Apollo
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‘I’ve seen it in every jail ... there are people in jail with disability that should not be in jail.’
Apollo is in his 20s and has an acquired brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder. When he was younger his psychosocial disability would cause him to ‘blackout’ when he became stressed.
At around the age of 10, he became a ward of the state. A couple of years later, he was sent to juvenile detention.
As he grew older, the blackouts turned to anger and frustration, and he has often found it difficult to keep his temper in check. Apollo has spent most of his adult life ‘in and out of jail’.
The prisons where he has served time have had a disruptive prisoner protocol (DPP) in place. Under the policy, an inmate can be kept in solitary confinement for 28 days. They are entitled to three meals, one phone call, a shower and one hour of outdoor recreation each day.
Inmates in the general prison can be prescribed medication and have access to counselling services. Those same supports are not offered when they’re ‘down the back’.
Apollo has spent a lot of time ‘on DPP’, confined to a cell for ‘23 hours a day’.
During one stint, he went ‘eight days [straight] without the cell door opening, not for a shower, phone call, rec, nothing’.
‘You can’t put [people] in a cell for, like, a long period of time and not let them see no-one, not let them talk to no-one, not give them a TV, not give them a radio ... nothing at all.’
Under the policy, once an inmate completes their 28 days in solitary incarceration, they can immediately be transferred to another prison. They can also be ‘rotated’ every 28 days, for months at time.
Apollo told the Royal Commission that the protocol and other prolonged periods of solitary confinement should never be used to ‘punish’ inmates.
‘What they’ve done to not only me, a lot of other boys ... it stuffs with people’s heads mentally ... people kill themselves over shit like that.’
During one stint, he became so distressed that he set his cell alight. ‘I nearly died,’ Apollo said. He had already spent six months down the back. As a consequence for starting the fire, he was sentenced to another four months on DPP.
Apollo has recommended that inmates serving a ‘disruptive prisoner’ term have access to counsellors, psychiatrists and ‘more people to talk to’.
He recalled a situation where a prison officer helped him during a particularly difficult time while in solitary. Apollo had told the officer ‘Chief, I feel like smashing this cell up.’
The staff member sat down outside Apollo’s cell, drank his cup of coffee and chatted with him. His proactive approach helped de-escalate what could have led to a violent situation. ‘Some officers are good like that,’ said Apollo.
He has also recommended that offenders with psychosocial disability appear before ‘a mental health courtroom’. Not a criminal court he said, but ‘a courtroom of their own’.
‘The shit I went through I wouldn’t wish upon ... my worst enemy ... yeah, it’s [been] a hard life’.
Disclaimer: This is the story of a person who shared their personal experience with the Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability through a submission or private session. The names in this story are pseudonyms. The person who shared this experience was not a witness and their account is not evidence. They did not take an oath or affirmation before providing the story. Nothing in this story constitutes a finding of the Royal Commission. Any views expressed are those of the person who shared their experience, not of the Royal Commission.