Niles and Tessa

‘It shames and saddens me how uneducated jail [staff] are about people with a disability. It’s time the government realises, as a community we all have to make change happen.’

Niles lost sight in his right eye as a consequence of a firearm injury and required an operation to repair his skull. The incident also left Niles with cognitive issues and medical conditions, such as seizures, that require medication. His mother, Tessa, told the Royal Commission about her son’s experience as a prisoner with disability and her battles on his behalf.

‘I saw him in a state I find hard to write [about] – in a wheelchair, his left eye bulging and moving round and he could not see,’ Tessa said.

He was pushing his wheelchair into a wall and while there were three guards present it took some time before Niles was taken to the hospital. She said he was vomiting and dizzy but no observations or blood tests were done.

‘l [tried] all avenues to get help. [The prison guards] called him a ‘retard’ and he was put out in the yard while in his wheelchair without a helmet. At that time Niles had no plate put in [to repair his skull] so anybody could have hurt him.’

Following the procedure to fit a plate to Niles’s skull, Tessa said, her son was sent back to prison before it was safe. She was adamant Niles should not have been forced to return to prison without authorities considering the advice of his medical practitioners.

‘His neurosurgeon said he should never had been taken from rehab [as doing so would give Niles] a 10 per cent chance of survival.’

Tessa told us she thinks prison staff are not adequately trained, and are certainly not interested in maintaining the level of vigilance and care required.

‘He went down as soon as he was taken from rehab. He was doing good [in rehab]. Nobody understands the damage [done] is worse in jail.’

Tessa believes Niles was ‘poisoned’ with seizure medication while in prison, by guards both under- and over-medicating him. The resultant toxicity of medications in his system was so damaging that he became legally blind in his remaining eye.

‘One of the prison guards asked me not to say that she told me that Niles’ meds were given to him in [wrong] doses and would be on the [prison] cameras,’ Tessa said. Sometimes Niles didn’t get his medication but his medical chart showed signatures indicating the medication had been administered.

Staff have not provided any assistance for Niles to read and write which is something he did before the injury. Tessa said he’s been waiting more than two years for an artificial eye.

Tessa is also angry about the lack of clarity in communication she continues to experience while dealing with her son’s health and wellbeing.

She would like to see prisons staffed ‘with professionals in all areas’ so that true rehabilitation of inmates requiring medical care can happen there.

‘It’s shocking [to see] Australia letting their own vulnerable people down.’

‘He’s no longer a violent offender,’ Tessa said.

‘[The] stress of being in jail is no good for his health. The environment is not calming [and Niles] is just treated like nothing, like nobody. Well, he’s my son – he’s somebody’s – and [he has] a lot of support and a family who love him.’