Aboriginal Law Bulletin --- "AboriginalLB Interview: Alan Campbell - Alan Campbell's Brother Peter Died in Long Bay Gaol in 1980" [1989] AboriginalLawB 8; (1989) 1(36) Aboriginal Law Bulletin 11

• Alb Interview: Alan Campbell

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AboriginalLB Interview: Alan Campbell

Alan Campbell's brother Peter died in Long Bay Gaol in 1980

What do you hope the Royal Commission will achieve?

What I am hoping for is for criminal charges to be recommended against the various officers. What I don't want to be brought down is what is happening down in the community. What the Royal Commission is coming out with, we black fellas know all about that. We've lived in it, we know. That's not news to us, that's old. The new news that we want is justice.

What specifically do you think could be done about alleged harassment of Aboriginal people by police?

One thing I think the Royal Commission should be doing is to set up a complaints section, comprised of Aboriginals so when an Aboriginal complains about the police, they know the person they are talking to is a fellow black, not a white person. I have put a lot of complaints into the white section and they have only got as far as the desk and they probably put it under the desk. I have had letters back, but just justifying the reasons the police have got to do what they did, like breaking into black fellows houses. For 14 years the police have been coming and breaking into my mother's house, invading her privacy and the family privacy, coming up with a search warrant and saying "we have got a search warrant and we believe there is a suspect in this house". But every time they walk out, they walk out with nothing. With a complaints section, this would give us some control. We would know if we made a complaint, that it is going to be heard.

In retrospect, have you been satisfied with the choice of commissioners?

I have never been satisfied from the word go because there was no consultation with the families. If there is no consultation with the families but this Royal Commission, then they are still left out in the dark. The families wanted to have input into the terms of reference, but they totally refused that.

How do you see your brother's death in relation to the other deaths in custody?

As every family says, each individual death is different. My brother's death was done by two razor blades, so they say. Cut his throat. One clean cut 10cm long by two razor blades. It's impossible.

In terms of the investigations and inquiries that took place after your brother's death, are there suspicious circumstances or inadequacies?

The investigation speaks for itself. There wasn't sufficient investigation, and as for the coronial inquest, there was virtually nothing. If they talk about the actual cut, they should produce photos. There were no photos of it - nothing. The doctor came into the inquest talking about my brother and saying then that he wanted to put more input into his original report, saying that there were tentative cuts; in suicide there are normally about half a dozen cuts before the actual cut. In the original report there is nothing about the tentative cuts. Six or twelve months after, he wanted to put it in. I only accept the original report.

What responsibility do you think police, prison officers, coroners and so on have to the Aboriginal community?

We've got to put blacks in all these areas, and within prisons we have got to have a seperated black gaol for blacks and run by blacks. We've got to start accepting blacks in those fields. Having our own control. The majority of the witnesses are in gaol or in a police cell, and they get intimidated, they get harassment, they get threatened. That's stopping a hell of a lot of fellas from coming forward to tell the truth. After this Royal Commission the police and prison officers are going to pick them out and they'll play merry hell. They talked about protection when the Royal Commission started. There's nothing.

Alice Dixon mentioned a prisoner visiting scheme that's been set up after the release of the Interim Report. Do you think that will help alleviate some of the isolation?

That's good in one sense, but we've already got that in SA. We have got the Sanbury constitution, an organisation that can legally go into gaols. That is working in there. But what Alice is talking about is, if there are any problems in police cells or gaol that could be leading to deaths - because a lot of black fellas in gaol get bashed, I should know because I spent 17 years in boy's homes and prisons - we should have the ID so that we don't have to ring up first to get in; we could just front up to the prison, flash that ID and walk straight through, no questions, that door just opens. Not wait for two or three hours for them to cover up a lot. The only person that has that right today is Mum Shirl. But one person can't go to all the prisons. They talked about prison officers about 10 years ago. I was at one of them meetings and I got up there and said, "look, I'm an expert, I've been in and out of the gaols, how would I go to get a job as a prison officer?", I threw it back at them. The only thing they could come up with is, that they came back and said "well, look. You write out an application and send it to me", thinking I would never do it. I applied for the job and made an interview with the Department of Corrective Services in SA, and they thought I wouldn't go. I went to the interview, then I waited for the answer, would they accept me as a prison officer? They came back said that there's a lot of recommendations that I should get the job, but because of certain things... It's not because I wasn't qualified or anything like that, that's what they said, it's just because of certain things and probably that certain thing was that I had a conviction. As I told them they've got to look at it in a different way, because I'm an ex-crim, ex-druggie, and ex-alchoholic. I'm back in the community fighting to do something for my people. I've done 14 years good service to my people. 14 years, not sitting behind desks, but on the streets of Adelaide, talking to drunks and down-hearted people, Aboriginal people. I agree that blacks should be working in those positions, but they've also got to look at the blacks that want to work in those positions and if they are ex-alcohol, ex-druggie and ex-crims who want to get back and do something for their people, they should be accepted and their past history should be wiped. You're not going to get a black fella today who wants to work in that area that hasn't got convictions. That doesn't mean to say all the black fellas are dirty and underhanded drunken thieves and bums. There's a lot of black fellas in the community that don't drink, don't smoke. Aboriginal people would feel safe with more Aboriginal staff.