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Demand for open investigation into an Aboriginal trans death
I came across this article today, really very disturbing!!! There is a petition to sign for a public enquiry on the link provided below.
Rachel Evans, Sydney
10 April 2010On March 10, 2009, three days after Mardi Gras, 34-year-old Veronica Baxter was arrested by Redfern police. She was charged with six counts of supplying a prohibited drug and held on remand at the all-male NSW Silverwater Metropolitan Reception and Remand Centre.
An attractive transgender woman, she was placed in the maximum security, male jail.
Six days later, after a 14-hour break between checking her cell, she was found dead, hanging in her single cell.Veronica Baxter was an Aboriginal woman from the Cunnamulla country, south- west of Queensland. She dressed, appeared, and had identified as a woman for 15 years and was known by family and friends as a woman.
Yet she was placed in a male jail against NSW government policy, which states that transgender people be placed in the jail of their choosing.
Ray Jackson, president of the Indigenous Social Justice Association and elder of the Wiradguri nation, and has been fighting black deaths in custody for decades and campaigning around the Baxter case for a year.
He explained: “If trans people are post-operative transgender women, they are considered real women, and are placed within the women’s jail. If they are pre-operative transgender women, they are considered ‘male’ and are normally processed in a male jail.”
Transgender people face a disproportionate amount of abuse, rape, and murder in jail. Consequently, in Australia, strict guidelines exist, requiring protective segregation of transgender people from mainstream prisoners.
The Crimes (Administration of Sentences) Act 1999 states “any person received into the custody of the NSW Department of Corrective Services (DCS) who self-identifies as transgender has the right to be housed in a correctional facility appropriate to their gender or identification”. It says: “Transgender inmates are to be managed according to their chosen gender of identification.” Transgender women normally request to get placed in women jails.
“After processing in the male jail, pre-operative transgender women are then given an opportunity to go to a women’s jail, but have to stay in solitary confinement because they are still considered ‘male’”, Jackson told Green Left Weekly.
“Pre-operative transgender women won’t be in solitary confinement in a male jail, but they will suffer more harassment, assault and abuse.”
This policy discriminates against poor transgender people. In Australia it costs up to $20,000 for a male to female operation and up to $14,000 for a female to male operation. Baxter was allowed to move about Silverwater, among other male prisoners, and had not been checked on for 14 hours before she was found hanging from her cell hook. This contravenes another Department of Corrective Service (DCS) policy of regular cell check-ups.
“We don’t know for sure about why she was placed in Silverwater. That’s because the NSW Department of Correctional Services have not released any paperwork regarding Baxter’s death”, Jackson said.
In August 2009 he sent a letter to the NSW state coroner demanding a full report be sent to the family. In October 2009, they replied that they were initiating a full investigation into the death of Baxter, and that it would be “inappropriate at this time to comment on the specific circumstances surrounding Ms Baxter’s death.”
The coroners court has advised it will be meeting in mid-April to make a decision as to the actual date of the Baxter inquest.
Queer rights activist group, Community Action Against Homophobia is demanding action on this campaign. Steaphan Markatony, CAAH co-convenor, said: “Was Veronica Baxter killed in custody by transphobic guards or inmates? We don’t know. The only way we will find out is if there is a full, open inquiry. Support CAAH’s campaign to get it!”
[Call Ray on 0415 858 264 or Raul on 0403 037 376 for more information. Sign CAAH’s petition for a public enquiry.]
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5 Replies
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Hi Anthea this news has not been on wide press and shocked to see it has happened, Sadly this will not be the only death come come in the future and why a lot fear the system.
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You are right about transgendered persons being housed in a gaol of their choice. It is of course possible that if she had not been incarcerated in NSW before then appropriate screening measures would have been undertaken in a male prison, to determine the true nature of her sexuality.
The screening process usually entails a very in depth interview with medical staff who I would have thought might have picked up on any suicidal tendencies. Having said this though it has been my experience that the people who achieve a successfull suicide attempt usually don’t display any symptoms beforehand. In fact people can be fooled by their happy and relaxed manner when they have finally made the decision to end their lives.
I have worked in the NSW Prison system (15 years in fact) and have had dealings with many transexuals who chose to reside in a male only prison. They were generally treated well by the majority of the prison population and made friends quickly with inmates who looked after them.
