Aboriginal woman's jailing highlights plight of intellectually impaired Aboriginal offenders

ABC News 13 March 2013

An investigation has revealed dozens of intellectually disabled Aboriginal people are being kept in prison indefinitely because of a lack of proper healthcare facilities.

Rosie Anne Fulton
PHOTO: Rosie Ann Fulton is being held in a Kalgoorlie jail without conviction because she was declared unfit to plead to driving offences. (ABC)

The ABC's Lateline program exposed the case of 23-year-old Rosie Anne Fulton, who has spent the past 18 months in a Kalgoorlie jail without a trial or conviction after she was charged with driving offences.

The magistrate in her case declared her unfit to plead because she is intellectually impaired - a victim of foetal alcohol syndrome - and has the mental capacity of a young child.

Her legal guardian, former police officer Ian McKinlay, says Ms Fulton ended up on a prison-based supervision order because there were no alternatives in the area at the time.

"At the moment this outcome is almost entirely reserved for Aboriginal, Indigenous Australians," he said.

The Aboriginal Disability Justice Campaign says there are at least 30 Indigenous people in a similar situation around the country.

Western Australia's Inspector of Custodial Services, Neil Morgan, says the state has no option but to incarcerate Ms Fulton as existing options are limited.

"One is a 'declared place', which was always intended to be for people like this. Unfortunately we still don't have any declared places 15 years after the Act came into force," he said.

"The second option is an authorised hospital, and that's only for a person with a treatable mental illness.

"And the third option, which is almost the option of default, is that the person ends up in prison or in a juvenile detention centre."

Mr Morgan concedes that most of those caught up in the system are Indigenous, although he says the law does not target Aboriginal people.

"The vast majority of people who've been caught under the Act and held under a custody order by reason of a cognitive impairment are in fact Aboriginal people, and a large number of them are Aboriginal men and women from remote and regional Western Australia."

Meanwhile, Mr McKinlay has been trying to get Ms Fulton moved to Alice Springs to be closer to her family.

"She rings several times a week, sometimes twice a day, wanting to know when she is coming back to live in Alice Springs," he said.

Last year, the Northern Territory health department agreed to move Ms Fulton to a secure care facility built next to the Alice Springs prison.

The centre was specifically designed to house people with intellectual disabilities and challenging behaviours.

Mr McKinlay says he received repeated assurances last year from the department that Ms Fulton would be moved there.

"They identified her as a prime candidate for secure care and they rejected any other form of service that guardians were advocating for pending the completion of this facility," he said.

Mark O'Reilly, principal legal officer at the Central Australian Aboriginal Legal Aid Service, says Ms Fulton's story is not unique.

"We've had situations where following the ordinary process someone might be looking at three months in prison. We've had people in jail for four to five years, just waiting for an outcome," he said.

In a widely publicised case, a mentally impaired West Australian man - Marlon Noble - spent 10 years behind bars without ever standing trial on child sex assault charges.

He was released in 2012 under strict conditions.

Two facilities for mentally impaired prisoners are currently being built by the West Australian Government, which says it is committed to building facilities for mentally impaired people who are accused and not convicted.

But Ms Fulton says she has no family in Perth and does not want to be moved there. She wishes to return to Alice Springs.

Will MacGregor runs a drug and alcohol rehabilitation service for young people in Alice Springs called Bush Mob.

He said there was a desperate need for more facilities for intellectually impaired Indigenous Australians, especially those suffering from foetal alcohol syndrome.

"Whether it's secure care or supported accommodation options, the models are out there and a lot of people have been advocating the models for a lot of years," he said.

"But again it comes back to a global financial crisis-type of budgets and maybe a hardening of hearts."

Ms Fulton's family want her moved closer to Alice Springs so they can help her.

"I want to talk to this girl when she come out, I'll tell her you are a pretty girl," aunt Ingrid Kanari said.

"You can have a better life, you can get work, settle down and work in the community. That's what I want her to do."