VIDEO: Trapped: Inside the hidden system locking people up indefinitely

ALEXANDRA BLUCHER, REPORTER: Around the country, people with disabilities are being detained indefinitely.

MICHAEL HEATLEY, FORENSIC PATIENT: I see the forensic system as a beast.

ALEXANDRA BLUCHER: Do you have any trust in the system?

MICHAEL HEATLEY: Not at all. Nothing. No trust at all.

ALEXANDRA BLUCHER: Caged and deemed too dangerous to be released, their needs too complex to treat.

MARY BURGESS, FORMER QUEENSLAND PUBLIC ADVOCATE: They're facing a hopeless future which I think amounts to a form of torture.

ALEXANDRA BLUCHER: Some have committed horrendous acts of violence.

IAN MCKEOWN, FORMER SUPPORT WORKER: He can be dangerous. Yes. He can be. I'm not gonna gloss over it. This man has some issues.

ALEXANDRA BLUCHER: People with an intellectual disability or serious mental illness are being locked away, out of sight…

 (SUBTITLED AUDIO RECORDING)

'ADRIAN', FORENSIC PATIENT: Get me the fuck out of FDS. Please.

ALEXANDRA BLUCHER: In a system that's failing them and their families.

MIKE PORTCH, FATHER: It was an attack on a mentally impaired man purely out to destroy him. And it did. That's what happened.

WENDY HOEY, CHIEF EXECUTIVE, JUSTICE HEALTH & FORENSIC MENTAL HEALTH NETWORK: We have to balance the risk of the person to themselves and to others. The last thing anybody wants is re-offending.

ANTHONY WHEALY KC, FORMER NSW SUPREME COURT JUSTICE: The most violent offender is entitled to be regarded as a human being.

ALEXANDRA BLUCHER: In this episode of Four Corners, forensic patients tell their stories for the first time. We'll expose how the system designed to rehabilitate people has made patients sicker and, in some cases, more dangerous.

MICHAEL HEATLEY: It ruined my life, it's taken my soul, my spirit. You're like a piece of steak on a barbecue.

TITLE CARD: Trapped

ALEXANDRA BLUCHER: It's December 2022. A man known as Adrian steps out of a locked unit into a caged courtyard. This is the first time the public has seen how Adrian lives.

ISAAC WALMSLEY, FORENSIC OFFICER: As someone who cares for people, it is a confronting thing. You know, if you asked a five-year-old what that is, they would say that is a cage.

IAN MCKEOWN: He's had a terrible life. Quality of life has been non-existent. He's a number in a building, and it's a building that's out of sight.

ALEXANDRA BLUCHER: In his mid-thirties, Adrian lives with an intellectual disability and a chromosomal disorder. For the past 11 years, he's rarely left the Forensic Disability Service in Brisbane's west. Adrian has never been convicted of a crime.

MARY BURGESS: The overwhelming majority of people who are put on forensic orders are put on those orders when the evidence has not been tested in a court of law and they haven't been formally found guilty of the offences.

ALEXANDRA BLUCHER: In 2012, Adrian was charged with serious criminal offences and rather than facing trial he was placed on a forensic order by a specialist mental health court.

MARY BURGESS: They're considered to not be fit to be tried and to lack capacity to take criminal responsibility.

ALEXANDRA BLUCHER: In Queensland, you can't identify forensic patients or report on their alleged crimes. What we can say is that Adrian was left unsupervised during a community excursion when a serious incident happened. He ended up in the Forensic Disability Service.

IAN MCKEOWN: He's contained, he's secluded, can't get out, can't hurt anybody.

He's not a bad person. He doesn't go out of his way to do the things he's done.

ALEXANDRA BLUCHER: There are an estimated 700 people detained on forensic orders around Australia and roughly a thousand in the community. In Queensland, those with an intellectual disability can be detained here – where Adrian is held.

MATILDA ALEXANDER, CHIEF EXECUTIVE, QUEENSLAND ADVOCACY FOR INCLUSION: The Forensic Disability Service was initially spruiked as a short-term accommodation option for people on these forensic orders. So unfortunately our experience is it hasn't lived up to that goal and for people like Adrian, it's become a nightmare.

ALEXANDRA BLUCHER: Last Christmas, when this footage was taken, Adrian had little to celebrate. His case shows the difficult balance between community safety and human rights — and what happens when we get it wrong.

MARY BURGESS, FORMER QUEENSLAND PUBLIC ADVOCATE: Well, I hadn't seen anything like this before.

ALEXANDRA BLUCHER: Mary Burgess' previous job was to protect the rights of people with disabilities. She's the former Public Advocate in Queensland, an independent, government-appointed role.

MARY BURGESS, FORMER QUEENSLAND PUBLIC ADVOCATE: Basically, we are warehousing these people and that's a breach of their human rights. We are doing nothing to improve the threat that they pose and so they're left in a limbo.

They're very closed institutions and the community has no idea what goes on. I don't think that the authorities would be comfortable with the community having a real look at what's happening there.

