Hepatitis C
On Wednesday 17 June 2009 Michael Moore, CEO of the Public Health Association of Australia Prison Health spoke at a forum in the ACT assembly reception room organized by the ACT Hepatitis Resource Centre. The topic was: “Public Health: Hepatitis C, prisoners and our community”. The audio is here of the introduction by Robyn Davis, EO of the Resource Centre, and of an address by Ms Mary Porter AM, Member for Ginninderra, who sponsored the forum. Michael Moore’s address is here.  His slides illustrating the talk are here. The audio is here of the panel discussion that included  Michael Levy, Medical Director, Corrections Health ACT, Brian Dunne, Senior Manager, Community Based Corrections, Annie Madden, EO, AIVL, and John Van den Dungen, Indigenous Project Officer, AIVL.

Suicide
On Tuesday 2 December 2008 Professor James Ogloff spoke on Suicide in Prisons: From Understanding to Prevention. Professor Ogloff is Professor of Clinical Forensic Psychology and Director of the Centre for Forensic Behavioural Science at Monash University and Director of Psychological Services at the Victorian Institute of Forensic Mental Health, Thomas Embling Hospital.  He was formerly the Director of Mental Health for British Columbia Corrections in Canada. In that role he developed and implemented a comprehensive mental health service system for prisons, which included suicide screening and prevention. Mary Porter, AM, MLA, sponsored the forum in the Legislative Assembly Reception Room. Roslyn Dundas, director of ACTCOSS was in the chair. VYNE @ OZHELP and the Coalition jointly organised the event. Listen to Professor Ogloff address here and answers to questions here. 

Read more about suicide and self harm both within prison and after people are released. 

Stigma as an impediment to good health policy
    On Friday 14 March 2008 David McDonald, a leading consultant in social research spoke on "How fear and stigma inhibit good health policy". The Attorney-General, Simon Corbell, MLA introduced the speaker [audio here] and   participated in the discussion that followed. Ara Creswell, Director of the ACT Council of Social Service (ACTCOSS) chaired the event. The ACT Hepatitis  C Council & AIDS Action Council of the ACT organised the forum. An audio of David McDonald's presentation [Audio] and his overheads [Overheads] are available.

Diversion of young offenders from youth detention
    On Thursday 20 March 2008 Dr Julia Tresidder of the Australian Institute of  Criminology led a forum on "Exploring Diversions: Implications of the newACT Prison and Youth Detention Centre". Meredith Hunter, Director of the Youth Coalition of the ACT, which organised the event chaired it. An audio of Dr Julia Tresidder's presentation with introduction by Meredith Hunter is available here>> [Audio].

The need to pay attention to the operational regime if the prison is to promote mental health
On Wednesday 16 April 2008 Professor Ian Webster AO launched a study "Healthy or harmful? Mental health and the operational regime of the new ACT prison". Professor Webster was introduced by Mr Brendan Smyth, MLA, Deputy Leader of the Opposition & Shadow Minister for Mental Health. The  introduction by Brendan Smyth can be found here [Audio] and the launch by Professor Ian Webster can be found here [Audio] [Speaking notes]. The study can be downloaded here [ PDF file].
   

The provision of sterile syringes and the reduction of occupational health and safety risk in the new prison
    On Tuesday 24 June, 2008 John Ryan, Chief Executive Officer of Anex in Victoria addressed the question: "Can NSPs reduce OH&S risk in the AMC?  Syringes and Work Safety in the new ACT prison." Anex is the leading   community-based organisation promoting and supporting Needle and Syringe   Programs.  John Ryan is Chair of the Anex Needle and Syringe Programs in Prison Committee. The forum was organised by Families and Friends for Drug Law Reform. Listen to audio >> introduction, speech, questions & discussion.

     From the point of view of injecting drug users and the community as a whole, there are overwhelming public health reasons in favour of needle and syringe programs (NSPs) in prisons.  This forum focussed not on this but on the cause of most reluctance to introduce a NSP in the new ACT prison when it opens in a few months time, namely concern for the safety of staff.
    There are strong reasons to believe that in fact a NSP in prisons would eliminate the substantial number of needle stick injuries which occur during searches.