Disability at the margins: limits of the law

Abstract

People with mental and cognitive disability are over-represented as both victims and offenders. In Australia, those with disability who are most likely to be incarcerated are persons from poor, highly disadvantaged families and neighbourhoods, as well as Indigenous Australians. This article first clarifies definitions of mental and cognitive impairment and complex needs. Evidence from studies using administrative data from criminal justice and human service agencies, work by the Aboriginal Disability Justice Campaign, reports by the Australian Human Rights Commission and New South Wales and Victorian Law Reform Commission references are analysed using a critical disability criminology approach. These reveal that protections for people with multiple and complex support needs are lacking; diversions and therapeutic approaches do not address the underlying causes of concerning behaviour engaged in by people with disability. It is argued that the law is a blunt and often punitive instrument by which to address these matters. There is evidence of the social and financial benefits that would flow to the individual, family and community from a wholesale change in the way the law, the criminal justice system, and human and social agencies work together to support people with mental and cognitive disability.

Acknowledgements

Many thanks to Daniel Wells, Research Associate in Criminology at UNSW, for assistance with editing and referencing, to Ruth McCausland for valuable suggestions and to the two anonymous reviewers whose comments were invaluable. The support of the ARC is acknowledged through two ARC Linkage projects: LP0669246 and LP100200096.

Notes

¹ The Guardian, ‘Almost Half of People Shot Dead By Australian Police Were Mentally Ill’, http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/may/30/half-shot-police-mentally-ill, 30 May 2013; ABC News Online, ‘Aboriginal Woman's Jailing Highlights Plight of Intellectually Impaired Aboriginal Offenders’, http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-03-12/intellectually-disabledaboriginal-people-stuck-in-legal-limbo/5316892, 12 March 2014.

² The Guardian, ‘Roseanne Fulton: Federal Minister Steps in to Case of Jailed Aboriginal Woman’, http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/mar/18/roseanne-fulton-federal-minister-steps-in-to-case-of-jailed-aboriginal-woman, 18 March 2014.

³ https://www.change.org/p/roseanne-is-facing-a-lifetime-in-prison-because-of-her-disability-stop-the-neglect.

⁴ The Guardian, ‘Roseanne Fulton and Other Indigenous Australian People Australia Has Failed’, http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/mar/20/roseanne-fulton-disability-indigenous-australians

⁵ The Law Report, ‘The Case of Rosie Anne Fulton’, http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/lawreport/story-segment-template/5759618, 23 September 2014.

⁶ Aboriginal Disability Justice Campaign, http://www.pwd.org.au/what-we-do/aboriginal-disability-justice-campaign.html, 12 December 2014.

⁷ Baldry and Dowse (2013), p 231.

⁸ Australian Bureau of Statistics, ‘Prisoners in Australia, 2013’, http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/[email protected]/Lookup/4517.0main+features32013, 12 December 2014; Australia Indigenous HealthInfoNet, ‘Review of Indigenous Offender Health’, http://www.healthinfonet.ecu.edu.au/offender_health_review, 12 December 2014.

⁹ Australian Bureau of Statistics, ‘Prisoners in Australia, 2013’, http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/[email protected]/Lookup/4517.0main+features32013, 12 December 2014.

¹⁰ Brown (2013), p 81.

¹¹ Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (2013), p 3; Indig et al (2010), pp 51, 135.

¹² APA (2013).

¹³ NSW LRC (2012), p 138. Other terms used for and encompassing mental health impairment are ‘mental health disorder’, ‘psychiatric disability’ and ‘mental illness’, although they all denote slightly different ways of grouping mental health conditions.

¹⁴ Excluding personality disorders is controversial as many psychiatrists view them as mental health impairments and argue that they should be available in a plea of insanity: see Slovenko (2009). Nevertheless, most criminal justice forensic legislation excludes it.

¹⁵ NSW LRC (2012), p 136. Other terms encompassing cognitive impairment are ‘cognitive disability’ and ‘learning disability’.

¹⁶ UNCRPD (2008), preamble, para [e].

¹⁷ UNCRPD (2008), Art 1.

¹⁸ For discussion of social model of disability see, for example: Goodley (2001); Shakespeare and Watson (2001); Oliver and Sapey (2006); Oliver (2013).

¹⁹ See, for example, Clinks, ‘Multiple and Complex Needs’, http://www.clinks.org/criminal-justice/multiple-and-complex-needs, 12 December 2014; KPMG (2007); Bradley (2009); NSW LRC (2012).

²⁰ Baldry and Dowse (2013), p 222.

²¹ Riches (2006), p 388.

²² NSW LRC (2012, 2013); Victorian LRC (2013).

²³ ABS (2011).

²⁴ Riches et al (2006), p 388; in relation to the NT see Rowley (2014), p 385.

²⁵ Mental Health Commission (date unknown), p 37; Intellectual Disability Rights Service (2008), p 13.

²⁶ AIC (2012).