ALEXANDRA BLUCHER: The Forensic Disability Service wouldn't let us in to interview Adrian. So, for now, the only way for him to tell his story is through this audio recording.

(REPORTER PLAYS AUDIO RECORDING ON MOBILE PHONE)

'ADRIAN', FORENSIC PATIENT: Testing one, two, three. Testing.

(SUBTITLED AUDIO)

'ADRIAN', FORENSIC PATIENT: My whole family want me back home. Any client in FDS meant to only be here for only maximum five years. Truthfully, I'd be more happier being in prison. What me really like is, get me out of here and be gone from FDS.

Being here, I feel like I may be here rest of my life. Be dead here and will maybe die here. Get me the fuck out of FDS. Please.

ALEXANDRA BLUCHER: We want to find out more about Adrian's past, to understand why he's been mostly confined to his locked unit for more than a decade. We're going to meet a former carer who spent a lot of time with him when he was a young man.

Ian McKeown has worked as a government-employed support worker and advocate for people with intellectual disabilities.

(REPORTER AND IAN MCKEOWN GREET ONE ANOTHER)

ALEXANDRA BLUCHER: Good to see you, Ian.

IAN MCKEOWN, FORMER CARER: Hello Alex, how are you?

ALEXANDRA BLUCHER: He's blowing the whistle because of Adrian's treatment at the Forensic Disability Service.

IAN MCKEOWN: Adrian's predicament at the moment is far worse than what a prisoner experiences.

I'm compassionate about Adrian. I feel that in my roles in working with him, nothing's changed. We've tried desperately to get him movement. He's still where he was exactly on day one.

ALEXANDRA BLUCHER: As a child, Adrian was physically and sexually abused.

IAN MCKEOWN: His childhood was extremely traumatic. On a scale from one to 10, I note that a few of those incidences were tens.

There was a number of things that have happened to him as a child that have moulded who he is. He doesn't see that those things that happened to him are wrong

ALEXANDRA BLUCHER: His disability was diagnosed in early childhood.

IAN MCKEOWN: He has limited ability to read, write or understand. He gets frustrated and, of course, frustration leads to behaviours where he can't get his point across. And he will have a serious outburst.

ALEXANDRA BLUCHER: Is it something that he can control?

IAN MCKEOWN: Once he starts the behaviour, no, it goes to full, the full width. He doesn't let up.

ALEXANDRA BLUCHER: Can he be dangerous?

IAN MCKEOWN: He can be dangerous. Yes, he can be. I'm not gonna gloss over it. This man has some issues. But if you know how to speak to him properly and look at triggers, you're able to navigate your way around this particular gentleman and come out the other side.

ALEXANDRA BLUCHER: As a teenager, Adrian burnt his house down and was placed in an institution. Ian was one of his carers – he and his team had a different approach to working with Adrian.

(ILLUSTRATED SEQUENCE)

IAN MCKEOWN: When we first started working with Adrian, we did a number of activities. We purchased a custom bicycle for him. And we were able to ride on the bike tracks, uh, floating into Brisbane way. That was without incident. And we did it on a regular basis.

We took him fishing on a regular basis and spent a day fishing in the community. He was able to go into a shop and buy fishing gear. The normality was there.

He loved walking Mount Flinders. We would take him out to Mount Flinders and he would walk to the very top. Staff couldn't get there, but he did (laughs). He was proud of that, that he had done something and achieved something. He felt an accomplishment. It was, it was good for him. Yeah.

ALEXANDRA BLUCHER: He says Adrian was calmer after these excursions.

IAN MCKEOWN: Adrian can live a different life. But it has to be with people that would support him. If those people are all on the same page, yes, they can achieve outcomes.

ALEXANDRA BLUCHER: They started working together again when Adrian was in his late 20s – this time at the FDS. He could see Adrian was deteriorating.

So what do you have here, Ian?

(IAN MCKEOWN UNFOLDS A LETTER)

IAN MCKEOWN: I've got a number of letters in regards to how he's viewing his containment and seclusion.

ALEXANDRA BLUCHER: There's a lot of them.

IAN MCKEOWN: There's a lot of them and they're quite graphic in the language that he's used.

ALEXANDRA BLUCHER: Adrian's letters show the depths of his desperation.

How did it make you feel when you received these and read them?

IAN MCKEOWN: It makes me feel quite upset and frustrates you further. He's displaying here the final straw. He's got no other options. He draws. That's the only thing he can do. He's now at a point where, I've got nothing more to say except for this word. Help me, get me out of here.

MARY BURGESS, FORMER QUEENSLAND PUBLIC ADVOCATE: I was aware that there was a person in the Forensic Disability Service who had been there for some time. He seemed childlike and to have simple views, but to be incredibly frustrated by his circumstances and to have a sense of hopelessness about his situation.

ALEXANDRA BLUCHER: The former Public Advocate in Queensland, Mary Burgess, has big concerns about what's happening inside the Forensic Disability Service.

