An Indigenous man has died in custody after advice was ignored to transfer him to a secure mental health facility.
TJ Dennis, a Wiradjuri man, had sued the ACT government after being depicted in a racist “hangman” drawing during a previous custodial sentence.
He took his own life at the weekend in the Silverwater Correctional Complex in Sydney. Indigenous advocates have called for a joint NSW and ACT inquiry into his death.
The hangman sketch was drawn inside the Alexander Maconochie Centre (AMC) south of Canberra on a whiteboard in May 2018, with the drawing allegedly showing the initials of his name. A photograph of the image was passed around by correctional staff and detainees at the prison. Dennis sued the ACT government in 2021, alleging a breach of his human rights.
Julie Tongs, the chief executive of Winnunga Nimmityjah Aboriginal Health and Community Service, wants an independent inquiry into Dennis’s death, saying he was not adequately cared for within the prison system.
“[The] ACT can’t abrogate their responsibility; TJ was an ACT prisoner before he was in the NSW prison and there needs to be a joint coronial inquiry into this,” she said.
“TJ is dead now because the system failed him. We want justice for TJ and somebody needs to be held accountable. We need to unpack how this went terribly, terribly wrong and why it’s still happening, not just for TJ, but for all these other men and women that have gone before him and those who will come after him, because the system is failing.”
Tongs said the Aboriginal healthcare provider for prison inmates had strongly recommended Dennis be placed in a specialist forensic mental healthcare unit but that was ignored.
“He’s had a lot of trauma in his life from his childhood and as a young adult, so he really needed to be in a facility where they could provide that care,” she said.
“He had serious mental health issues, he’d displayed that while he was in AMC and then they sent him off to NSW where they obviously didn’t stipulate he needed a secure mental health facility.”
She said the health provider had mentioned its concerns about Dennis’s mental health to the ACT attorney general and senior prison authorities on a number of occasions, beginning in 2019 after the hangman drawing incident.
She said the young Canberra man was a much-loved member of his community and his death was distressing and traumatising.
An ACT government spokesperson said it acknowledged the “terrible sadness of the death of a man in NSW”.
“Our thoughts and condolences are with the deceased’s family and friends,” the spokesperson said.
“The ACT Government was notified on Monday 7 August 2023. While NSW authorities investigate the death, it is inappropriate for the government to make any comment, other than to say death in any circumstances is tragic.”
The spokesperson said an inquiry into the death is a matter for NSW but that ACT prison authorities were willing to assist.
The spokesperson said the man had requested to be transferred to NSW, something which took place on 14 July 2021.
“In the interests of the man and after careful consideration, the transfer was facilitated under s26 of the Crime (Sentence Administration) Act 2005.”
In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. 13YARN provides 24/7 crisis support for Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander peoples. In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is at 988 or chat for support. You can also text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis text line counselor. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org
