ABC New England North West: Caitlin Furlong
)New South Wales Budget Estimates has heard evidence that Corrective Services NSW (CSNSW) is yet to meet a recommendation to remove all hanging points from cells at the Tamworth Correctional Centre.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised that the following story contains the name and image of a person who has died.
The revelation comes despite the recommendation from a coronial inquest into the death of a 22-year-old man at the prison in September 2017.
The findings, handed down in August 2020, concluded that Tane Chatfield's death was self-inflicted.
Deputy State Coroner Harriet Grahame recommended CSNSW "conduct a comprehensive audit of all cell hanging points … and undertake urgent removal of any hanging points identified".
But under questioning from Greens MLC David Shoebridge, Corrective Services Commissioner Peter Severin revealed that had not been done.
ABC News: Isabella Higgins
)"Is it your evidence that all the hanging points have now been removed from Tamworth prison?" Mr Shoebridge asked.
"I would not say that that is my evidence," Commissioner Severin said.
"We have done a program of removal of hanging points."
Complications with building's age
The Tamworth Correctional Centre opened in its current form in 1991, but some of the infrastructure dates back to the 19th century.
Commissioner Severin told Estimates that was the main reason why some hanging points in the prison may remain.
"It is almost impossible, in a building that has been built over a hundred years ago, to remove every obvious or even not so obvious hanging point," he said.
But in her recommendations from the Chatfield inquest, Magistrate Harriet Grahame said the age of a correctional facility was not a justification to not remove hanging points.
The Commissioner also revealed a First Nations woman was last week found hanging in her cell at the Silverwater Correctional Complex and had died.
The CEO of the NSW Aboriginal Legal Service, Karly Warner, said it was not good enough that hanging points remain not only in the Tamworth prison, but others throughout the state.
"What does this tell us about the value that the NSW government places on the lives of those it is responsible for, and the lives of Aboriginal people?" she said.
"It is well past time for real accountability."