MARY BURGESS: It was a shock to me to think that we were treating people with this level of disability in this way. I began raising concerns about what I considered was a breach of his rights.

Solitary confinement is meant to only be for emergency, sort of imminent threat kinds of situations. It's become the default regime for this person, which is, was never the intention and should never be the intention.

ALEXANDRA BLUCHER: When her complaints to the Queensland Government weren't acted on, she went to the state's Ombudsman, which delivered a damning report in 2019.

MARY BURGESS: The Ombudsman found in relation to Adrian that the approach to secluding Adrian had been contrary to law, unreasonable, oppressive and improperly discriminatory.

ALEXANDRA BLUCHER: And what does that mean?

MARY BURGESS: He was treated unlawfully.

ALEXANDRA BLUCHER: Yet he's still there under the same regime.

MARY BURGESS, FORMER QUEENSLAND PUBLIC ADVOCATE: Yes. Nothing's changed for this man.

ALEXANDRA BLUCHER: Adrian's treatment is still unlawful – the Ombudsman has described it as "systemic abuse".

MARY BURGESS: This man, and many of the people held on forensic orders who have disability, they're facing this same future, which is a future, holding nothing for them, a hopeless future. And that's cruel. I think, amounts to a form of torture.

ALEXANDRA BLUCHER: So you think Adrian is essentially being tortured by the state?

MARY BURGESS: I wouldn't be suggesting anyone commenced with that intention, but the treatment that he's receiving amounts to that.

ALEXANDRA BLUCHER: Four years after the Queensland Ombudman's report, another carer says he can't stay silent any longer.

ISAAC WALMSLEY, FORENSIC OFFICER: In my time working at the FDS, I've spent more time with Adrian than I spent with any member of my family.

ALEXANDRA BLUCHER: Forensic officer Isaac Walmsley is also blowing the whistle about what he's seen at the Forensic Disability Service.

ALEXANDRA BLUCHER: Adrian has communicated to us he is worried he's going to die there. Is that something that he's said to you?

ISAAC WALMSLEY, FORENSIC OFFICER: It's something that is present every day that you work with Adrian. It is certainly the fear of everyone who supports him.

ALEXANDRA BLUCHER: So how do you communicate with Adrian?

ISAAC WALMSLEY: So we communicate through a servery window.

(ISAAC WALMSLEY BEGINS TO DRAW)

There's a wall that separates us. It sort of looks a bit like that. You know I would sit at the end of a table that comes out from the servery and Adrian sits on the other side in his chair. It's sort of about eye level. That is the only window through which we communicate.

ALEXANDRA BLUCHER: And what is it like having such limited human contact with someone that you're caring for?

ISAAC WALMSLEY: It's certainly a very alien experience. It doesn't feel natural. Imagine every birthday party that you've ever had, every Christmas morning you have experienced through a hole in the wall the size of a pizza box. There's no argument to be made for this to be somebody's world for, you know, as long as they live.

ALEXANDRA BLUCHER: Queensland's Ombudsman reported that Adrian was charged five times with assaulting staff at the FDS. All the charges were dropped due to his intellectual disability. Disturbingly, it also found Adrian now prefers to be in seclusion. It's something Isaac's witnessed too.

ISAAC WALMSLEY: He wants the door locked because he doesn't want to hurt you and the fact that he's conditioned, has been institutionalised for that to be his belief, that is a really, really, really confronting and damaging thing to, to believe.

ALEXANDRA BLUCHER: Isaac Walmsley is afraid he'll be punished for speaking out and has engaged the Human Rights Law Centre. The Queensland Minister for Disability Services and the Administrator of the FDS both declined to be interviewed. In a statement, the Service said its highest priorities were the safety and welfare of the community, its clients and staff.

Ultimately, the state's mental health review tribunal will decide when Adrian is ready to leave the FDS.

Forensic patients are also being detained in jails across Australia. This can make people sicker and more dangerous, because they're not always getting the proper care they need.

Gadigal man Michael Heatley and his sister Christine were exposed to the criminal underworld from a young age.

CHRISTINE HEATLEY, SISTER: We grew up in a family that had strong connections and ties to organised crime here in Australia.

ALEXANDRA BLUCHER: Their father and uncles were some of the most notorious armed robbers on the east coast.

(GAME SHOW ARCHIVAL FOOTAGE)

PRESENTER: From Port Sorell in Tasmania, we have Christine Heatley and her uncle Earl.

Where would you find Hemoglobins? Earl.

EARL HEATLEY, UNCLE: In the blood.

PRESENTER: In the blood is correct. Five points.

CHRISTINE HEATLEY: It's fair to say that we're very, very familiar with most of the visiting rooms in New South Wales prisons.

MICHAEL HEATLEY, FORENSIC PATIENT: My father was in custody and I was abandoned by my mother when I was five years old. So I was raised by my grandparents in Tasmania with my two sisters and my younger brother. It's just how it was. I accepted it and just grew up. I committed armed robberies and I found myself in jail.

