"In modern prison systems of the world one can trace the origins of the philosophy of rehabilitation through isolation to the Pennsylvania prison model, developed in the 1820s at the Cherry Hill Prison.
The aim of the model was to rehabilitate criminals through solitary confinement; prisoners spent all their time in their cells, including work, in order to reflect on their transgressions and return to society "morally cleansed" *
U.N.General Assembly 28 July 2008, sixty third session Item 67(a) of the provisional agenda* Promotion and protection of human rights:implementation of human rights instruments.
Interestingly, in April 2008, an Australian Supreme Court Judge Bongiorno in a terrorist trial over mistreatment of prisoners inside the maximum security Acacia Unit, about 60 kilometetres from Melbourne, noted that the defendants had been kept locked in individual cells for up to 23 hours a day, with severe restrictions on receiving visitors....
Judge Bongiorno in relation to these prisoners confinement summed up the testimony of Dr.Douglas Bell, a government forensic psychiatrist, in these terms: "Dr. Bell considered that in the circumstances of the applicants it is more likely than not that an ordinary person would experience significant psychological and emotional difficulties. These difficulties are likely to have a significant effect on the applicants' ability to concentrate or to remember things from day to day or week to week... He considered that...would be likely to impact to a significant extent on the cognitive mental functions..."
Consequently, Judge Bongiorno required the authorities to carry out a list of alterations which included 10 out-of-cell hours per day when the inmates were not attending court.
In April 2009 we find Garth Daniels an involuntary patient discharged from the Thomas Embling Forensic Hospital(sic)... on a Community Treatment Order (CTO)... Effectively forced to be treated in the public sector, where to date, the number of psychiatrists treating him have now well-surpassed the 200 mark. This despite the fact Garth Daniels and his family have on numerous occassions put foreward the view that if Garth is treated in the private sector; he could be treated by the same psychiatrist rather than the 200 plus who rotate in the public system...and who after twelve years...still continue to drug Garh Daniels against his will without his formal consent. Each using Garth as just another lab rat...prescribing according to each their own idea of what they considered is good for Garth Daniels.
To this should be added the fact that after twelve excruciating years of being treated... in the public system...both psychiatrists and Pharmaceutical drugs are being recycled (who was it who said that only a mad man prescribes the same thing each time and expects a different result?).
In July this year Garth Daniels was readmitted to a mental health service provider...not because he refused his medication... He could NOT refuse...it was given by injection... How then did Garth Daniels experience such dysfunction that required hospitalisation once again. Garth Daniels IS subjected to a CTO...so he is subjected to the regime of the treating psychiatrist... Of course Garth Daniels had no say in the matter...
Once the CTO was revoked and Garth Daniels readmitted to hospital, the recycling of drugs that did not work some twelve years ago were again administered. One such drug is Chloryl-Hydrate... another Zuclopenthixol Acuphase... a drug which the former Chief Psychiatrist of Victoria, Associate Professor Tanaghow, had directed the service providers to withhold; because of its debilitating effect upon Garth Daniels. How long before they again introduce Olanzapine( better known as Zyprexa)? It did not work in 1998 so why it would work several years later? Each psychiatrist with his/her own opinion as to what they considered is in Garth Daniels best interest...treated Garth Daniels over the years as some lab rat... Nothing has changed in twelve years...
Five months since Garth Daniels discharge from the Thomas Embling and a year after Judge Bongiorno's summation, we find that Garth Daniels CTO is revoked; because once again the dose and frequency of administration of the drug had been altered. The question to be asked is WHY? This has again culminated in Garth experiencing symptomaologies not inconsistent with known serious medical adverse effects .... But, again...the treating teams are enmeshed in one thing only...their diagnosis of Schizophrenia anti social personality disorder. Their answer it appears is nothing other than to place Garth Daniels in isolation....confined to seclusion...
How are these events relevant to that of Judge Bongiorno's deliberations and the testimony of Dr. Bell ?
On admission to the public service provider, Garth was immediately given intra-muscular injections (IMI) which apparently should have been given two weeks earlier. Coupled with this injection and to quel what is alleged to be psychosis, additional neuroleptics were administered. This culminated in Garth becoming more dysfunctional wherein we find the connection...
The Consultant Psychaitrist committed Garth Daniels to solitary confinement ( seclusion- a room which is locked from the outside).
On the inside of this seclusion room is a cardboard bottle and cardboard pan ( throwback to the eighteenth century toilet)... a mattress on the concrete floor... and in contrast, looking down from the ceiling, a moderm device.. a camera...to watch his every move. ..four weeks later we still find Garth in seclusion; admittedly Garth is allowed outside every four hours to have a smoke. In fact The Mental Health Act 1986 ( as amended) states that a patient in seclusion should be reviewed every four hours. And, this of course at the particular health service... Garth Daniels was allowed a break and reviewed EVERY FOUR HOURS. This includes 8:00pm...12 midnight...4:00am...8:00am. His family ponder the question as to why it was reported that Garth never slept well.
