This article contains references to suicide.
A suicide prevention taskforce is being set up to examine the management of at-risk prisoners in Western Australia, following three suspected suicides at jails in the state in the past month.
Corrective Services Minister Francis Logan has instructed the WA Department of Justice to establish the unit, which will review existing management policies and the level of suicide prevention training given to staff.
It will also assess whether Corrective Services' strategy and practice is culturally responsive and aligned to the state suicide prevention strategy.
"An unnatural death in custody by self-harm is a highly complicated and complex matter,” Mr Logan said in a statement.
"They are deeply sad events that affect many people within and without a prison, most of all a person's family and loved ones."
The move follows the recent deaths of three inmates at , and Melaleuca Women's Prison that appear to be self-harm incidents.
All three deaths were reported as suspected suicides but will be subject to coronial inquests as all deaths in custody are.
Two of the three inmates were Indigenous Australians.
Mr Logan said while a death in custody is “a sad occasion as it is in the community”, he urged caution about “conflating self-harm deaths with natural deaths in custody, which are often the result of serious pre-existing medical conditions or terminal illness”.
"Prisoners receive a level of health care that is commensurate with the health care they would receive in the community and have direct access to medical staff," he said.
The new taskforce, which will report to the Corrective Services Commissioner, will include external stakeholders as well as departmental executives.
How prisoners have been managed in the privately-run Acacia Prison will also be looked at.
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