An Indigenous woman's baby was taken from her. It was a ‘pivotal moment' before she died in prison
An Indigenous woman's newborn had been taken from her, she had been denied parole and then a doctor prescribed her a high dose of synthetic opiates leading to her death.
Heather Calgaret's death in custody was preventable and her health in prison had deteriorated from the moment her baby was removed from her at birth, a coroner found on Monday.
'Not only was her passing preventable, she should never have passed in the manner that she did,' Victorian Coroner Sarah Gebert said as she delivered a 300-page finding following an inquest.
The 30-year-old Yamatji, Noongar, Wongi and Pitjantjatjara woman had been six months pregnant when she arrived at Dame Phyllis Frost women's prison, in Melbourne's outer west, in July 2019.
The removal of her daughter – which Calgaret had described as 'hell' – was a pivotal moment in her overall health decline while in custody, Gebert found.
She experienced depression, grief, shame and trauma from the child's removal and separation from her three other children, became obese and was diagnosed with diabetes over her next two years in prison.
Calgaret pleaded to be released on parole about six months before her death, writing a letter expressing frustration as one of her parole conditions was to complete a program that was not available.
'I have been told I need to complete the See Change program to complete parole. Dame Phyllis Frost is not running it,' she wrote, as she asked to be permitted to complete the program outside prison.
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