An Indigenous Canberra man has died in a NSW prison, a leading Aboriginal health organisation has said, prompting them to call for the ACT government to commission an independent review into the "avoidable tragedy".
Winnunga Nimmityjah chief executive Julie Tongs said TJ Denniss had died in a NSW prison at the weekend, where he had been incarcerated after being transferred from ACT Corrective Services.
Ms Tongs said ACT Corrective Services had ignored the recommendation of Winnunga Nimmityjah doctors who had insisted Denniss required dedicated mental health care.
"Staff at Winnunga had therefore recommended firstly that TJ be admitted to Dulwah and when this recommendation was ignored, and ACT Corrective Services advised that it was their intention to have him transferred to a prison in NSW we insisted that the only appropriate placement for TJ in the NSW prison system was the forensic mental health facility at Long Bay Gaol," the organisation said in a statement on Tuesday afternoon.
"This recommendation was also ignored, and TJ was placed by the ACT in the NSW prison system in multiple prisons across the state."
Ms Tongs said she believed Denniss' death was predictable and avoidable if the ACT government had listened to those who sought to care for and those who loved him.
An independent inquiry needed to examine the circumstances of Denniss' imprisonment in the Alexander Maconochie Centre, Canberra's prison, and his treatment there, Ms Tongs said.
Ms Tongs said she was concerned the ACT had taken the decision to transfer Denniss to the NSW prison system because Denniss was the subject of a "vile and racist hangman game" reported to have been drawn on a staff tearoom wall at Canberra's prison.
The game depicted an Aboriginal man hanging while a boat purported to refer to the prison's special emergency response team sailed past; the people on the boat appear in the 2018 drawing to be celebrating.
Then corrective services minister Shane Rattenbury at the time said he was personally appalled by the incident and said it was "deeply regrettable and frankly offensive".
An ACT government spokeswoman said: "The ACT government acknowledges the terrible sadness of the death of a man in NSW, our thoughts and condolences are with the deceased's family and friends.
"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."
Denniss requested to be transferred to NSW and was transferred in July 2021, the ACT government said.
"In the interests of the man and after careful consideration, the transfer was facilitated under section 26 of the Crime (Sentence Administration) Act 2005," a spokeswoman said.
Denniss' death in NSW will be a matter for that state's coroner.
The ACT government committed to a review of Indigenous incarceration before the 2020 election but the report has been pushed back and would not be delivered until late 2024.
