According to a leaked email, a prison administrator warned employees not to take the death of an Indigenous prisoner “personally” and said her family was seeking for “someone to blame.”
Tracy Jones, the prison administrator at Dame Phyllis Frost, issued the email in April 2020 in response to the public disclosure of disturbing video and audio showing heroin addict Veronica Nelson’s agonized cries for assistance.
Nelson cried out in pain repeatedly in the early morning hours of January 1, 2020, including a heartbreaking cry of “Daddy, daddy, daddy, daddy.” Despite this, a nurse only visited Nelson once throughout the night; she was discovered dead in her cell at 8 am.
Ms. Jones informs Melbourne prison employees in an email that the video was a part of “a very nasty image” being “painted by media,” which had “sensationalized” Nelson’s encounters with employees the night of her death.
The video, according to Ms. Jones, is “disturbing and frightening” and depicts Nelson “vomiting and crying in her cell.”
She tells the workers that it was “extremely regrettable for staff and their families” that the jail lost its legal fight to have the faces of inmates engaging with Nelson blurred.
The Coroner said that Nelson’s treatment had been “cruel and demeaning” and that her death had been avoidable in his conclusions.
Nelson was discovered to weigh barely 33kg when she passed away after vomiting all night.
She was placed on remand after being refused bail on allegations of stealing and other outstanding warrants, crimes that, according to the coroner, were unlikely to result in a prison sentence for the defendant if the case had gone to trial.
Ms. Jones concurred that Nelson’s treatment by staff was lacking in compassion in testimony she provided to the coroner a few weeks after the email was published.
She passed away while in our custody, thus we failed her, Ms. Jones said during the inquiry.
Attorneys for Nelson’s mother, Aunty Donna Nelson, said that the jail’s callousness was shown by the released email.
According to Robinson Gill attorney Ali Besiroglu, “Coroner McGregor began his momentous conclusion questioning how Veronica’s heartbreaking pleadings were neglected.”
The Governor of DPFC’s brutal email sheds light on the callous culture that pervaded the organization from the top down.
“This wasn’t media sensationalism; the only thing sensational about the facts was the Governor and her staff’s lack of empathy and compassion.”
After a coroner delivered a stinging finding on how Veronica Nelson’s final hours in jail were “cruel and demeaning,” her family has been calling for justice.
The email, according to Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews, is very alarming, and his administration will take appropriate measures.
This is a terrible tragedy, and that’s not acceptable to me in any way, he said.
“Again, I sincerely apologize, and once again I declare that the government and I will accept full responsibility for implementing significant change in response to what happened to Veronica Nelson.”
Prison guards contacted nurse Atheana George the night Nelson passed away, but she informed them that she did not think the Indigenous woman seemed to be that ill.
Only once over the course of the night did Ms. George visit Nelson, bringing her medication—including Panadol—through a panel in the cell door.
The nurse said she refrained from examining Nelson because the jail officer there had mistreated her so severely that she was “frightened to ask her to open the door that day.”
The nurse also denied hearing from guards that Nelson was ill.
It was also discovered that she played movies at night, and despite her claims that they were only “background noise,” monitors showed her avidly observing the television for hours while Nelson screamed for assistance.
»Tracy Jones’ leaked email after Veronica Nelson’s death«