Lawyer pushes for Judicial settlement

The lawyer representing the family of Hans Dalton, Leulua’iali’i Olinda Woodroffe, is not giving up on her attempts to find justice for the mental health patient who was found dead at the Tafa’igata Prison.

The latest move in her attempts saw her in the Supreme Court this week asking to have the case referred to a Judicial Settlement Conference.

According to legal minds, a judicial settlement conference is an informal process in which a retired circuit court judge, trained in mediation and settlement conference skills, actively facilitates a process whereby parties in conflict may reach a mutually satisfactory resolution.

Speaking to the Samoa Observer outside Court, Leulua’iali’i said the Chief Justice; His Honour Patu Tiava’asu’e Falefatu Sapolu accepted her request.

Asked why she has chosen the option, the lawyer said because of the costs for the parties involved.

“Judicial settlement conference involves a judge with a background and experience in legal issues whereas mediation involves people who are trained in mediation when two parties want to come together and solve something,” she said.

Leuluaiali’i also said she chose the option “because of the ability of the judges to control and pick up the legal issues.”

Speaking about Dalton’s death, she said he had a mental health issue and should have never been taken to jail.

“Why was he killed in jail,” she asked. “Those are the things that disturb me as a mother and a human being.”

Dalton was found dead inside a gallon of water at Tafa’igata prison on Boxing Day, 2012.

The police had initially ruled that the New Zealand-based Samoan had committed suicide.

Contrary to those reports, the Police later charged a 21-year-old prisoner for the murder of Dalton. He has since been discharged.

Dalton’s death was one of the issues a Commission of Inquiry into Police and Prisons delved into.

Under the sub-headline “A tragic Christmas,” the Commission headed by the Ombudsman, Maiava Iulai Toma found the following:

“On Christmas day 2012, shortly after 6.00 pm a thirty-eight year old man was brought to Tafaigata prison to be detained there. The man had been under a Mental Health Act 2007 ‘in-patient treatment order’ since 23 December 2012 and had been handed over to the Police because the hospital could not cope with excessively physical manifestations of agitation he had shown.

He was placed in one of four cells in pa sima cell block No. 2 shortly after arrival at Tafaigata prison. At that point he was seen to act strangely. He mumbled to himself continuously but otherwise he was not an active threat to anyone.

At about 8.45 p.m. he started to scream loudly and to shake the iron bars of his cell or punch the concrete walls from time to time.

Two other detainees, a convicted prisoner and a man held in custody charged with murder shared the small cell block with the detained mental patient. The cells that the two other detainees occupied were not locked and the two men were free to walk about in the common area into which all four cells in the block opened.

At about 9.00 p.m. two medical personnel arrived to administer medication. They were however unsuccessful in this task and the ill man was forcibly put back into his assigned cell. He received no further medical visits.

The cell block was checked throughout the night and early morning at irregular intervals ranging from 35 minutes to 2hrs 25 minutes. Each visit was made by at least two of the three prison officers who made up the night watch at the male residential part of the prison. This watch had been on duty since 8.00 a.m. Christmas morning and due to come off its 24 hour roster duty at 8.00 a.m. Boxing Day.

It is clear that the mentally ill man had kept up his loud screaming and occasional swearing throughout the night. He shook the cell door’s iron bars from time to time and was frequently heard to call out “Lisa” his wife’s name to the deaf world around him. At about 7.15 a.m. on Boxing Day, Hans Dalton was dead. He was found head down in a large drum half full of water in the prison cell.

The event described above tells of the pitifully low level of performance that Tafaigata prison through habit has permanently set for itself to deliver. It reflects miserably also on the capacity of Samoa Police to be sensitive and responsive to the situation of an ill person in desperate need of relief from his mental anxieties.

Tafaigata is used to having only three or four officers as the full complement of the night watch in the prison office and male inmate compound. Such numbers provide capacity for nothing more than the manning of the office and rounds of the cell blocks by foot from time to time throughout the night. The low numbers is also a convenient excuse for not attending to any demands outside of the basic tasks that may arise during the night. Demands outside of the basic tasks include requests from inmates for medical attention.

Hans Dalton presented the Tafaigata night watch with a challenge that, had the prison wanted to handle in a minimally satisfactory manner, would have required additional manpower to provide, at the least, fuller surveillance throughout the night of the seriously agitated detainee. Such manpower was only a shout away for the asking. All of the Samoa Police force on Upolu not on regular duty that night were camped at Tafaigata in readiness for contingencies. The camp is routine Police procedure for the festive season holiday period.

Sadly however, the idea of doing anything out of the ordinary that night to help Hans Dalton does not appear to have entered the duty leader’s mind. To him the mentally ill detainee was a nuisance. In fact he was more concerned about the safety of the other two detainees in the cell block from Hans Dalton. The team leader and another colleague said so quite plainly in statements given to the Police Professional Standards Unit.

The watch was commanded by a Senior Constable. Why was command in the hands of such a low level officer? Why weren’t any of the senior ranks available to make decisions when the mental patient’s behaviour changed drastically later in the evening? The Superintendent who is 2nd in command of the prison resides in the compound. Why wasn’t his wisdom and experience brought to bear on the problem on the spot? In total perspective, what kind of a ‘ship’ was the Assistant Commissioner running at Tafaigata? How could the pitiful cries of an ill, for all intents and purposes, totally trapped human being yearning aloud desperately for the comfort of his wife and children, not be heard in the midst of assembled police manpower poised in readiness supposedly, to keep the community safe?

Police command showed no interest in these questions after the event. The investigation ordered by the Commissioner of Police focussed on shortcomings in the actions within the cell block of the lowest ranked prison officers involved.

Disciplinary charges of negligent performance in not locking the individual cells were laid against the Senior Constable who was in charge and two duty constables.

The two constables quickly pleaded guilty to the charges even though it is clear that leaving the cells unlocked in this cell block had been common practice. The two constables were dismissed. The Senior Constable team leader while admitting in statements to the PSU that he had not locked Dalton’s cell and throwing himself at the mercy of the Commissioner, chose to defend the disciplinary charges against him. To date, one year later, these charges have yet to be heard by a police tribunal. No one else was held to account for the tragic events of Christmas and Boxing Day 2012 at Tafaigata Prison.

An observable manifestation of the creeping abandonment of prisons by the Ministry over the years is the absence of any verifiable active interest by police command in prisons performance. Where there is little expectation of quality performance or even of the mere possibility of it, little performance in fact emerges. Delegation is a vital factor to operational success in the Police. Over reliance on delegation appears to have been a downfall here.”