Here's some disturbing news.
THE death of a prisoner bashed at Grafton jail has put further pressure on the tough sentencing culture of the state government's law and order policies.
The man was serving time for a traffic offence and a psychiatric report to the magistrate who jailed him recommended against a custodial sentence.
It said Ian Klum, 53, a refrigeration mechanic from Woolgoolga, could not read social cues, had been admitted to a psychiatric unit three times and had had shock treatment.
The magistrate Darryl Pearce, known on the provincial court circuit as ''Fierce Pearce'' for the rigour of his sentencing, has a reputation for having judgments overturned.
So, they arrest a guy who is mentally ill for traffic violations and throw him in prison. In prison, he's beaten to death. Nobody pays. Everybody washes their hands.
This business of locking up mentally ill people in prisons has got to be questioned. Thanks to the Richmond Report they reduced the size and number of mental hospitals and put mentally ill people into the public with some kind of support. The problem over the years has been that they've been cutting that support for years and years, and that when these people stop taking their medication, they an be fully blown crazy. For instance this business with Anthony Waterlow late last year. When they go fully-blown crazy in the community and commit crimes - large and small - the police an the justice system become involved.
It's most likely that these mentally ill people would not have committed the crimes had they been locked up - even if it isn't nice to be locked up. In turn, if the end result is that they get locked up and are kept in prisons instead of hospitals, then what good is it to have a system where the mentally ill person could easily fall afoul of the law and end up in prison instead of a hospital ward?
It's a little more disturbing when you read:
Yesterday the Attorney-General, John Hatzistergos, said the government made no apology for its tough approach in sentencing. ''That has assisted in reducing the incidences of crime by deterring people and incapacitating people from committing offences,'' he told ABC Radio.
Somewhere along the way you'd think he's missed the point. By all means, lock up criminals but locking up mental patients with criminals is what has caused this death. I don't think it helps for the NSW Government to be beating its hairy chest with the "Law-and-Order" issue when in fact it's disguising a huge problem in NSW Mental Health services.
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