Analyzing Policy and Media Regarding Prisoner Healthcare Access

This report, addressed to the AASW, analyzes the issue of prisoner healthcare access in Australia, prompted by a newspaper article discussing the denial of healthcare to inmates. It argues that denying prisoners access to hospital care violates their rights and contradicts the Australian government's commitment to equal healthcare access. The report highlights the vulnerability of prisoners, including those with disabilities and those from marginalized backgrounds, emphasizing the inadequacy of healthcare facilities in watch houses. It then discusses the social worker's ethical responsibilities, based on principles of respect for persons, social justice, and professional integrity, advocating for a media campaign to raise awareness and advocate for policy changes. The report calls for the integration of social work perspectives in policy-making to ensure equitable healthcare access for vulnerable populations and suggests incorporating prisoner healthcare into the Australian government charter and extending NDIS support.

Policy and the Media
To,
The President,
AASW,
National office level 7, 14-20 Blackwood street,
North Melbourne VIC 3051.
Date: 30/04/2019.
Sub: Drawing your attention for the media campaign in regard to the violation of their right to
access health.
Dear Miss Craik,
The recent article published in the newspaper “18 News” by the title “Put doctors behind bar”
has caught the reader’s attention and has attracted my attention too as a social worker. The
narration of the article briefs about the criminals to be treated inside the watch houses rather
than hospital given the vulnerability of security concern is a matter of serious concern and has
bought into light the violation of the rights to access health services. Well, the Australian
government does not discriminate on the basis of imprisonment and that every person
irrespective of their nationality, race or identity has an equal access to the heath care system
which is also a part of international treaty obligation. This report in the media has totally put the
already vulnerable segment into more precarious situation.

According to National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) , there are 4.3 million Australians
who have disability and amongst them 4,60,000 is under the age 65 years, they are the one who
has been funding for disability support and service through (NDIA) i.e. National Disability
Insurance Agency. Amongst all these vulnerable people prisoners are amongst the unhealthiest
people in Australia. This is evident from the fact that 80% of the Australian who is in prison is
because of their connection to illegal drug use amongst them 14% are indigenous and 18% are
non-English speaking background. They are the one who is very vulnerable to water borne
disease like Hepatitis C and a high prevalence of HIV contraction which requires medical
intervention at a regular basis. All these arguments led us to a fact that medical facilities in the
watch houses are not well equipped and alienating them from the basic health access to the
hospital would be like adding salt to their already bleeding wound. Such change in policy would
not only interfere with the rights of the prisoners but has a detrimental impact on the social and
ethical values. Citing shooting incident by a prisoner in the Ipswich hospital raised a red flag to
the security concern for the police department, which is a genuine concern of the police
department but denying access to the entire prisoner is generalizing them with a preconceived
notion. The concern of the security can be meted out by increasing the vigilance, increasing the
awareness, regular patrolling in the vulnerable location and much more strategic option can be
availed but denying access to the health facilities is a sheer display of discrimination in
realization of their basic rights (chief vigilance commission, 2019).
The code of ethics serves as a guiding route to the social worker and is based on certain principle
that helps the social worker to attain the professional aim. The values and practice as defined in
the code allows them to identify the objective of this profession, recognize the professional

obligation and understanding the determinants of ethical behavior. In realizing the objective of
the social work, one should be committed to three core values.
These are
1) Respect for person
2) Social Justice
3) Professional integrity.
Respect to person:
The social work profession holds that every person is unique, has inherent dignity and has certain
rights that needed to be valued. The purpose of this profession is to endorse the wellbeing of an
individual, autonomy, justice and social responsibility with consideration of individual rights.
Social Justice:
Societies should uphold social justice as their core obligation (Pierson,2001), so that every
individual has access to resources for their well being. It’s by reducing the barriers and
enhancing the opportunities especially to the underprivileged communities, individual or with
exceptional needs that allows them to bring justice and fairness in the society. Their
responsibilities in this regard are also to oppose any human rights violation and ensures that civil
and political rights are in tandem with the economic, social and cultural rights. Endorsing the
protection of the natural environment that are necessary for the well being of the society.