(ILLUSTRATED SEQUENCE)

MICHAEL HEATLEY: I didn't have any money. I needed money. The quickest way to get money was to run in and rob a bank. So that's what I chose to do. I robbed the place at gunpoint and I left.

ANTHONY WHEALY KC, FORMER NSW SUPREME COURT JUSTICE: He terrified and threatened customers and employees of the Commonwealth Bank and stole $18,700. To be threatened with a weapon and told that they were going to be shot if they didn't obey his commands, would've been a most terrifying experience.

ALEXANDRA BLUCHER: By the age of 23, Michael Heatley had committed two armed robberies and been acquitted of murder. To try and reduce his jail time he says he initially faked symptoms of schizophrenia. In 1999, he was diagnosed by a psychiatrist in Sydney's Long Bay prison hospital.

He's been caught in the forensic labyrinth for more than two decades, spending most of that time in jail.

CHRISTINE HEATLY: Michael's journey in the forensic system and his indefinite detention, the medication regime, it has been catastrophic for Michael's life course. He has gone through just the most horrendous conditions. My brother, like a lot of others, is just in that machine.

ALEXANDRA BLUCHER: Stuck.

CHRISTINE HEATLEY: Stuck. Yeah.

ALEXANDRA BLUCHER: It's almost impossible for a journalist to interview someone like Michael Heatley. It's taken months to gain this unprecedented access to the Sydney Forensic Hospital, where he's now detained.

(OUTSIDE FORENSIC HOSPITAL, SYDNEY)

ALEXANDRA BLUCHER: We're going to go in and speak to Michael Heatley. It's the first time that any patient here has done a media interview and told their story.

(REPORTER GREETS MICHAEL HEATLEY)

ALEXANDRA BLUCHER: Hello Michael.

MICHAEL HEATLEY: Hello Alex, how are you?

ALEXANDRA BLUCHER: Thank you for meeting me and sharing your story.

ALEXANDRA BLUCHER: How has your experience in prison as a forensic patient affected how you see the forensic system?

MICHAEL HEATLEY: Well, I see the forensic system as a beast. It chews you up and spits you out. That's how I see the forensic system. That's how I describe it. That's been my experience.

ALEXANDRA BLUCHER: Before he was admitted here in 2019. Michael Heatley says one of his worst experiences was the three months he spent in what's known as a dry cell in neighbouring Long Bay jail.

MICHAEL HEATLEY: The dry cell was like a 10-square-metre cell. It had two cameras. There was no water, there was no toilet. It had a mattress. And to urinate, I had to urinate in bottles. There were days – it was during summer – there were days that there was up to half a dozen urine bottles in this cell. And I would continually get headaches. They refused to give me Panadol and like I was in there virtually, like, at least 23 hours a day, every day.

ALEXANDRA BLUCHER: You also received forced injections in prison. Can you describe how they do that and the impact it has on you?

MICHAEL HEATLEY: What they do is they come down and they approach your cell and they'll say to you, 'We're here to assist with forced medication. Are you going to comply?' If you say no, they get their shields. They put on their helmets, they put it on their padding, they open the door, they run in, they use whatever force is appropriate. They hold you down and then the nurse sticks it in your backside and yeah, you're medicated. Alexandra Blucher, reporter: And why did you not want the medication? Michael Heatley, forensic patient: Cause it's awful. It's horrible. It's like a torture. You are in a constant state of agitation and restlessness.

CHRISTINE HEATLEY: Michael basically had to be carried and he wasn't in good shape at all.

ALEXANDRA BLUCHER: Michael's sister Christine remembers visiting her brother after he received one of these injections.

CHRISTINE HEATLEY: He had saliva coming out of his mouth, his eyes were rolling and it was a very short visit because Michael could not stay in that room. It was a form of chemical restraint and that to me is – it's shocking.

ALEXANDRA BLUCHER: For Michael there was worse to come. As a forensic patient, he spent two years in one of Australia's toughest prisons – Goulburn Supermax.

MICHAEL HEATLEY: It was like being on another planet. The only people you really see are the screws. They come to your door three times a day to feed you. There's a lot of lockdowns. You spend 24 hours in your cell.

ALEXANDRA BLUCHER: And is that environment, the Supermax environment, the segregation prison environment, is that conducive to getting better?

MICHAEL HEATLEY: No. It was horrible. It was awful. It wasn't good at all. It was good in no way at all.

ALEXANDRA BLUCHER: These years in jail came after a major incident in 2004. At that time, he was being treated with a particular antipsychotic medication in the Long Bay prison hospital.

MICHAEL HEATLEY: It started giving me suicidal ideation, homicidal ideation. I told the treating psychiatrist what it was doing to me. He laughed in my face and said, 'It can't do that. It's an antipsychotic.' Eventually the medication was ceased and the suicidal ideation and the homicidal ideation got worse.

