Advocates have serious concerns for the wellbeing of a man in a South Australian prison they say has been in solitary confinement for “close to 800 days”.
Robert Barnes is serving an 11-year sentence at Yatala labour prison in Adelaide and is in the high-security G Division.
Uncle Major “Moogy” Sumner, one of the state’s most prominent Aboriginal elders, said Barnes, an Indigenous man, was in prison after assaulting a corrections officer.
Sumner and Mel Turner, a former Aboriginal liaison officer (ALO) at the prison, both said they had not previously heard of anyone being kept in solitary confinement for that long. “It’s getting close to 800 [days],” Turner said.
Sumner, a Ngarrindjeri elder, environmental activist, former Greens candidate and member of South Australia’s First Nations voice said he had been stopped from seeing Barnes because he spoke to the voice about the situation.
“I was going to see him, then I got told that because I’m a member of the voice in SA and I took it to the voice – and somehow they found out I mentioned it there and said I couldn’t go in and see him,” Sumner said.
“That’s what the voice is for. Anything wrong with Aboriginal people, we take it to the government.”
Sumner is due to meet the state’s correctional services head, David Brown, on Friday regarding Barnes’s situation.
“We’ll talk about what we can do. We have to get [Barnes] out of there,” Sumner said.
The Human Rights Law Centre defines solitary confinement as isolation “for 22 hours a day or more without meaningful human contact”.
“Prolonged solitary confinement is solitary confinement for a time period in excess of 15 consecutive days.”
The centre has condemned it as a “cruel practice that causes irreparable harm to the people who are subjected to this form of physical and sensory isolation”, and called on governments to ban the “archaic and inhumane” practice.
Turner said she advocated for Sumner to visit Barnes, at which point she was told Sumner could not come in because he had spoken to the voice.
“I said ‘Wow, I’ll tell Major Sumner’, and [the person] said, ‘You can’t tell him and you can’t tell the prisoner’,” Turner said. She said she last saw Barnes at the end of March.
Turner has claimed she had been targeted and bullied and felt she had to resign from her role as an ALO, which she did in June.
“I resigned because I was pushed out,” she said.
In a letter to Brown sent in May, seen by Guardian Australia, Turner said she had been “hindered” in performing her role because of a ban on ALOs from accessing G Division, which was “heartbreaking and soul-crushing” because her role is “specifically aimed at preventing Aboriginal deaths in custody” and Barnes had self-harmed and attempted suicide twice.
She said Barnes’s sister told her he had tried to kill himself on Tuesday, the same day a protest was held outside the prison.
SA Greens senator Barbara Pocock wrote to the acting premier, Susan Close, to confirm exactly how long Barnes has been in solitary confinement, saying UN standards known as the Nelson Mandela Rules prohibit solitary confinement for more than 15 consecutive days.
“We send people to prison as punishment, not for punishment,” Pocock said in a statement on Wednesday.
“I am told this prisoner has already attempted suicide and self-harm on a number of occasion and I, along with many others in the community, hold grave fears for his health and wellbeing while he is held under these conditions.”
In the letter to Close, seen by Guardian Australia, Pocock asked exactly how many days Barnes had been in solitary; whether UN rules had been breached; whether certain books and materials had been withheld; whether ALOs and Sumner were stopped from visiting; whether any officer had said Sumner was stopped from visiting because he was a member of the SA voice; and whether Close had confidence in the leadership and management at the prison.
“In view of these serious allegations and the clear threat and risk to Mr Barnes’ health and wellbeing, I request that your government initiate an immediate investigation of these matters,” Pocock wrote.
The SA correctional services minister, Emily Bourke, said the government was working with Sumner and “taking steps to address issues raised”.
“We recognise Corrections manage prisoners who present as very high-risk and must balance the complex needs of these individuals with the safety of staff, prisoners and visitors,” she said.
“Violence in our prisons is unacceptable and community safety is the priority.”
Bourke said she met with Brown and others to discuss management of Barnes’s situation and that she had been advised that “the individual’s high-risk behaviours, including serious assaults against staff, led to their placement in the maximum-security unit”, and that cultural and mental health support was being provided.
She said Sumner was not banned from Yatala, that being a voice member did not restrict access, and that Sumner had been invited to visit Yatala this month.
“We value the important role members play in advocating for improvements in our justice system and look forward to hearing their advice first-hand,” she said.
Sumner said he had been told he could visit Yatala but not see Barnes.
• Support is available at Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636, Lifeline on 13 11 14, and at MensLine on 1300 789 978.
• Indigenous Australians can call 13YARN on 13 92 76 for information and crisis support; or call Lifeline on 13 11 14, Mensline on 1300 789 978 or Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636
