Page 1978 - Week 06 - Thursday, 9 June 2016
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The incident which highlighted this legislative tension was the subject of a formal investigation by the health services commissioner in August 2012. The health services commissioner’s final report to government included a recommendation that amendments be made to legislation to clarify roles and responsibilities and to allow for the legal custody of a detainee to be transferred to ACT Health to facilitate appropriate mental health treatment and care.
Under the amendment bill, detainees requiring a more intensive or specialised level of treatment may be transferred from the AMC to the secure mental health unit at the request of the Chief Psychiatrist in consultation with the doctor based at the Hume Health Centre within the AMC and in consultation and with the agreement of the Director-General of the Justice and Community Safety Directorate or delegate.
Upon a detainee’s admission to the secure mental health unit, legal custody obligations and decision-making responsibility will transfer from Corrective Services to Health. This includes detainees on remand or serving a sentence, and may include detainees subject to a mental health or forensic mental health order, as well as detainees not subject to an order but where a clinical need has been identified.
The transfer of legal custody provisions relates only to detainees admitted to the secure mental health unit. A detainee requiring health treatment or care in a hospital or other mental health facility will remain in the legal custody of ACT Corrective Services. Detainees with acute mental illness or mental disorder will continue to receive treatment within the correctional centre if appropriate. Detainees, if required, will also still receive assessment and treatment as required, including crisis stabilisation at the mental health assessment unit or adult mental health unit. In these cases, as already stated, full custody will remain with ACT Corrective Services.
The amendment bill provides that ACT Corrective Services resumes legal custody of a detainee admitted to the secure mental health unit when the detainee is required to attend court or upon the detainee’s discharge from the secure mental health unit if the detainee is still under a court order requiring full-time imprisonment.
ACT Corrective Services agree to resume custody of a detainee for the purpose of court to ensure effective use of territory resources. There is also scope for the Director-General of the Justice and Community Safety Directorate or delegate to approve ACT Corrective Services providing other escort services to detainees where legal custody has transferred to ACT Health. In addition, the amendment bill clarifies each directorate’s legal authority to grant a detainee leave, or to revoke it, from an approved mental health facility and the secure mental health unit.
These provisions, however, do not limit or hinder the ability for Corrective Services to revoke a detainee’s transfer direction to an approved mental health facility under the Corrections Management Act if deemed necessary or required.
I am satisfied that the work undertaken by ACT Corrective Services and ACT Health in drafting the provisions in the amendment bill presented before the Assembly today largely meets the former health services commissioner’s recommendations by
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