ALEXANDRA BLUCHER: As Michael Heatley waited for a mental health bed in the Long Bay prison hospital, guards were discussing whether he should share a cell with another inmate.

The events that followed show how catastrophic the outcome can be when a dangerously unwell forensic patient is mismanaged.

MICHAEL HEATLEY: I voiced my concerns to the psychologist, 'This is what's going on with my mind and this is why I'm speaking to you.' She prepared a report and gave it to corrective services outlining the fact that she believed me to be a true risk to other patients and staff.

(ILLUSTRATED SEQUENCE)

ALEXANDRA BLUCHER: The psychologist told prison officials to keep Michael Heatley alone in his cell. Michael says he warned the guards that he might kill someone.

MICHAEL HEATLEY: I told them when they were putting him into my cell, 'Listen, I'm homicidal, I shouldn't be with anybody.' They told me I was full of shit.

ANTHONY WHEALY KC, FORMER SUPREME COURT JUSTICE: On the day of the incident, corrective services officers, uh, decided to take a young person and put him in the cell with Heatley and within hours, Heatley had kicked him to death.

ALEXANDRA BLUCHER: How catastrophic was that decision by the prison guards to put that man in your cell?

MICHAEL HEATLEY: It cost him his life.

ALEXANDRA BLUCHER: And what impact did that have on you as well? That decision?

MICHAEL HEATLEY: It ruined my life, it's taken my soul, my spirit. I lost my, I lost my fiancé. I'm separated from my son. Like as, like I didn't get any favours from it.

ALEXANDRA BLUCHER: Michael Heatley said he was unable to control his homicidal urges after coming off medication in the lead up to killing the inmate. What are your views of this from a clinical perspective?

DR ROSALIE WILCOX, PSYCHIATRIST: One would think that if he was on medication, he may have had better control of his urges. Maybe if he'd had an opportunity to be assessed in a hospital environment, the outcome may have been quite different.

ALEXANDRA BLUCHER: Due to his mental illness, Michael Heatley was convicted of manslaughter rather than murder and remained as a forensic patient. Anthony Whealy was the Supreme Court judge who sentenced Michael.

(READS JUDGEMENT)

ANTHONY WHEALY KC: This is part of the sentencing decision that I gave and it says, 'Were however this offender simply to disappear into the grim maw of the hospital psychiatric prison system with little hope of rescue, with little hope of proper treatment and reform, simply because he is a difficult person. This would be a very sad condemnation of our prison system.'

ALEXANDRA BLUCHER: Dr Rosalie Wilcox was the psychiatrist who first diagnosed Michael in Long Bay in 1999.

DR ROSALIE WILCOX: I felt that he definitely had some form of mental illness. He's experienced quite horrific behaviour, punitive behaviour, and so that's going to influence his ability to be reintegrated into society.

ALEXANDRA BLUCHER: Do you think that prison is an appropriate environment for a forensic patient?

DR ROSALIE WILCOX: No, it's definitely not an appropriate environment. And that's very much driven by resources. We have a lack of beds and as a consequence, people are in jail, who shouldn't be in jail.

ALEXANDRA BLUCHER: NSW Corrective Services told us it's increased the number of mental health beds in the state's prisons.

After the death of his cellmate, Michael Heatley spent the next 15 years in prison. In 2019, he was finally transferred to the Sydney forensic hospital – where he remains detained indefinitely.

You've committed violent crimes in the past. Do you have any insight now into why you did those things?

MICHAEL HEATLEY: Not really.

ALEXANDRA BLUCHER: If you are released, is there any reason why people should feel like you're a risk to the community?

MICHAEL HEATLEY: Not at all. No, not at all. Not at all. I'm a changed person.

ALEXANDRA BLUCHER: You had uncontrollable homicidal urges in the past. Do you think that that could happen again?

MICHAEL HEATLEY: Not at all. Not at all. I believe it was the medication.

ALEXANDRA BLUCHER: How does it feel not knowing when you're going to get out?

MICHAEL HEATLEY: It's been over 21 years now. Every day's virtually the same. You wake up, you eat some food, you do some exercise, you go to sleep. It's just another day of your life gone down the drain.

ALEXANDRA BLUCHER: Michael Heatley's sister Christine believes her brother has spent too long in custody. She's been his fierce advocate for decades.

(CHRISTINE HEATLEY SPEAKS ON PHONE)

CHRISTINE HEATLEY, SISTER: And the psychiatrist just blew it off and said that it was a staffing issue and they can't do anything about that.

ALEXANDRA BLUCHER: He's now served his full sentence for the manslaughter of his cellmate.

CHRISTINE HEATLEY: That's for your advice. Bye Patrick. Bye.

What's happening today is the Mental Health Review tribunal. So they've pushed it back an hour.

ALEXANDRA BLUCHER: In New South Wales, the Mental Health Review tribunal decides when forensic patients are ready to re-enter the community. Michael Heatley has to appear every six months. After more than 40 tribunal hearings, Christine is pushing for him to have short, supervised trips outside the Forensic Hospital.

