Hanging points death toll ‘unacceptable', attorney general Michelle Rowland says, urging states to review practices

The Guardian

17-06-2025

Michelle Rowland has described the 'unacceptable' death toll linked to the continued presence of hanging points in Australian jails as 'deeply concerning' and told state and territory governments to 'review their practices'.
The attorney general has also signalled she will push for accelerated justice reforms during upcoming meetings with her state and territory counterparts at the Standing Council of Attorneys-General forum.
'Every death in custody is a tragedy and the unacceptable number of deaths in custody caused by hanging points is deeply concerning,' a spokesperson for Rowland said.
'The attorney general strongly encourages state and territory governments to review their practices and continue to work toward effective solutions that ensure the safety and dignity of all Australians in the justice system.'
A Guardian Australia investigation last week revealed 57 inmates have died in 19 separate prisons using hanging points that authorities knew about but failed to remove, often despite repeated suicides and stark warnings from coroners.
At the Arthur Gorrie prison in Brisbane, the same ligature point – a set of exposed bars contained in older-style cells – has been used in 10 separate hanging deaths between 2001 and 2020, despite warnings to the state government as early as 2007 that it 'immediately' fund the removal of the bars.
In one of those deaths in 2010, an inmate was sent into a cell containing the bars despite previously telling prison authorities that he had thought of using them to die by suicide, according to coronial findings.
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Similar failures were replicated across the state. At the Borallon prison, an inmate hanged himself from a similar set of exposed bars in 2011, five years after the Queensland government was told to 'immediately cover with mesh any bars accessible to prisoners in cells'. At the Townsville prison, two inmates hanged themselves from exposed bars a decade after the government was told to 'immediately' act on hanging points, 'including bars'.
The situation was replicated in almost every state in the country. In New South Wales, the Guardian found 20 hangings from ligature points that were known to authorities but not removed. Another 14 deaths were identified in South Australia and seven in Western Australia.
The failings have prompted urgent calls from experts and families of the dead for action, including on removing obvious hanging points, but also to improve mental health service delivery to jails.
Most of the cases identified by the Guardian revealed failures in mental health treatment, risk assessment, cell placement or information sharing, including the death of Gavin Ellis, who died at Sydney's Silverwater prison complex in 2017.
Ellis had a longstanding psychotic illness and had attempted to hang himself twice in his first three days of custody.
Despite this, he was not seen by a mental health clinician for eight days, was not reviewed by a psychiatrist for six weeks, and was then sent into a cell with a ligature point that had been used by another inmate in the same unit of the prison two years earlier.
'The system does not have capital punishment, yet it leaves hanging points for inmates to use,' his mother, Cheryl Ellis, told the Guardian.
State governments all said they were taking the issues of hanging points seriously, and had conducted long-term programs to make cells safe, as well as investing in better mental health assessment and treatment.
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Hanging deaths disproportionately affect Indigenous Australians, owing largely to the failure to decrease their overrepresentation in prison populations.
In 2023, First Nations Australians accounted for 33% of the country's prison population – a record high – but just 3% of the overall population.
On Tuesday, the former Labor senator Pat Dodson described the death toll using known ligature points as 'totally unacceptable'.
Dodson worked on the royal commission into Aboriginal deaths in custody, which in 1991 told state and territory governments to remove hanging points and to enact strategies to reduce the incarceration rate for Indigenous Australians.
He joined a group of crossbenchers, including David Pocock, David Shoebridge, Zali Steggall and Lidia Thorpe, in calling for national leadership on the issue.
The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander social justice commissioner, Katie Kiss, said the removal of hanging points from prison cells to reduce self-harm was a 'key recommendation' from the 1991 royal commission.
'The failure to implement this and … other recommendations exacerbates the ongoing national shame that is Aboriginal deaths in custody,' she said.
'The treatment of our people, particularly when it comes to the administration of the justice system, is a deep stain on this country. They are being failed by an oppressive system that continues to deny their rights.'
In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Indigenous Australians can call 13YARN on 13 92 76 for information and crisis support. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org