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INTRODUCTION

Despite this work being written some 18 months ago, primarily as a primer for peoplewanting to become acquainted with the issues of disability and criminal law, it still bearsremarkable relevance to the state of play for those who suffer from a disability who havebeen charged with a criminal offence. Little has changed!It is a sad indictment that the provocative work undertaken by Queensland's first dedicatedcriminal law service for disabled defendants alone, in spite of all attempts, hasn'tinfluenced significant policy shifts. However, that said, it would seem now that near threeyears down the track the project has become one of a number of important interventions,including governmental inquiries, reviews and reports that are collectively converging uponpolicy makers threatening a positive tipping point for disabled people in this state. In thelife of social movements and major systemic law reform generally, three years to bringabout significant willingness by government to amend policy is largely inconsequential tomovements of similar importance and magnitude that can literally take decades. There arehuman rights lawyers that I know that have spent their lives devoted to a cause incircumstances where there has been little or no shift. Day in day out they plot againststate, national and international government inertia. These people are truly our socialjustice advocates in the true sense of the term.My instigation of the Disability Law Project grew out of long frustration with theinadequacies of our criminal justice system in handling mentally ill, intellectually disabledand people who suffer an acquired brain injury. It was starkly brought home to me in mytime working with the Drug Court of Queensland where there was a blatant rejection ofdefendants who suffered a disability that would possibly make their compliance with aIntensive Drug Rehabilitation Order problematic. In these circumstances, thesedefendants following assessment were returned to custodial settings and by virtue of theincompatibility of such settings in treating disability generally, were prone to be harshlymanhandled by prison officers and other inmates. There is a body of evidence bothnationally and internationally that supports this claim, some of which is mentioned herein.The Disability Law Project was a mere action to balance this inequity by ensuring that inpunishing a defendant the court was always made aware of the persons disability, be itenough to provide a defence or used in the context of mitigation. The project at the time ofinitiation never would have imagined that we would see gross negligence by lawyershandling matters where a person's disability influenced their offending behaviour and/orimpacted upon their ability to stand trial. The project has recorded time and time again thestories of defendants who have unjustly and wrongfully accumulated long criminal historiesin circumstances where they had a defence or subsequently have been found unfit for trial.Moreover, the project could never have anticipated the lack of understanding of "disability"by all professionals working in our criminal justice system. The project also could not haveimagined the administrative and legislative anomalies that exist and impact so heavilyagainst the disabled in their contact with the system.This little book is just a mere primer, a window if you like into our criminal justice systemthrough the eyes of this project. It does not purport to be anything but a story of a few5lawyers and a disability advocate who collectively have ensured that any person whosuffers a relevant disability in our community and is unfortunate enough to be charged witha criminal offence will be protected against imminent injustice by our intervention.To this end, I have to acknowledge and sincerely thank lawyers Lucia Hawkshaw, BillMinchell, Renea Siemson, Aaron Davis and Disability Advocate Sue Gordon who all duringtheir time of service with the Disability Law Project have brought wonderful, unique gifts tothe project, far more than any one person can bring.Furthermore, I thank Lucia Hawkshaw and Sue Gordon for their contribution to the casestudies included in this book.The fate of the Disability Law Project continues to rest in the hands of the stategovernment. However, I sincerely thank the Attorney General of Queensland Kerry ShineMP and former Attorney General Linda Lavarch MP who have strongly supported theproject.May this little book, as clinical as it is and probably has to be, will you to action either in asimilar pursuit or in another corner of injustice in the world.

Dan Toombs