CHRISTINE HEATLEY: Hopefully they're not going to be so arrogant that they're still just going to say blatantly therapeutic leave can't be on the table.

ALEXANDRA BLUCHER: We can't record the hearing, but it clearly hasn't gone well for the Heatleys.

CHRISTINE HEATLEY: What's wrong with these fucking cunts? These are university graduated fucking people.

ALEXANDRA BLUCHER: His supervised leave wasn't approved.

CHRISTINE HEATLEY: It was absolutely alarming to me to hear that the treating team thought that my brother having therapeutic leave would not have any good effect on him. So I found that bizarre.

(CHRISTINE HEATLEY SPEAKS TO HER BROTHER ON THE PHONE)

MICHAEL HEATLEY: It's just outrageous. It makes no sense. No one could give an indication as to how much more time I'll spend in this place.

CHRISTINE HEATLEY: Yeah and every six months between tribunals, it's just another six months, one year, two years that like are just being thrown away from your life.

MICHAEL HEATLEY: Exactly, that's right.

ALEXANDRA BLUCHER: Do you have any trust in the doctors here, in the system?

MICHAEL HEATLEY: Not at all. Not at all. Nothing. No trust at all.

ALEXANDRA BLUCHER: And why is that?

MICHAEL HEATLEY: Because of what's happened to me in the past and what's currently happening to me.

WENDY HOEY, CHIEF EXECUTIVE, NSW JUSTICE HEALTH & FORENSIC MENTAL HEALTH NETWORK: For somebody to have no trust in the system is definitely challenging. But it's something that we've got to deal with every day.

ALEXANDRA BLUCHER: Wendy Hoey is the chief executive of Justice Health – it provides the majority of health services – including forensic mental health – in the New South Wales justice system.

WENDY HOEY: And we've been working really hard over the last two to three years to reduce the number of forensic patients that are in our prisons quite successfully.

I don't think forensic patients should be in the prison system. I think they should be in a health environment, and we're doing our very best to change that.

I think it's also really important to remember that the majority of forensic patients are actually living in the community. They're not in any of those forensic high-secure hospitals or medium-secure hospitals, low-secure, but they're leading safe and productive lives within the community.

ALEXANDRA BLUCHER: Does that indefinite nature of detention, is it sometimes counterproductive to what you're trying to do here?

WENDY HOEY: It can be. So if you put – if you put the reason that people are there in the first place, which is generally long and enduring mental health issues – such as schizophrenia, where you do have a lack of insight – they've often faced a lot of trauma in their background and whether it be in the community or whether it be coming through prison.

So the outcome for us to manage is quite a complex issue and I think it is difficult, but you can't put a timeframe on it. That wouldn't be fair either.

ALEXANDRA BLUCHER: But is it not punitive and arbitrary to be holding someone indefinitely?

WENDY HOEY: Well, I don't think we do hold anybody indefinitely. I think people can progress through the forensic system.

ALEXANDRA BLUCHER: They don't have a release date.

WENDY HOEY: No, they don't have a release date. Nobody's saying it's easy, but we have to work in the best interest of the patient and the best interest of the community.

I mean, the last thing anybody wants is re-offending, and that's what we're trying to avoid.

ALEXANDRA BLUCHER: Michael Heatley is facing another possible obstacle to his release. He's been looked at in a NSW commission of inquiry into gay hate crimes.

ALEXANDRA BLUCHER: A murder that Michael Heatley was acquitted of in the mid 90s is being re-examined by the Special Commission of inquiry into LGBTQI hate crimes. Do you think that this should change our perception of Michael Heatley and his ability to potentially re-enter the community?

ANTHONY WHEALY KC, FORMER NSW SUPREME COURT JUDGE: No, I don't think it's relevant to the question of his mental state now, or his level of dangerousness towards himself or the community. That would be evaluated according to his state of mind and state of being now, it would not be impacted by something that he may or may not have done in the mid 90s.

And the most violent offender is entitled to be regarded as a human being. It's human nature to deplore them, to criticise them, to be afraid of them. But nevertheless, they are human beings and we have to treat them as such and hope for their rehabilitation and return to society.

(VISION OF NEW YORK CITY)

ALEXANDRA BLUCHER: Australia's indefinite detention of people with a disability has been condemned on the international stage.

(WALKING TO UNITED NATIONS HEADQUARTERS)

MATILDA ALEXANDER, CEO, QUEENSLAND ADVOCACY FOR INCLUSION: All the way from Brisbane to the United Nations, New York.

ALEXANDRA BLUCHER: A group of Australian lawyers and advocates is at the United Nations calling for change. Lawyer Matilda Alexander represents Queensland forensic patients including Adrian. She's fighting for an end to their indefinite detention.

MATILDA ALEXANDER: The UN tried to come to Queensland to see the mental health wards, to see the forensic disability services in October 2022 and they weren't allowed in. So we'll take the stories from those places and present them today.

