done wrong?’ I needed her.”

Ms Bretherton said when she raised questions about the lack of support she was told to contact the prison chaplain or prisoner support officer, neither of whom had any expertise in suicide.

“I spoke to the PSO and she said ‘Listen, Rocket I’d love to help you but I’ve got no suicide counselling training’,” she said.

“I asked the chaplain ‘Do you have any suicide counselling training?’ And he’s like ‘No’ and I’m like ‘Well, how come prison support services is telling us that’s who we’ve got to contact?”

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JOAN Washington is a counsellor with Stand By — Support After Suicide, who has been visiting two of the women who tried to take their own lives in the prison this year.

Despite her organisation specialising in “postvention”, or supporting families bereaved by suicide, Ms Washington said she agreed to see the women because there was no other help available.

Ms Washington said the waiting list for specialist help inside the prison was so long “people are just not being seen for a long, long time, if ever”.

“It might not be something we normally do but in this situation we felt quite strongly that maybe they needed something,” she said.

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Ms Washington said women considered high-risk were at times isolated for 24 hours a day in a cell “probably smaller than a bathroom” for up to several weeks.

“To get any kind of human interaction they have been known to play up in the cell just to get attention,” she said.

“With someone with really complex trauma, it actually will make them sicker.”

Ms Washington said while many of the women in the unit had likely experienced significant trauma, her organisation was only able to help people whose issues related directly to suicide.

Even then, she said women like Ms Bretherton who were experiencing suicide related trauma, may not be aware of her organisation’s presence and were missing out as a result.

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“There’s an expectation that people are going to come out of jail and be able to function independently when there are no opportunities in that space really for people to engage in anything that’s healing,” she said.

“How do you expect people to rehabilitate and not reoffend when they get out if they’re not given the tools to be able to do that?”

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ROSIE Cooper is the program co-ordinator for Women of Worth, which works with current and former prisoners to try and reintegrate them into society.

Ms Cooper said since the program’s inception in 2015, recidivism rates among female inmates had more than halved.

“Out of 84 clients only three, that’s 4 per cent, returned to prison for new charges and 12, that’s 15 per cent, returned for breach of conditions,” she said.

“So 15 were still in prison at that time, meaning that 52 of the women had not returned to prison since their engagement with WoW.”

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Rocket Bretherton has previously been among the 4 per cent who reoffended, having fallen back on her old drug habits after previous stints in jail.

But this time she says, “I’m staying out,” crediting WoW with helping her turn her life around and now plans to be a voice for the voiceless women still inside or struggling on release.

“I want to stay on the right track and I want to become an advocate for women and injustices in the system because there’s so many of them and there’s so few voices like myself,” she said.

“What’s it going to take to change? Is it going to take a life? Is it going take someone’s life before something changes.”

■ ■ ■

THE Attorney-General and Justice and the Health departments have been contacted for comment but the AG&J annual report states:

“Templates have been developed for use between the health disciplines (e.g. forensic mental health, aged and disability and others, resulting in a consistent approach across both (Darwin and Alice Springs) correctional centres for female prisoner referrals.

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The aim is to develop improved information sharing to better affect how female prisoners are triaged in the mental health space.”

For help call Lifeline on 13 11 14.