Disabled face prison as services privatised

As the NSW Government announced the first stage of the privatisation of 
group homes for the intellectually disabled, it was revealed that 20 
percent of prisoners in NSW jails are intellectually disabled.

The parliamentary Standing Committee on Law and Justice was told last week 
that disabled people were not committing more crimes, but were more likely 
to be detained and incarcerated than other people.

Inadequate training of staff in institutions was also cited as a cause, 
because staff, not knowing how to deal with inappropriate behaviour of the 
disabled, would involve the police.

Concerns were raised that the privatisation of group homes would result in 
lower training levels of staff.

If, as the Standing Committee has just heard, inadequate training is one of 
the causes of the high incarceration rate of the intellectually disabled, 
then the prison rate could rise even higher following privatisation.

Under the privatisation plan, up to 75 per cent of the 255 group homes run 
by the NSW Department of Community Services (DOCS) are to be put to tender, 
to be run by the private sector.

The privatisation of group homes is a stark example of the callousness of 
the economic rationalist philosophy.

Instead of one system for all, the Government will effect a two-tiered 
system: the most difficult cases will be discarded by the private sector.

The Government will end up as the dumping ground for impossible cases, the 
"rejects" from the private sector. The other dumping ground will be the 
prison system.

Private sector economic rationalism cannot work for community services. 
People cannot be treated as cattle on "markets". Parents and guardians of 
the disabled are determined to fight the Government over the issue.