The loss of any life is a tragedy and I don’t think any prison gaurds would have helped her demise. Their are too many transexuals in the system and have been for many years, and I know that Corrective Services insists that these inmates be addressed by the name and nature of their chosen gender. They are allowed certain items of feminine clothing as gaol issue (feminie underwear bra knickers etc, green skirt), and can buy a limited range of cosmetics throught the inmate buy up procedures.As for the cell not being checked for 14 hours, well I’m sorry but I don’t think so. Inmates soon get used to the frequency of the cell checks and it only takes a few minute to kill yourself. Inmates have been known to hang themselves lying down in their beds, it only takes a weell placed knot in a rope or sheet around the kneck tied to the end of the bed and enough pressure on the kneck soon induces unconsciousness.
Terrible yes but it is all too easy to try and blame peope in these cases, and the one thing the gaol system fears most is the Black Deaths in Custody people investigating them, trust if there was any blame to be laid they will find it.
Hugs Pamela -
I dislike some of the items mentioned in this report, fullstop. I won’t go on but its completely disgusting and disgraceful to treat a human with this kind of management, let alone the way it sets out. Its obvious that shutting a pre-op trans-woman into a solitary is stupid, in fact anybody in solitary is stupid and its about time the country stopped that procedure and did something about it. Its obvious that doing the strip search processing in an all male prison then transferring to a female prison is completely stupid too. Why can you not perform the total processing of a trans-woman in the prison of her choice? Its simpler and wastes less time. And why the hell is so much given over to a change in flesh, what the hell status privilege is there to having a Penis over and above a Vagina!???????????? Here is a clear cut case of regardless our choice, the government still says Penis rules!!!!
Hint, never get on the wrong side of the LAW in NSW or anywhere for that fact, because you’re likely to end up raped and bashed or dead, or both! It is not worth It!
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Anthea: Well spotted
AbbeyJane: Agree entirely
Pamela: Screening process? No disrespect to you as a member of our community or your 15 years working in the prison system (in fact full respect) but … I’m coming out in another way here …
Screening process … What screening process (let alone within 6 days of arrival)???? … Try 6 years but even then you’ve got to be kidding … It doesn’t exist until an almost unbearable amount of medical & NSW Corrective Services bureaucracy has been endured … If at all …
I never saw a prison guard help in anyone’s demise but I certainly saw a couple ignore one (i.e. a “demise”) & that’s how it works mostly … OD until it was too late with a number of us screaming to the nurse through a window – 1 hr too late when help came (he was a driving offender).
I can easily accept (& experienced many times) a cell not being checked by guards for MORE than 14 hours. Don’t find the description you provided of horizontal hangings necessary (hardly usual) & certainly don’t trust that the “Black Deaths in Custody People” (specifically who?) will get to the bottom of it without a heap of pressure.
This matter has massive implications for the well-being of Koori & TG prisoners alike. It doesn’t need apologists before proper channels are followed.
Debbie
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Perhaps being transgendered and at the time working in a private gaol made me a little more empathic towards TG inmates. The private system is a lot more worried about accountability than the public gaols so perhaps they were a little more thorough, I know for a fact thgat we provided female staff for strip searching when requested, and having worked night shift I know that cells were checked every 4 hours at least. Remand inmates are locked up depending on their at risk classification,and all inmates were screened within a few hours of arriving at the gaol. I cannot of course speak for the public system but only for a company intent on keeping its contract. (ie: no stuff ups at all if possible)
I know how easy it is for people intent on killing themslves to suceed no matter how much supervision they have, I knew one girl who I think I mentioned before who slashed her wrists, and then while under gaurd at the hospital managed to jump out of a 6th floor window. She was a transgendered inmate and her name was Kay I don’t think she would have had the knowledge of such a wonderfull support group as this but perhaps if she had she might still be here.
No matter what anyone thinks there are prison gaurds who care, although it may not be instantly visible through their professional attitude, but there are some. Imagine if you might dealing with the scum of the earth every day you go to work, drug adicts, rapists , murderers, pedophiles etc etc, not to mention the a…holes who are attracted to that kind of employment. You know the types, power hungry trouble makers. You read the files to familiarise yourself with the inmates on your case load, so you can learn how best to guide them through the rehabilitation programs (lol) every disgusting detail of their crimes are in their files, but you are supposed to ignore that and help these people. You do become desensitised after a while, nothing seems to shock you and you probably get a little blase about the whole situation, but even so some do still care about the unfortunate inmates.
Hugs Pamela
