Ben Cousins' jail hell: Prison where the footy champion turned drug addict was held is 'overcrowded, severely understaffed and inhumane'
- Ben Cousins has been jailed for the past eight months and jailed for 10 in 2017
- Hakea Prison in Western Australia has 'inhumane' and 'overcrowded' conditions
- The former West Coast and Richmond player will be trialed in September
Troubled AFL champion Ben Cousins (pictured) has been released from jail after a six month stint at Hakea Prison in Western Australia
Fallen AFL star Ben Cousins has spent the last six months in an 'inhumane' and 'overcrowded' prison.
Cousins was locked up at Hakea Prison in Canning Vale, Western Australia in August 2018 and released last week.
The prison is overcrowded, severely understaffed and inhumane for inmates and staff, a review has found.
Almost every cell at Hakea prison housed two prisoners, despite being designed for one person.
Prison Inspector Neil Morgan said there were 1,200 men in ten units.
The lack of personal space in the 'noisy, cramped and stressful' units compromised the dignity of inmates and the safety of prisoners and staff, he said.
Prisoners were not getting their daily entitlement to visits, the kitchen could not cater for the population, inmates were sometimes unable to get a medical appointment, some ate in their cell near the toilet, and the video link for the courts was 'dangerously' crowded.
Cousins (pictured with a friend), 40, was released on bail and has been seen out in Palmyra, a suburb of Perth, sporting a long beard and ponytail
Hakea Prison is overcrowded, severely understaffed and inhumane for inmates and staff, a review has found
'Hakea is overcrowded with no immediate signs of reprieve,' Mr Morgan said.
'This environment was not decent or humane for prisoners or staff.'
But Corrective Services Commissioner Tony Hassall said cells had been fitted with bunk beds and not all were in use, adding there was capacity for more.
'While this arrangement is not ideal ... Hakea has managed many thousands of prisoner movements without major incident and most are released in under a month,' he said.
Pictured is a cell in the protective custody unit at Hakea Prison, which are more spacious than normal cells
Mr Morgan is also monitoring prisoner-on-prisoner assaults, saying they appear to have increased since mid-2018.
Mr Hassall said a crowded prison invariably increased the threat of tension, so inmates were moved between prisons and disruptive individuals were isolated to minimise the risk.
In the first quarter of 2018, there were only two days when the facility did not experience some form of lockdown due to short staffing, and inmates felt unsafe with the inadequate supervision, the report found.
Mr Morgan also found Hakea had not been able to keep up with prisoner assessments, which determined each inmate's security rating, placement, education and treatment needs.
In January there were 538 assessment due to be conducted for men in the metropolitan area, with 483 past the 28-day requirement.
Without an assessment, a prisoner cannot participate in an official rehabilitation program, which means they can be denied parole.
The former Brownlow medallist was arrested at his ex-girlfriend Maylea Tinecheff's (pictured with Cousins) home in August
Mr Hassall said prison programs were targeted to sentenced inmates, but they were working on the assessments backlog.
He also said a new video link facility at the prison featured 11 rooms.
Cousins has spent a total of 16 months at Hakea Prison.
He was released last week after eight months inside with a trial date set for September 12 where the 40-year-old will answer 14 charges, 12 of which relate to breaching a family restraining order.
He faces a count each of aggravated stalking and threatening to injure, endanger or harm which stems from his arrest last August at the home of former partner Maylea Tinecheff.
On Wednesday Cousins inadvertently walked into a media pack at a swimming pool, declaring 'it's good to be out'.
He will face trial in September.
THE TROUBLED LIFE AND TIMES OF BEN COUSINS:
1996 - Makes AFL debut with West Coast and is named the league's Rising Star
2001 - Named club captain of West Coast at age 23
2002 - Breaks his arm falling down a flight of stairs at a nightclub months after punching his teammate Daniel Kerr
2005 - (May) Is quizzed by police about association with underworld identities
- (September) Wins Brownlow medal as the AFL's best and fairest player
Cousins after the 2006 AFL Grand Final
2006 - (February) Swims across a Perth river to escape a booze bus
- (September) Wins AFL premiership with the Eagles
- (December) Is arrested after passing out in front of Melbourne's Crown Casino and spends four hours in jail
2007 - (March) Suspended by West Coast after missing training session
- (April) Goes to a drug rehabilitation facility in the US
- (October) Revealed to have visited fellow Eagles legend Chris Mainwaring twice on the night he died of a drug overdose
- (October) Arrested and charged with drug offences that are later dropped
- (November) Eventually sacked by West Coast and banned from the AFL for one year
2008 - AFL re-registers Cousins and he is signed by Richmond
2010 - Retires from the AFL but releases autobiography and documentary
Cousins has been charged with drug possession and refusing a drug test in 2007, but the charges were later dropped
2015 - Arrested three times before leading police on a slow-speed car chase
2016 - (June) Spotted behaving erratically and directing traffic on a highway
- (October) In and out of court over drug offences and breaches a restraining order taken out by his ex-partner
2017 - Jailed for one year for breaching restraining order by calling his ex-lover thousands of times
2018 - (January) Released from jail on parole just 10 months into his sentence
He takes up a community support role with the West Coast Eagles - a requirement of his parole conditions
- (May): Reports emerge he hasn't been seen at the club for a month
The club confirms the he told officials in April he no longer wanted the job
- (August) Arrested and charged with drug possession and breaching a restraining order
2019 - (March) Pleaded not guilty to 12 counts of breaching a violence restraining order, and one count each of stalking and threatening to harm
- (April) Released from jail on bail
Source: AAP
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