CRPD/C/22/D/17/2013 allegations to be admissible, they are without merit. In any event, the author is not subject to orders under the Northern Territory Disability Services Act, but is in custody pursuant to the terms of the Northern Territory Criminal Code. Hence, the terms of the Act are not relevant to his communication. 4.2 The State party accepts that the author was committed to custody at Alice Springs Correctional Centre and then to a secure care facility. However, unless otherwise indicated, it does not accept the author’s version of the facts. 4.3 The Northern Territory Supreme Court’s periodic reviews have consistently concluded that, due to the lack of any other appropriate facility, there was no practical alternative to custody in the Correctional Centre. The Northern Territory Department of Health conducted risk assessments in relation to the author for the Court’s consideration. In the risk assessment dated 11 January 2012, a forensic psychologist found that, without the provision of significant support, future violence was a high risk. However, even with appropriate levels of support, it was assessed that there was still a moderate to high risk of future violence. 4.4 The State party contests the allegation that the author was held in maximum security and confined in his cell in isolation for long periods at Alice Springs Correctional Centre. His care was supervised by the Northern Territory Department of Health and he received case management, disability and therapeutic services through the Forensic Disability Unit of the Aged and Disability Program, with the goal of progressing to a point where he could be placed in the least restrictive environment possible. An average of three individual sessions were scheduled each week and habilitation exercises included teaching coping and tolerance skills, progressive muscle relaxation, activities designed to increase the author’s communication abilities and activity sequencing training to assist him in improving or arresting the deterioration of his memory. The author was mainly housed in a high-support unit dedicated to the treatment and accommodation of forensic patients and other inmates with intellectual and psychosocial illnesses and other disabilities. While the unit is within the maximum security section of the Correctional Centre, the environment is significantly different to that in the general maximum security section. The author was supported by disability support workers and could access family. Outside business hours, staff of the unit also provided health and welfare support to supervised persons. The author had access to the courtyard, and was provided with increasing access to low-security areas and, once the prerequisite steps for external release had been completed, to areas outside the grounds of the Correctional Centre. He also participated in a day-release programme, which was however suspended at times following incidents of behaviour of concern or as a result of his lack of interest in the activities offered. 4.5 The author isolated himself (or was isolated) at times, when he expressed the desire to be alone, or, in line with best practices in disability support, in response to incidents of certain behaviour, for the safety of the author or staff and support workers. The author was at most times separated from mainstream inmates not held in the high-support unit. Often such mixing was designed to enable the residents of the unit, including the author, to participate in recreational activities outside of that unit. 4.6 The secure care facility in which the author was subsequently held provides a secure residential environment 24 hours a day, 7 days a week by delivering supervision and intensive disability services and support. After the author was transferred there in mid-2013, the Northern Territory Supreme Court continued to periodically review and supervise the arrangements for the author’s care in accordance with the Northern Territory Criminal Code, including in relation to a number of serious incidences of violent behaviour. The Northern Territory Department of Health continues to report to the Court on the author and his progress. The author is generally supported by two disability support workers at all times. Each day, he is taken out of the facility to visit family members or to engage in recreational activities, including regular visits to the cinema, to outdoor recreation spaces and national parks and to shops or malls in Alice Springs. However, he continues at times to exhibit a number of behaviours of concern which have resulted in his day-release visits being cancelled. 5

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