Guardian Australia has uncovered 20 suicides since 2008. Each death should have been prevented

Indigenous suicide in custody: 'How have lives just slipped away?'



Megan Williams was in her last year at school when the findings of the royal commission into Aboriginal deaths in custody were released in 1991.



The Wiradjuri woman, now an academic at the University of Technology, Sydney, remembers feeling “so confused that people could die in state care”.

“I was a student grappling with that injustice, but never thinking that would be a part of my own family’s story,” Williams tells Guardian Australia.

One day, about eight years later, her father called. Her cousin Stephen Williams had taken his life inside the Numinbah correction centre, a low-security facility in Queensland.

I never thought that would be a part of my own family’s story Megan Williams

“I was 25 or 26. He was nearly 30. I remember babies being born around that time in our family, and so it was a profound sense of loss in the face of birth. How can it be that people’s lives can slip away without any real recognition, and no apology?” Williams says.

Williams adored Stephen as a young child. In their extended family, she was the oldest girl and he was the oldest boy.

“I remember thinking that he was gorgeous and that he loved me.”

As a young adult, he was welcoming and chatty. He made her feel safe.

“I remember feeling like I tucked under his wing. He was happy and light-hearted and he wore colourful T-shirts. I just remember … colour.”

Now, when the Williams family gather, Stephen’s death comes up in “many, many conversations”.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Stephen Williams at Megan’s fifth birthday party, 1978. Photograph: Carly Earl/The Guardian

The royal commission prescribed changes that were meant to prevent deaths like that of Stephen Williams. Recommendation 151 said: “Wherever possible, Aboriginal prisoners requiring psychiatric assessment or treatment should be referred to a psychiatrist with knowledge and experience of Aboriginal persons.” Recommendation 165 said “steps should be taken to screen hanging points in police and prison cells.”

But Guardian Australia’s investigation Deaths Inside has uncovered 20 suicides since 2008, 14% of the Indigenous deaths in custody in that time.

Mr Bonson, whose full name cannot be used for cultural reasons, was a five-year-old starting school in Maningrida when the royal commission report was released.

He was 31 when he was charged with five crimes, including aggravated assault, and remanded in custody in the newly-built Darwin correctional centre in July 2016.

Mr Bonson became restless one night, a month later. He seemed upset and didn’t eat much of his dinner. He confided in his cousin, who was also in jail, that he was concerned about an allegation of rape. He spoke about his desire to see his wife and children.



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When the other inmates went to watch a movie, Mr Bonson stayed in his cell. CCTV footage showed that he didn’t sleep much that night. He read the Bible. He wrote on a piece of paper. He did push-ups.

He was found hanged from a ceiling fan in his cell at 6.28am. On the bunk was a piece of paper, folded twice. His final line was written to his youngest daughter, who was two months old: “May god bless you my little one.”

The Northern Territory coroner, Greg Cavanagh, had warned authorities the ceiling fans were a hanging risk nine months earlier, at the inquest into the death of another prisoner.

A spokesperson from NT Corrections tells Guardian Australia that 176 ceiling fans have now been removed from the jail, but 582 remained in the bedrooms, living areas and secure sleeping areas. Works to install a shear-pin solution to the remaining fans, making them unable to bear weight, are due to begin in September.

Ligature minimisation programs have helped reduce the number of suicides. In Western Australia, $5m was spent at Hakea prison, and $5m at Casuarina prison.



We erode people’s mental health in prison. We don’t have the right assessment tools. We don’t have the right systems Megan Williams

But in both WA and the NT, prisoners are moved to safer accommodation only when they are identified as at-risk.

At Casuarina, 20-year-old Bibbulmun Noongar man Jayden Bennell was found hanged in an unlocked cleaning storage cupboard in 2013. He was in a maximum-security prison under WA’s controversial three-strikes mandatory sentencing burglary laws.

His mother, Maxine Bennell, said her son was funny, smart and respectful. He entered skating competitions with one of his six younger brothers, Dillion, and frequently won.

“He was cruel talented,” Maxine said.

Jayden Bennell told his mother that when he was released from prison again, he would stay out.

The inquest into Bennell’s death was told the unlocked cleaning cupboard was “riddled” with hanging points. His cell had at least 20 hanging points.



In spite of his history of psychiatric problems, Bennell had not been identified as at-risk.

The prison’s ligature minimisation program had focused on cells, not communal areas, officials explained. Some can’t be realistically removed. . Fully ligature-free cells, or padded cells, are only used in extreme cases, and it is not considered appropriate to house anyone in such an environment for any length of time.

At the inquest, coroner Sarah Linton recommended a more holistic approach to mental healthcare, and reiterated the need for Aboriginal mental health workers, who were able to deal with the array of issues specific to Aboriginal Australians.

That inquest took place a quarter of a century after the royal commission.

Dr Thalia Anthony, a specialist in Indigenous criminalisation at UTS, says reducing hanging points is important and necessary but does not deal with the underlying causes of suicides in custody.

“There’s also other ways for people to take their own lives,” Anthony says. “It seems that people need to be either exhibiting problems or crying out for help before they get to see a specialist. If you’re on remand, it’s virtually impossible to see someone.”

Anthony says the provision of culturally sensitive psychiatric care and assessment, as stated in recommendation 151, should be a key part of any strategy to lower suicide rates in custody.

The day Stephen died was a turning point for Megan Williams. She had done training in research and health service delivery before but when Stephen took his life, she decided “to get serious”.



Williams now has a PhD in health services and the criminal justice system. She found that for Aboriginal prisoners, incarceration created a unique set of issues. Family connections break down, often because of the long distance between home and prison. Families cannot afford the travel. Taking young people from traditional country interrupts the transmission of cultural knowledge and language, and it robs communities of young people to participate in ceremonies.

“We erode people’s mental health in prison. We don’t have the right assessment tools. We don’t have the right systems to share information. We don’t have the workforce to provide better care,” Williams said.

“Why does mainstream Australia not cherish Aboriginal culture?”