WA opens first Disability Justice Centre for mentally-impaired accused

Western Australia has opened the first Disability Justice Centre to provide “civilised treatment” for prisoners with mental disorder, Chief Justice Wayne Martin said. The centre is the result of the four-year campaign to create a "declared place" for people considered unfit for standard jails.

The Mentally Impaired Accused Review Board can now fully decide to send mentally-impaired persons accused of a crime in the new justice centre to be housed and supported. Martin said the facility will help judges and magistrates to deliver the proper programme to a disabled accused facing charges.

“Unlike the harsh environment of a prison,” the purpose-built centre provides an environment that will enhance the prospects of the person, Martin stated. However, the justice centre will accept persons based on the risk they pose to the community, not particular to the kind of their offense.

"The issue around who is suitable and who is not suitable is not based on their type of offending or what they've been charged with. It is based on their safety and their potential harm to a community," Mental Health Minister Helen Morton, who led the effort to establish the new centre, said.

"This is a very appropriate facility that strikes the right balance between the need to ensure the community is protected on the one hand,” Martin stated. The justice centre “respects the human rights, dignity and provides a compassionate and humane way” of dealing with people who have intersected with the justice system, he added.

The centre is constructed in the eastern Perth suburb of Caversham, with the first person expected to arrive within weeks, and it will hold a maximum of 10 people. However, there are long-running local opposition and protests against the facility being located in a residential area.

A member of the small group of protesters, Odette Bird, remains unconvinced by the assurances about the facility's security as it has been built near homes, which they consider threat for the safety of residents and children in the area. Bird said the centre is “just down the road from the primary school,” and added that the government “could have built it out past Bandyup” where plenty of area are better than its current location.

She acknowledged the local concern that “if they get out and end up at the primary school, in the back of a toilet block with a child, what kind of things do you think they'll do?" Some of the persons to be detained in the centre are persons who “have committed some horrendous crimes,” she said.

But Morton stated that she is confident the facility is secure, and the residents would be safe. Morton said the service, staffing ratios and the operations provide her “100 percent confidence” and that the government could sustain the security.

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