Professional integrity:
The social work profession is guided by the principle of honesty, transparency, trust,
understanding other view, reflective awareness competence and commitment. Social work
professional has the priority of realizing the needs and aspiration of others rather than their
personal gains. They are the one who are expected to serve humanity and should be able to
ethical decision while in deliverance of his duty. Should be able to continuously grow with his
ongoing learning, training education and should encourage the development of other colleague.
In the above given context, the identification of the social issues is the first and foremost
responsibilities of the social worker. i.e. the issues here is the discrimination with the vulnerable
inmates with lesser access to healthcare is an issue that needs to be identified by the social
worker. The policy and the law in this regard is already in place, which doesn’t discriminates on
the basis of imprisonment. But the data shows otherwise and as a social worker my work ethics
guides me to raise the voice or struggle for this deprived community from the access to the
healthcare benefits that are available to all others. Here we can also identify the two different
perceptions on the approaches to the prisoner access to health. On one hand the police
department has the priority of securing the hospitals and people nearby the hospital areas and on
the other I as a social worker takes a holistic view keeping into account the learning from
workplace ethics where I am guided by the principle of honesty, transparency, social justice
valuing person for what they are is the driving factor for my advocacy of the prisoner rights.
The principle of social justice also guide the social worker to be the voice of the deprived and
struggle in meeting their genuine need that is in accordance to the law and has a moral
obligation.

The role of social worker has always been negated by the policy making bodies in the
development of social policy. This has led to the gap in the implementation of those policies and
benefitting underprivileged, the main element of purpose for policy makers.
It is for the above given reason, policy makers and the policy advocates should consider the
integration of the healthcare access with the social system i.e. social worker, civic societies other
agency like NDIS so that the proper implementation of the policy takes place where it is required
the most. Policies can optimize relation between social environment and the attitude towards
discrimination with the prisoners who are vulnerable. The centrality of the values means that
attaining social justice, fairness and equity within a social work approach to policy making for
improving the condition of vulnerable prisoners. By including, social worker in putting their
own perspective into the social issues and their solution. Issues such as lack of access to health
care by the vulnerable group can persist there for years without gaining much attention from the
government but the particular solution to a particular issue like incorporation of prisoner
healthcare in the Australian government charter for healthcare or extension of the NDIS support
and services to the prison can have a very fruitful impact in their well being alongside including
all the stakeholders while making a development of the policies (Carey, G, et al, 2017).
Thus we can derive from the published given article that how this issue should have been put
forth in the much better perspective. Well the article has discussed the lack of proper healthcare
facilities in the watch house, it weighed more towards the security concern as has been the claim
of the police department. My work ethos and responsibilities has prompted me to garner your
attention towards the healthcare access in hospital to the prisoner that require media campaign.

The campaign is necessitated from the fact, that the government has already made the policy in
this regard but is met with clear violation of the rights of inmates that is an obligation of the
international treaty as well. The campaign would bring in awareness amongst the policy maker
not only of the violation of the existing law but also how the different social elements can bought
together to actual implementation of the policy.
I am looking forward for your urgent intervention in this regard.
Thanking you,
Faithfully yours,
Allen Murphy.

References:
The AASW is the professional body for social worker (n.d). Retrieved March 30, 2019, from
https://www.aasw.asn.au/
Understanding what ndis is (n.d). Retrieved from March 30, 2019, from
file:///C:/Users/ravi%20shankar/Downloads/PB%20Understanding%20the%20NDIS%20book%201_0.pdf
The Austrian charter for healthcare rights in Victoria (n.d). Retrieved March 29, from
file:///C:/Users/ravi%20shankar/Downloads/Australian%20Charter%20of%20Healthcare
%20Rights%20in%20Victoria.pdf
Prisoners right to access health services (n.d). Retrieved March 29, from
https://www.justiceaction.org.au/health/451-prisioners
Chief Vigilance Commission. (2019). Initiatives in preventive vigilance. Retrieved from
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5674687/
Carey, G., Malbon, E., Reeders, D., Kavanagh, A., & Liewellyn, G. (2018). Redressing or
entrenching social and health inequities through policy implementation? Examining
personalized budgets through Australian National Disability Insurance Scheme,
16:192.doi 10.1186/s12939-017-0682-z