Of course there are reports that Garth did not appear to have slept on occasions...or that he had specifically asked to be woken so he could have his smoke... Garth Daniels at this stage had begun to talk to himself...laugh...shadow box... In fact Garth Daniels even smiled to himself... One would suspect that is more appropriate than allegedly assaulting staff? The clinicians view...well, Garth is laughing inappropriately!
Reflect upon Judge Biogiorno's summation of Dr. Douglas Bell " it is more likely than not that an ordinary person would experience significant psychological and emotional difficulties..." After having had his neuroleptics (psychotropic medication) stabilised at Thomas Embling Forensic Hospital; detained in what is effectively a detention centre for the criminally insane from 8 October 2008 to April 2009 and discharged on a CTO... Garth Daniels is now to be transferred back to Thomas Embling because the Consultant and treating psychiatrist, Dr.Jeremy Stone under the jurisdiction of Clinical Director Dr.D.Singh is unable to treat Garth Daniels safely and effectively... Why not one may well ask ?
At the time of writing Garth Daniels remains in seclusion...exascerbating the very conditions for which he is supposedly treated...Schizophrenia Anti-social personality disorder... Would YOU not develop an anti-social personality disorder if you were locked in a space large enough for a single bed ( mattress on the floor) and a video camera staring down at you from the ceiling ...watching your every move...including having to defecate in a cardboard tray and urinate in a card board bottle? And, to eat your food in the same room...?
Notwithstanding the former, there are other debilitating effects such as akathisia ( inability to stand still), parkinsonism ( severe tremor ) and Tardive Dykenisia (TD) involuntary movements of the mouth... These of course tend to have gone largely unnoticed once again by the Consultants eventhough TD could become irreversible.
The prescriber information from the manufacturers list the contraindications... but, because Garth Daniels is treated as a "lab rat" ... it seems Garth Daniels is dispensible. How long before they kill him?
It appears that it is better to be bad than to be mad... it must be stated that Garth Daniels despite the protests of his family and friends at his first admission to the Thomas Embling Forensic Facility...Garth Daniels was to say the least...treated with dignity ( provided of course you ignore the fact that its also the place for inmates from the Criminal Justice System) and respect and had never been placed in seclusion during his previous forced sojourn at Thomas Embling... What is noted is that the Dr. Douglas Bell who gave evidence before Judge Bongiorno is the same Dr. Douglas Bell who is the Clinical Director at Thomas Embling.
Judge Bongiorno's summation no dought instills in the family of Garth Daniels a confidence in the judicial system... that the Judiciary can not and rightly so, could not be dictated to or influenced other than by the rule of law. Judge Bongiorno made the administrators of the detention centres accountable and visible...
Perhaps its time for a Judicial Review into the treatment of Garth Daniels ...as Judge Byrne remarked in the Supreme Court in October 2008.. " ...this treatment may need to be investigated..." Ms. Lisa Neville our Minister of Mental Health remains silent on this issue as does our Health Minister Daniel Andrews. And, of course our Chief Psychiatrist, Dr.Ruth Vine having been involved in Garth Daniels treatment...could hardly be expected to have an unbiaised view. The fact is that Dr.Ruth Vine formed her opinion of Garth Daniels in September 1999, when Dr.Ruth Vine promulgated the idea that Garth Daniels should be separated from his father because Garth Daniels has an "enmeshed" relationship with his father. At that time Dr. Vine had not even seen Garth Daniels let alone examine him. Judgement by proxy?
Garth Daniels has spent more time in solitary confinement than ANY person would lock up their dog...in fact if a dog was locked up for the period of time Garth Daniels has been in solitary confiment...the pet owner would be charged for cruelty by the R.S.P.C.A. Garth Daniels has not even committed a traffic offence - has committed no crime, is not a terrorist...but a young aspiring photographer who wants nothing more than to be allowed home to his family. Garth Daniels continues to be injected intra-muscularly...now with additional neuroleptics.
Ironically, it would appear that to be freed from seclusion and his continued solitary confinement...Garth Daniels is to be admitted to prison...reference of course to Thomas Embling Forensic Hospital( - in essence, a dentention centre which houses inmates of the Criminal Justice System.
The updated Victoria Mental Health Act is to go before Parliament soon... maybe the very ACT should be the subject of a Judicial Review. Perhaps then Garth Daniels will be FREE?
Did this question really have to be asked in this eglitarian society...where the colloquilism once was ..."She's alwright mate! No worries!" Think again..its NOT alwright mate...its a worry.
Is our medical profession oblivious to their own Hippocratic Oath Primum, no nocere; The Helsinki Declaration and/or The Nuremberg Codes... ? Do we not subscribe to the U.N.Rapporteur on Involuntary Confinement... ?
Garth Daniels has been in seclusion for more than thirty days... You be the judge... You be the jury. Garth Daniels needs your help... before he becomes just another psychiatry statistic. To help contact freegarth@gmail.com
