In this presentation Indigenous women disability and justice advocates Rocket Betherton from Justice Reform Initiative and Taylor Budin from the NSW Intellectual Disability Rights Service tell their story of cruel inhuman and degrading treatment whilst detained in a correctional facility and the impact this treatment had on their lives and how it spurred them onto become advocates. In telling their story Rocket and Taylor highlight how vulnerable people with disability, particularly cognitive impairments, are to cruel inhuman and degrading treatment in detention and explain the need for structural and attitudinal change of the correctional system.
Rocket, Taylor and Patrick McGee will go onto contextualise these stories of cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment of people with disability in Australia’s places of detention in a legislative, policy and operational framework to illustrate the urgent need for a human rights response to prevent and respond to cruel inhuman and degrading treatment. The presentation will identify some key structural barriers that disability and justice advocates could keep in mind when talking to changemakers.
Presenters
Patrick McGee is a Churchill Fellow who investigated how to dismantle and replace indefinite detention of people with cognitive impairments in Australia’s places of detention. Whilst on the Churchill Scholarship he participated in the 2022 review of Australia’s compliance with the Convention Against Torture in Geneva. In 2023 as a result of this advocacy, he worked with the University of New South Wales and the Australian Human Rights Commission to develop a National Forum on Cruel Inhuman and Degrading Treatment of People with Disability in Australia’s Places of Detention.
Patrick McGee works as a disability and justice navigator supporting people with cognitive impairments and psycho-social disability who indefinitely detained are in Australia’s detention system’s particularly the states and territories forensic detention system. Patrick McGee has a particular passion for supporting First Nations people with disability and psycho-social disability who are indefinitely detained and vulnerable to cruel inhuman and degrading treatment and has been working in the Northen Territory for over decades with central Australian Indigenous communities.
Taylor Budin is an outstanding New South Wales based disability and justice advocate with the Intellectual Disability Rights Service. Taylor has been working to highlight the cruel inhuman and degrading treatment and in 2023 co-hosted the National Forum on Cruel Inhuman and Degrading Treatment of People with Disability in Australia’s Places of Detention and lectures at the University of New South Wales to Criminology students on disability and justice issues. Taylor speaks publicly about her story of detention and what needs to change to better protect women with disability in detention. Taylor has contributed to international journals and submissions to the United Nations Special Rapporteur for Torture on disability and justice issues.
Rocket Bretherton has experience as a campaigner and advocate, and also has deep subject matter expertise as a consequence of her own experience in the Northern Territory justice system. Rocket has been working since 2019 to raise public awareness of the failings of the justice system. Rocket Bretherton is a powerful disability and justice advocate , particularly for woman with disability in detention. The ABC has profiled Rocket Bretherton’s work on the incredible podcast, Bird’s Eye View where women in the Darwin Correctional Centre tell their stories of detention in a maximum-security prison.