COLLEAGUE: There's only two countries where the United Nations has cancelled their visit.

MATILDA ALEXANDER: Yeah, two. Us and Rwanda.

COLLEAGUE: Us and Rwanda.

(ADDRESSING THE UNITED NATIONS)

AMANDA RISHWORTH, MINISTER FOR SOCIAL SERVICES: We are concerned that persons with psycho-social disabilities continue to be subject to widespread and multiple forms of discrimination.

MATILDA ALEXANDER: We remain concerned about insufficient protections against torture, abuse and neglect of institutionalised people with a disability. We cannot remain silent on the indefinite detention of people with disabilities, institutionalisation is a discriminatory act of violence.

(SPEAKING OUTSIDE THE UN GENERAL ASSEMBLY)

MATILDA ALEXANDER: I don't know whether the government will listen to our call. I don't know whether the government will really understand the importance of ending indefinite detention immediately for people with disability. I hope that they will hear, I hope that they will listen, and I hope that they will change.

ALEXANDRA BLUCHER: Back home, pressure is building too.

The Disability Royal Commission made recommendations to end indefinite detention and make prison a place of last resort for forensic patients. For these people, getting out of prison doesn't necessarily solve their problems. Too often the damage is already done and moving back into the community can be difficult.

(MIKE PORTCH DRIVING)

ALEXANDRA BLUCHER: So Mike, how is Chris going today?

MIKE PORTCH, FATHER: Unfortunately, he's not good today. He's been to the hospital but he didn't wait. And apparently according to the support worker, he ran off. So we're just going to go down there and check on him and make sure he's okay.

ALEXANDRA BLUCHER: And what did the support workers say about what happened today?

MIKE PORTCH: Ah well they're not sure whether it was a psychotic episode or not but he has been shouting.

ALEXANDRA BLUCHER: Okay.

MIKE PORTCH: Which is not a good sign.

ALEXANDRA BLUCHER: Mike Portch's son Chris was released from prison last year. He has an intellectual disability, a history of substance abuse and has been charged with dozens of offences over three decades.

MIKE PORTCH: Our life has been police, courts, prison.

ALEXANDRA BLUCHER: All up, Chris has spent more than 20 years of his life in prison. He now lives in the Perth suburbs on an NDIS package. Mike believes there still isn't enough support to help Chris transition into the community.

MIKE PORTCH: It takes you over, consumes you. Yeah. Not a nice way to live.

Alright he lives just down here now.

(MIKE PORTCH EMERGES WITH SON CHRIS)

ALEXANDRA BLUCHER: Hi Chris.

CHRIS PORTCH: Hi, how's it going?

MIKE PORTCH: Right. All they want to say is, hello. And all that.

ALEXANDRA BLUCHER: We just wondered how you're going today?

CHRIS PORTCH: Yeah. Not bad.

ALEXANDRA BLUCHER: I just wanted to have a chat to you if it's okay, Chris, about some of the things that you've been through.

CHRIS PORTCH: Oh yeah.

MIKE PORTCH: As young parents, we never dreamed that we would have a mentally impaired child. This happens to someone else, you know, someone else's family, not ours.

Chris was born with the umbilical cord around his neck. We found out that this damaged the frontal lobes. As he grew, got older, it was quite evident then. He's impulsive, poor memory, poor decision making, easily led, lots and lots of things like this.

(LOOKING AT OLD PHOTOS)

Got to the age of about 13 in that photograph there and that's when the nightmare started.

ALEXANDRA BLUCHER: When did he start to kind of get in trouble with the police?

MIKE PORTCH: Yes, well basically from the age of about 14, 15, it was different things. Petty theft. As the years went by, he got deeper into the drugs. The crime escalated and then I think he got to about 18 and that was the first time then he was incarcerated.

ALEXANDRA BLUCHER: How would you sum up Chris's experience in the criminal justice system?

MIKE PORTCH: He's been destroyed really. I don't know how he coped to be truthful. Chris is a survivor. He's 50 years old. I'm amazed he's still alive.

ALEXANDRA BLUCHER: In 2017, he was charged with dozens of offences including threats to kill and theft. After two years in custody, Chris Portch was placed on the West Australian equivalent of a forensic order.

He ended up here at Perth's Disability Justice Centre. It's meant to provide state-of-the-art care for 10 patients with an intellectual disability but has never housed more than three people.

MIKE PORTCH: The decision was made to place Chris into the Disability Justice Centre. We thought at last now that Chris would receive the treatments that he needed. Geez, were we wrong.

ALEXANDRA BLUCHER: It was clear to his parents that Chris wasn't being properly supervised. He stopped taking his antipsychotic medication and became increasingly distressed.

MIKE PORTCH: He just cracked. Simple as that.

(ILLUSTRATED SEQUENCE)

He broke through the glass doors into the foyer entry with a fire extinguisher. He sat down on the floor. Chris waited for the police to arrive. They arrested him.

