A woman who lives with muscular dystrophy thought prison guards were trying to kill her when she was repeatedly dropped while being transferred in and out of her wheelchair.
Giving evidence to the disability royal commission, Dianne Lyons said she spent a "terrifying" four years in a Brisbane prison, and was left "vulnerable" and "desperate".
Ms Lyons is one of more than 20 witnesses to give evidence to the inquiry about the experiences of people with disability in the criminal justice system.
She said she tried not to show fear and spoke up for herself, but the officers in the jail were a "law unto themselves".
Ms Lyons said guards told her they did not know how to lift her when she was being transported to hospital and court.
"When they dropped me a few times … at one stage, I thought they were trying to kill me actually, because they thought I was a problem, because I spoke up for myself," she said.
"I tried not to show fear but I was very afraid."
Ms Lyons said the prison was "totally inaccessible" to wheelchair users and she often "whacked … bruised … and scraped" her hands on the prison's doorways.
She said other female prisoners were employed in the "highest paying jobs in the prison" to be her carers and they would put hair and spit in her food.
Condition became worse after stay in prison
Ms Lyons was not allowed access to her wheelchair after 6pm and could not go to the bathroom until it was returned to her at about 7am the next day.
She got "really sick" with five bacterial infections during her detention.
In 2018, she applied for the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) and received an $8,000 plan but the jail's management would not allow her to receive physiotherapy treatment.
Ms Lyons said her muscular dystrophy progressed a lot faster as a result.
"I got no physiotherapy so my condition is a lot worse … I could still walk a little bit when I went into prison, I can't walk at all now," she said.
The reason for Ms Lyon's incarceration was not revealed publicly at the disability royal commission.
After winning an appeal, where she represented herself, Ms Lyons' convictions were quashed after four years in jail.
Ms Lyons now has a $300,000 NDIS plan and the inquiry was told she's facing a re-trial.
Juvenile detention a 'dark place'
A First Nations man had his statement read out to the inquiry about how he was physically assaulted by prison officers at the Banksia Hill Detention Centre in Western Australia between 2012 and 2017.
The man, known to the royal commission as Nathan, lives with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and was in and out of juvenile detention from when he was 11 years old.
Now 24 and in Casuarina prison, Nathan said his time in juvenile detention was harrowing.
"It broke me and it made me a different person," Nathan said.
"Banksia took me to a dark place and ruined my life."
In 2017, Nathan was moved to a multipurpose cell in Banksia Hill, which he described as "dirty and disgusting" and "smelling like a urinal".
Nathan said that lights were kept on all the time in these cells and he had no mattress or bedding, making it impossible for him to get any sleep.
In May 2017, Nathan was involved in an incident at Banksia Hill that saw him moved to an observation cell.
While being transferred, Nathan said several officers hit him repeatedly while he was handcuffed.
"I felt like I was getting hit from everywhere," he said.
Nathan said it went on for a couple of minutes and he tried to fight back.
"I was left bruised with two black eyes and lumps on my back, ribs and head. My head was split and my nose was bleeding," he said.
Nathan asked if he could see a nurse and was refused.
Nathan said that he had never self-harmed before coming to Banksia Hill, but when he did while inside, no-one took him seriously.
"I am a strong person, but I don't think anything could have prepared me for what I went through at Banksia," he said.
"I feel stuck and like I can't trust anyone anymore. What happened at Banksia made me feel so bad that I wanted to kill myself."
The supervisor of Banksia Hill Detention Centre is expected to give evidence when the inquiry sits on October 6: a substitute hearing day for the national day of mourning public holiday.
The director of the National Suicide Prevention and Trauma Recovery Project, Megan Krakouer, told the royal commission about her work with First Nations people with disability inside Acacia Prison, Banksia Hill Detention Centre and other Australian jails.
"Our children are being failed," Ms Krakoeur said.
"There are problems in these systems and these problems have been known for years."
Ms Krakoeur said 600 testimonies had been collected as part of a class action, over the harm perpetrated on juveniles in Banksia Hill Detention Centre.
She said "immediate intervention" was needed for detainees in Western Australia's jails, as it was a "terrible system hurting and killing people".
"We are denying some of our most vulnerable people in the prison system access to the very fundamentals that we should all have as human beings in this world," she said.
Man left 'in the dark' without interpreters
A deaf man known to the inquiry as Alen gave evidence about his time in custody in NSW between 2019 and 2021.
Alen said he did not get any Auslan interpreter services until four weeks after arriving at the jail, and could only communicate with his solicitor by writing notes.
"I had no idea how long I would be without communication," Alen said.
He described his time in jail as "very lonely" as he could not communicate with other prisoners or guards.
Alen was unable to hear any emergency alarms and was "completely in the dark", unless one of the guards "tapped" him on the shoulder to tell him what was going on.
"I didn't have any interpreters for anything," Alen said.
"I wasn't able to engage in any courses or workshops or any kind of program because there were no interpreters."
Alen asked the royal commission to recommend that interpreters be regularly provided for deaf inmates and that jails had visual warnings like flashing lights to signal fire alarms, opening doors and emergency situations.
