You’d be well advised to keep away from them.
We have prisons and immigration detention centres run by private companies, which rely on minimum wage idiots (some of whom, notably in the immigration detention centres, wouldn’t have been out of place in a Nazi concentration camp) for much of their work.
Then again, even when they have good and concerned staff the companies and governments don’t take any notice of them where dollars are involved.
Aboriginal elder arrived ‘with third-degree burns’
Debbie Guest
March 17, 2009 07:47am
AN Aboriginal elder who died in the back of a prison van arrived at hospital, unconscious and with third-degree burns, an inquest has heard.
Lucien LaGrange, who was working in the emergency department of Kalgoorlie Regional Hospital when Ward arrived in the non-airconditioned van, said a blast of hot air hit him when he opened the back of the vehicle.
Respected elder Ward - whose family does not want his first name mentioned for cultural reasons - did not appear to be breathing.
“It was like a blast from a furnace - it was extremely hot,” Dr LaGrange told Coroner Alastair Hope. “I was struck by how wet and slippery he was. It was almost like he had been coated in soap - he just slid.”
Dr LaGrange said that despite medical staff placing ice over Ward’s body, his body temperature was 41.7C. That day, January 27 last year, the outside temperature climbed to 42C. After many resuscitation attempts, Ward was declared dead about 90 minutes after arriving at the hospital.
Ward was being transported 352km from Laverton to Goldfields Regional Prison in Kalgoorlie after being charged with drink-driving on Australia Day.
The inquest was told that the company responsible for transporting Ward, Global Solutions Ltd, raised concerns with the West Australian Government about the poor state of its vans before Ward’s death, but was told no new vehicles were available.
Under a multi-million-dollar contract, GSL is responsible for transporting prisoners, while the Department of Corrective Services is responsible for maintaining the fleet of vehicles.
Former GSL employee Thomas Akatsa told the hearing that after the company failed to secure new vans from the Government, he raised concerns with the company’s supervisors, including airconditioning faults and overheating, but was told not to talk about it.
Mr Akatsa said the vans used to transport prisoners were sub-standard, did not contain toilets and were not suitable for travelling long distances.
Despite regular problems with airconditioning in the back of the vans, Mr Akatsa said there was no requirement for staff to check the airconditioning was working. He said that while he always did check, not all officers did, including one of the officers who transported Ward on that day, Graham Powell.
The inquest heard that Mr Powell, who is to give evidence today, had been demoted from a supervisor to a driver before the death.
One of his colleagues at the time, Lynette Corcoran-Sugars, testified that she requested not to work with Mr Powell, accusing him of breaching procedures and inappropriately using constraints on prisoners.
Ms Corcoran-Sugars and Mr Akatsa said that when they transported prisoners from Laverton to Kalgoorlie, they made at least one stop and offered prisoners water, food and a toilet break.
The inquest has heard that no stops were made during Ward’s journey and that he was given only a 600ml bottle of water and a pie before leaving Laverton.
Questions were raised about whether Ward should even have been in custody, with barrister Lachlan Carter for the Aboriginal Legal Service claiming a proper bail hearing, as defined by the act, did not take place.
The inquest heard that GSL’s motto was “safety first”. Mr Hope questioned how this could be the case when the company allowed staff to transport prisoners in vehicles that did not have a usable spare tyre.
The inquest continues today.
http://www.news.com.au/perthnow/story/0,27574,25198925-2761,00.html