"I don't hear most people who are detained in Australia are found to be unfit to plead simply because they've been detained. "Some people don't handle it well."
Well Phil 'former member of Amnesty International and now Howard government minister who turned Immigration into a cess pool of right wing dickheads and is trying to do the same in Attorney General's' Ruddock, this is what happens in solitary confinement with nothing to do when you stare at concrete walls for 95.8% of your day.
Even Supermaxes in the mainland US (where prisoners are not detained without charges and have access to the counsel of their choice) allow prisoners books and access to a fucking television set.
If you're curious, as Ruddock evidently is not, as to the impact on this form of detention check out the latest Time magazine which featured an article on it. It was described as 'torture without touch' and examined how prisoners who are treated this way become ... mentally damaged.
Of course Time magazine is only available at fine newsagents across the country so Ruddock might not be aware of its existance. Nor Downer. Nor the nice kind US media official who claimed that when they saw Hicks he was just super!
BTW - you can read the article here.
Oh Ruddock notes Hicks is allowed to mingle with other prisoners. He gets let out too so he can have a bit of a read. Presumably this all happens in the 60 minutes a day he's allowed out of his small cell.
When theWife and I were in Melbourne for Frandma's funeral we decided to check out the old Melbourne jail. The tiny cells were quite similiar to the ones Hicks inhabits - though of course far more comfortable. But it seems sticking a man in a cell and closing the door for days, weeks, months, years had a negative effect.
As per this charming 'did you know'...