Cornelia was lucky that talented, compassionate, mercifull,tenderhearted, loving, caring, thoroughly decent and extremely honest amanda vanstone didn't strip her of her citizenship and send her to Pakistan or Afghanistan. Perhaps amanda wasn't feeling to well that day. Regards, numbat

While not attempting to diminish the wrong that was carried out in failing to properly identify and treat the mental health condition of Cornelia Rau, her situation would probably not be unique, and it is now recognised that a high percentage of males and females in prison have conditions of mental ill health.

The ration of males to females in prison is approx 15 to 1, with a similar percentage of male and female prisoners with mental ill-health problems. This means that in overall numbers, there are many more male prisoners than female prisoners in need of treatment.

What is most likely is that incarceration without proper treatment may very well worsen the condition, and eventually the person is released with a deteriorated mental health problem. That can then lead to re-incarceration. From the Criminal Justice and ental Fact Sheet at…http://www.mhcc.org.au/factsheets/factsheet1_Criminal_justice.htm

“A study of 500 psychiatric patients found only a 4% lifetime crime prevalence, indicating “no inherent link between mental illness and crime,” but there remains “a strong causal link between mental illness and incarceration.” (MHCC, 2003, studies also show that 25-45% of urban males are arrested before they turn 18) Lifetime arrest rates for people with a mental illness range from 42-50%.”

The author of this article has mainly identified mentall ill health amongst female prisoners, but in terms of resource allocation to treat mental ill health overall, I would think that there should not be an over-concentration on treating mentally ill females, to the exclusion of mentally ill males.

why is this the fault of the federal government? Didn't Keating / Hawke / Evans etc INVENT "Detention Centres" so as to hold people they suspected of being Illegal immigrants to Australia?
Arrested by Queenland cops & detained for SIX MONTHS prior to being sent to Baxter & not a sqeak from the LEFT. As soon as she is sent to Baxter the left goes nuts & completely exonerates their comrades in the form of the Beattie Government whilst raising the old chestnut of THE 'MORALITY OF DETENTION CENTRES'...
I'm sorry but no matter how much of a 'nanny bedwetting state' our liberal left wants us to be the feds our NOT responsible for this. Baxter is for people who upon entering this country cannot prove who they are. The fact that she insisted 'she was an illegal imigrant from Germany named Anna Schimdt and had a fake passport to support this claim means that the system works.
If you want to apportion blame then look to the Qld labor party & the Richmond reforms, incidently, implemented under a federal Labour government, just like all our detention centres, but hey, when did the left ever tell the truth

The Hawke government established detention centres in order to check out the status of asylum seekers before they were released into the community. This apparently remains ALP policy. However, the processing of refugee claims then was relatively fast so that people were not left to rot indefinitely behind barbed wire, and they retained access to legal rights recognised under international law.

The difference under the Howard government is that the detention of asylum seekers is now "indefinite" for those who cannot prove refugee status (and 90% have turned out to be genuine refugees) and cannot be returned to their country of origin. There are children who have been in these centres for years. The centres are legal black holes where no access is allowed by independent lawyers, medical specialists, journalists, or human rights advocates, who might shine some light on the conditions endured. Further, these centres are now run by private companies for profit and not by government agencies, and accountability is minimal.

In the Cornelia Rau case, she was detained in a Queensland jail for six months by federal Immigration, not because of any breach of Queensland laws. She was then moved to Baxter, where her condition remained undiagnosed or treated, despite repeated complaints from advocates and fellow inmates, and she was brutally mistreated, including being confined in an isolation cell. She suffers from schizophrenia.

If you were a director of a detention centre, would you be in any hurry to reduce your income by allowing your management to discharge a revenue-unit? Come now, you would be derelict in your duty to your shareholders.

The government - and I use that word in the loosest, non-partisan terms - is at fault here for being unable to safeguard the rights of the individual. To argue otherwise is to be contemptuous of those in society less able to take care of themselves.

So, the "system" has flaws. What is being asked of the present government - all that is being asked, in fact - is that the enquiry into the faults in the system is conducted in the open. This is the honest way to address the problem.

I think the article mainly uses the case of Cornelia Rau, to help highlight the situation of many people who are mentally ill, but have been incarcerated into prisons where minimal treatment is being provided. (EG “We are frustrated because the same, systemic inhumanity is meted out daily to thousands of mentally ill prisoners and detainees and most of their shocking and heartbreaking stories will never come to light.”)

However this situation has not been un-recognised in the past, even by the Criminal Justice System. In a seminar on Mental Health and Criminal Justice held in 2002, Judge Frank Walker said the following :-

“The reality is that NSW gaols have replaced the old Lunatic Asylums of the 1950's as the place of care for some 4,000 citizens of this state suffering mental illness. The economic rationalists in our Treasury no doubt see logic in that change. It costs about $60,000 annually to keep a prisoner and $200,000 to provide a secure hospital bed.”

at … http://www.abc.net.au/rn/arts/radioeye/crime/essay.htm

With so much money involved in providing treatment for the mentally ill, attempts may be made to avoid a general inquiry into prisons, where many mentally ill people are presently being kept.