Boone
Content Warning: These stories are about violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation and may include references to suicide or self-harming behaviours. They may contain graphic descriptions and strong language and may be distressing. Some narratives may be about First Nations people who have passed away. If you need support, please see Contact & support.
Boone is a First Nations man in his 20s living with psychosocial disabilities, including post-traumatic stress disorder and depression. Boone has spent a lot of time in mental health units since he was a child. He’s now in jail.
‘I have been a lot of trouble,’ Boone told the Royal Commission. ‘Because of my history, past history, they don’t like me out of the [prison] unit, so I’ve got to stay in the unit all day behind the grills, locked in. I’m pretty much used to it because I’ve been doing it for so long.’
Boone said prison makes his disability worse.
‘I had no support. I’ve always asked to see mental health … and I used to get knocked back all the time. Like, I was denied of mental health, seeing the psychs and stuff, so it was hard, yeah. And I had to go off a lot. And then the only time they’d actually do something is when I’d smash something up.’
Prison officers consider Boone ‘disruptive’, so he spends a lot of time in solitary confinement.
‘I hate confined places now, I done so long down the back in solitary confinement since I’ve been in prison. It’s got real bad with my mental health. I struggle a lot down the back … I think about self-harm, especially down the back.’
Once, Boone spent two weeks in solitary confinement for speaking back to a prison officer.
‘I just told him not to talk to me like a kid and I got two weeks on close supervision, which is solitary confinement down the back, just for saying, “Don’t talk to me like a kid.” Like, I felt the whole time I was there they were trying to break my soul.’
Boone said he once spent 10 weeks in solitary confinement.
‘I suffer from depression and anxiety a lot, so that just made me feel … like I was treated like an animal.’
He said it’s worse in summer.
‘They didn’t give me no fans. I had to suffer in the cell for, like, over three weeks without a fan in the cell. I couldn’t sleep. I was going through that much heatstroke and that my nose was bleeding every night from the heat … They turned my taps off. Couldn’t drink water. It was that hot in the cell.’
Boone told the Royal Commission the prison system prevents his rehabilitation.
‘I was doing painting courses, general education like maths, English. I was doing a lot of that.’
After being transferred between prisons, ‘they just stopped all [his] education’ and some mental health supports.
‘They stop everything because they think I’m going to do something wrong. Most of the time I’m just getting pushed to the edge because I’ve got nothing going for me. I want to change my life around while I’m in prison, like. And the treatment I’m getting, it’s pushing me to the edge. I don’t think I’m going to be changed. I’m going to be even worse when I get out.’
Boone said his main supports in prison were First Nations elders who were also in prison.
‘It makes me happy, I like being around my elders, like learning and stuff, so I get that real good connection and healing. So, yeah, I love it, yeah. At least being stuck in the unit all day I can be around them, you know … My elders actually keep me out of trouble, so I listen to them.’
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.