ALEXANDRA BLUCHER: Despite two psychiatrists saying Chris should return to the Disability Justice Centre, the former WA disability services minister Stephen Dawson refused to approve the request. This left the board that oversees forensic patients with little option but to send Chris back to prison.

ALEXANDRA BLUCHER: Was Chris particularly vulnerable in prison?

DR ADAM BRETT, PSYCHIATRIST: Oh, he's very vulnerable in prison. That's one of the problems for people with mental health problems and cognitive impairment, is that they're a high risk of being victimised from other prisoners in the prison environment.

ALEXANDRA BLUCHER: Psychiatrist Adam Brett assessed Chris in Acacia prison. Chris spent time in isolation and was tormented by other prisoners.

ALEXANDRA BLUCHER: When you saw him in prison, how was he?

DR ADAM BRETT: He was clearly struggling. He had a poor understanding of why he was in prison. He blamed others for his situation.

ALEXANDRA BLUCHER: Does the West Australian government have a responsibility to protect people with a disability from things that happen? Like what happened to Chris?

DR ADAM BRETT: I think they do. There are things afoot to try and address the problems in West Australia, which is good. So we we're moving forward at the moment.

I suppose that hasn't helped Chris.

ALEXANDRA BLUCHER: Where does Chris belong?

DR ADAM BRETT: Well, I think Chris belongs in the community.

ALEXANDRA BLUCHER: The WA Justice Department says prisoners with a cognitive disability are usually held in a separate unit in Acacia prison. A state government spokeswoman said if a resident at the DJC threatens violence or damages property then prison could be a better option for them. New laws will come into effect next year to end indefinite detention in WA and the minister will no longer have the power to refuse patients' access to the DJC.

Mike Portch feels the burden on families like his is too great and more support is desperately needed.

MIKE PORTCH: You can't walk away from this unscathed. It would break a lot of marriages, you know, having a child like this. It takes its toll but broken – nearly, but not quite. They won't break me, that's for sure.

(SPEAKING TO CHRIS PORTCH ON THE STREET)

ALEXANDRA BLUCHER, REPORTER: We're doing a story about the experiences of people in the prison system and in the Disability Justice Centre.

CHRIS PORTCH: Yeah.

ALEXANDRA BLUCHER: Would it be okay for me to ask you some questions about that?

CHRIS PORTCH: Oh, I got told a minute, and then that's it.

ALEXANDRA BLUCHER: What was it like in the Disability Justice Centre for you?

CHRIS PORTCH: Oh it wasn't nice.

MIKE PORTCH: It wasn't nice.

ALEXANDRA BLUCHER: What was not nice about it, Chris?

CHRIS PORTCH: I didn't like it.

MIKE PORTCH: They stopped your tobacco didn't they.

CHRIS PORTCH: I didn't like it.

ALEXANDRA BLUCHER: Was it hard being in there?

CHRIS PORTCH: Ah, it was. Yeah.

ALEXANDRA BLUCHER: And after your-

CHRIS PORTCH: Was that a minute?

MIKE PORTCH: He's had enough.

CHRIS PORTCH: Alright, alright. Thank you.

MIKE PORTCH: Chris. Thanks Chris. I'll see you mate. I might look in tomorrow to see how you're going.

ALEXANDRA BLUCHER: Mike's relieved that his son is okay for now.

Today he meets two of Chris' neighbours for the first time.

MIKE PORTCH: As long as he's not causing you any trouble.

ROSANNA FIGLIOMENI, NEIGHBOUR: He always comes past, when he walks past, he says hello. He's gorgeous.

SARAH DEL PINO, NEIGHBOUR: He's lovely. And often says hi, and we chat and-

ALEXANDRA BLUCHER: How often do you see him?

SARAH DEL PINO, NEIGHBOUR: Oh, probably once-, I probably see him every day almost. Yeah. He seems lonely sometimes.

MIKE PORTCH, FATHER: He is. He's very lonely. That's another problem.

SARAH DEL PINO, NEIGHBOUR: And I don't know, people can be scared of approaching you or something.

MIKE PORTCH: They do. They can.

SARAH DEL PINO, NEIGHBOUR: But I'm not worried. I think he probably needs a hug.

MIKE PORTCH: That's fantastic.

SARAH DEL PINO: Like, how often is he getting a hug? He had a hug with you, that's nice.

MIKE PORTCH: Well, I always do when I see him.

ALEXANDRA BLUCHER: Balancing community safety and the human rights of forensic patients is a real dilemma. Those trapped in the system have been kept out of sight for so long. Now they're finally being heard.

ALEXANDRA BLUCHER: What kind of life do you want outside of here, outside of the hospital?

MICHAEL HEATLEY: I want to return and have a life. I'd like to go to work, pay my taxes, live an honest and peaceful life.

'ADRIAN': What me really want – I want to be out, out on the nice ocean, near the beach. Maybe go like walking on the beaches. I love to be in there.