CONCENTRATE, CONCENTRATE

The Lady in Red One

"For more than 18 hours a day she was kept in solitary confinement in Red One because she was screaming and uncontrollable," said refugee advocate Bernadette Wauchope.
"We visited the centre often and detainees told us they were worried about a woman they called Anna, who was screaming all day and night in her cell. They said she wouldn't talk to anyone, muttered in German and was clearly mentally unstable and needed help.
"She was locked up in an isolation cell for more than 18 hours a day. When she was allowed out of her room for a few hours' exercise it would take up to six riot officers to force her back into her room fighting and screaming.

"One man who had been in Red One said he could hear her screaming in her cell for hours.
"A guard said she was just putting it on as she just wants to get out."
An immigration spokesman confirmed Ms Rau had been locked in Red One, where detainees are kept in isolation in a bare cell under 24-hour camera observation.
Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists chairwoman Louise Newman said she and others tried to see the woman at Baxter in December but were denied permission.
"We were told she had not asked for an outside assessment so we couldn't see her," Dr Newman said. "But obviously she was psychotic and incapable of making any such request. Her situation was deteriorating rapidly in the conditions in which she was being kept.

Inquiry should be open, says family

Cornelia Rau's sister is disappointed the inquiry into her detention will be held in private and that the head of the inquiry will not have powers to compel witnesses.

The family of a mentally ill woman wrongly held in a detention centre says a Federal Government inquiry into how she came to be locked up should be an open investigation.
Federal Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone announced the inquiry into Cornelia Rau's situation will be held in private to protect Ms Rau's privacy.
Ms Rau was held in a Queensland prison and at the Baxter detention centre as an illegal immigrant for a total of 10 months.
Ms Rau's sister, Chris, says the Government should not be concerned about attempting to preserve the privacy of her sister or the Rau family.
"Poor Cornelia, her entire illness has been on every media outlet in the country, our privacy has already been sacrificed now," she said.
Chris Rau says an open inquiry should be held, with the more sensitive evidence being given in camera.
"We would have preferred an open inquiry which could hear Cornelia's psychiatric history in camera," she said.
"We feel the commissioner should have the power to compel witnesses and to make sure that people who do give eyewitness accounts aren't some how punished in the future."
Senator Vanstone announced that former Australian Federal Police (AFP) commissioner Mick Palmer will conduct the private inquiry and report back to the Government on March 24.