²⁷ ARC Linkage Grant (Project LP0669246), UNSW, ‘People With Mental Health Disorders and Cognitive Disability in the Criminal Justice System in NSW’. Chief investigators: Eileen Baldry, Leanne Dowse and Ian Webster; partner investigators: Tony Butler, Simon Eyland and Jim Simpson; partner organisations: Corrective Services NSW, Housing NSW, Justice Health NSW, Juvenile Justice NSW and the NSW Council on Intellectual Disability. ARC Linkage Grant (Project LP100200096), UNSW, ‘Indigenous Australians With Mental Health and Cognitive Disability in the Criminal Justice System in NSW’. Chief investigators: Eileen Baldry, Leanne Dowse, Julian Trollor and Patrick Dodson; partner organisations: Justice Health, Housing NSW, Ageing Disability and Home Care NSW, Legal Aid NSW; researchers: Peta MacGillivray, Han Xu, Ruth McCausland and Elizabeth McEntyre. See www.unsw.mhdcd.edu.au, 12 December 2014.

²⁸ Younger age at first police contact, t₍₁₂₃₉₎ = −24.05, P < 0.0001; more police contacts t₍₃₆₈₎ =−12.64, P < 0.0001.

²⁹ Analyses: 2 times more likely to be JJ client (P < 0.0001, 95% CI_[1.6,2.6]); significantly more police contact, t_(644.5) = −4.42, P < 0.0001; significantly more custody episodes, t₍₁₁₄₇₎ = −4.75, P < 0.0001.

³⁰ Baldry and Dowse (2013), p 231.

³¹ Mental Health (Criminal Procedure) Act 1990 s 32 (as amended) NSW. The purpose of s 32 is diversionary to allow defendants with a mental condition, a mental illness or a developmental disability to be dealt with in an appropriate treatment and rehabilitative context enforced by the court.

³² Langberg and Fedders (2013), pp 653–655.

³³ Hamilton (2010), p 316.

³⁴ Hamilton (2010), pp 316–317; Baldry and Dowse (2013), pp 223–224.

³⁵ Dowse et al (2009), p 37.

³⁶ Dowse et al (2009), pp 31–32.

³⁷ Anthony and Cunneen (2008).

³⁸ Hogg and Carrington (2002), pp 2–3.

³⁹ See for example Cunneen (2001, 2006, 2014); Anthony and Cunneen (2008); Blagg (2008).

⁴⁰ Baldry et al (2008), pp 32–33; Dowse et al (2009), p 39.

⁴¹ Vanny et al (2008); Jones and Talbot (2010); Australian Human Rights Commission (2014).

⁴² Cheung (2013).

⁴³ See, generally, Ortoleva (2011); Bartlett (2012); Chan et al (2012); Australian Human Rights Commission (2014); Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Probation (2014).

⁴⁴ See for example Belcher (1988); Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (1993), Ch 25; Lamb and Weinberger (1998); Butler and Allnut (2003); Baillargeon et al (2009).

⁴⁵ See, for example, Department of Health UK (2009); Rowe and Baranoski (2011); Chappell (2013).

⁴⁶ Richardson and McSherry (2010).

⁴⁷ See Hayes (2007); Jones and Talbot (2010); Snoyman (2010); Ortoleva (2011); Henshaw and Thomas (2012); NSW LRC (2012, 2013).

⁴⁸ Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Probation (2014).

⁴⁹ Sotiri et al (2012), pp 19–24.

⁵⁰ Australian Human Rights Commission (2014), pp 33–39.

⁵¹ Rankin and Regan (2004), p 4; Hamilton (2010), pp 307–309.

⁵² ARC Linkage Grant (Project LP0669246), UNSW, ‘People with Mental Health Disorders and Cognitive Disability in the Criminal Justice System in NSW’. Chief investigators: Eileen Baldry, Leanne Dowse, Ian Webster; Partner Investigators: Tony Butler, Simon Eyland and Jim Simpson. Partner Organisations: Corrective Services NSW, Housing NSW, Justice Health NSW, Juvenile Justice NSW, and the NSW Council on Intellectual Disability.

⁵³ Baldry and Dowse (2013), p 233.

⁵⁴ Baldry (2010), p 261; Diamond et al (2014), p 7.

⁵⁵ Baldry and Dowse (2013), p 227.

⁵⁶ Riches et al (2006), p 390.

⁵⁷ See NSW LRC (2013), pp 223–228.

⁵⁸ UN Principles for the Protection of Persons with Mental Illness (1991), Principle 9.1.

⁵⁹ Victorian LRC (2013).

⁶⁰ NSW LRC (2013), Rec 1.2, p 12.

⁶¹ Riches et al (2006), p 387.

⁶² Sotiri et al (2012), p 7.

⁶³ NSW LRC (2012), p 22; see, for example, the case of Marlon Noble in WA: http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/lawreport/marlon-noble/3007682, 12 December 2014; see Rowley (2014) for detailed discussion of this problem in the NT.

⁶⁴ KPMG (2007).

⁶⁵ See Hamilton (2010).

⁶⁶ Hamilton (2010), p 321.

⁶⁷ Department of Human Services Government of Victoria (2012).

⁶⁸ McDermott et al (2010).

⁶⁹ Baldry et al (2012).

⁷⁰ Wexler and Winick (1996), p xvii.

⁷¹ See, for example, AIC (2012, 2014).

⁷² AIC (2012).

⁷³ See, for example, Hirst et al (2009); Burnside (2012); Durcan (2014).

⁷⁴ McCausland et al (2013).

⁷⁵ McCausland et al (2013), pp 9–11.

⁷⁶ Ortoleva (2011), p 285.

⁷⁷ See, for example, Beebee (2010); Ortoleva (2011); Henshaw and Thomas (2012); Australian Human Rights Commission (2014).