Examples of torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment in prisons
Examples in Victoria
Ignoring a person in prison who needs urgent medical attention
The coronial inquest into the passing of Veronica Nelson looked at the behaviour of prison staff who neglected and ignored a woman begging for medical help just hours before she passed away in her cell. The Coroner’s Court of Victoria said for treatment to be cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment it did not have to be intentional – it could be negligent. The Court found that the prison officers ignoring Veronica and failing to get urgent medical assistance was inhuman and degrading treatment that breached section 10 of the Victorian Charter of Human Rights.
For more details of the Coroner’s Court findings, see Finding into death with inquest of Nelson, Veronica (COR 2020 0021) [2023] VicCorC 28312 (30 January 2023).
Other examples
Human rights advocates have argued there are other prison practices in Australia that amount to torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, such as:
- Extended solitary confinement;
- Spit hoods.
These practices have been recognised as cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment in international human rights cases and by UN experts.
The Victorian Supreme Court has also found examples of cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment outside prisons, including a disability support worker dragging a person with a disability across a hallway while they were naked. This was the case of Davies v State of Victoria [2012] VSC 343.
Examples from overseas
In the Canadian legal case of Trang v Alberta (Edmonton Remand Centre) (2010), conditions in a prison were found to be so bad they were “degrading to human dignity and worth”. People there were being made to double-bunk in cells not fit for two people, were hardly allowed to leave their cells, exercise or participate in recreation, and were kept in lockdowns for months at a time.
In the New Zealand legal case of Taunoa v Attorney-General [2007] NZSC 70, the Supreme Court looked at a behaviour modification regime which included harsh conditions like:
- Being kept in cells with poor conditions for 22-23 hours a day with little natural light, fresh air, privacy or laundry
- Very little opportunity to exercise
- No rehabilitation programs
- No access to books or TV
- Routine unlawful strip searches
- Common verbal abuse by guards
- Improper seizure of items like legal papers
- Lack of regular medical monitoring
The Supreme Court found that the regime amounted to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment for a person who was kept in the program for a particularly long time. (The regime was found to breach the right to humane treatment while deprived of liberty, a different type of right, for everyone).
Important: Section 32(2) of the Victorian Charter of Human Rights says that international law (including international human rights cases) can be taken into account when interpreting Victorian laws like the Corrections Act 1986 (Vic). However, courts don’t have to consider international cases, and they don’t have to agree with what they say.