Lambert
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Lambert, mid-50s, has physical disability, is hard of hearing and has medical issues.
He is in a correctional facility.
‘I broke my leg in several places and I do struggle to walk. I limp really badly.’
Lambert told the Royal Commission the facility refuses to give him mobility aids.
‘They don’t like giving you crutches or a walking stick or anything. They just don’t hand them out.’
Lambert has broken his wrist several times. Recently he developed involuntary muscle tremors. He finds it difficult and painful to use his hands and hold things.
He has to clean his own cell, which he says ‘is acceptable’.
Recently, however, the correctional facility moved Lambert to a different division. Cleaning his cell in this division is ‘a different kettle of fish’.
‘They have got a stainless-steel sink and toilet. It's all one piece and it's polished like a mirror and they expect you to keep it polished like that … You've got to get on your hands and knees and scrub the toilet and the sink.’
Lambert can’t kneel or squat or grip the polishing cloth.
He said the only reason the facility requires him to polish the toilet and sink to such a high standard is to torment him.
To clean the floor, he has to use a dustpan and brush.
Lambert asked the officers for a broom because he can’t bend and get down on his knees.
‘I was told in these words, “Fuck off, that’s not happening dickhead … Talk to the hand, don’t want to hear it.”’
The officer said Lambert would find a way to get on the floor, ‘if he knows what’s good for him’.
Lambert uses his feet to clean the floor but it is very painful.
If the officers aren’t satisfied they make him clean his cell again.
The facility gives Lambert ‘finger food’ because they don’t allow cutlery. He says it is horrible and difficult to eat.
One time in the exercise yard, an officer spurred on a guard dog to attack him.
‘They stirred the dog up to attack me … They shouldn't do it. They made sport out of a disabled prisoner and they shouldn’t have done that. I made a complaint about it. Nothing happened.’
In winter, the officers wear scarves and jumpers and taunt Lambert about the cold.
‘They take your clothes off you and they give you a canvas bag with armholes to wear. It could be three or four degrees in the cell because there's no heating there … It is freezing cold in winter but you'll be left there with no shoes, no socks and a canvas bag with armholes to wear.’
Lambert said the officers treat prisoners with intellectual disability and prisoners with schizophrenia or mental health issues very badly and enjoy tormenting them.
‘This is what goes on over there. People don't understand. People don't see it. They don't know about it. This is how they treat you.’
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.