Mr Tabbah's personal circumstances
64Mr Tabbah's personal circumstances must also be taken into account on sentencing. He is still a young man, aged only 22 at the time of this offence.
65Unchallenged affidavit evidence was given on sentencing by Mr Tabbah as to his onerous conditions in custody. Mr Bradley Jones' report was also tendered.
66The history which Mr Tabbah gave Mr Jones was not given by way of sworn evidence. Ordinarily such accounts must be approached with some caution, given that it has not been tested. In this case, however, Mr Tabbah gave affidavit evidence on sentencing and was not required for cross-examination and so the history he gave Mr Jones must be accepted as unchallenged.
67Mr Tabbah's evidence established that he first went into juvenile detention in February 2005. He was released in April 2006 and returned to custody in August 2006. He was again released in November 2006. He went into adult custody in February 2008. He then spent a year in segregation and received a maximum security classification. In September 2009 he received an extremely high security designation. He was released in November 2011.
68While in adult custody Mr Tabbah was placed in the Individual Violent Offender Intervention Program and was held in the Security Threat Group Intervention Program. Since returning to custody in March 2012 he has again been given a High Risk Management Unit designation and was placed in the High Risk Management Unit. Since then he has been out of segregation for only about three months. He has also been placed on Behaviour Level Management Programs.
69Mr Tabbah's evidence was that his custody in the High Risk Management Unit is more onerous than when he had an extremely high security designation. This affects the number and basis upon which he can receive non-legal visits. He is not permitted to have food or drinks brought to him during such visits. Those to whom he makes telephone calls must be approved. He does not have access to the gym or oval and he is held in custody in small spaces, as the result of which, he says, he has developed short sightedness. He has limited opportunity to associate with other inmates and then for a maximum of two hours per day. As a result he feels depressed and lonely. He has more limited opportunity to spend money on buy ups and is barred from having all of his personal property and electrical items.
70Mr Tabbah also described his conditions of escort, which involve him being strip searched, handcuffed and shackled at the ankles, while guarded in a modified vehicle. Those conditions have not altered from those which applied when he had an extremely high security designation. Nor has his access to other activities. He is still not able to participate in religious activities in the way that those who do not have such restrictions are permitted to do. He also has no access to education and training courses, apart from English language studies and has no opportunity to work.
71Mr Jones' report outlined a history given by Mr Tabbah, of being one of two children, raised in a strict environment, where corporal punishment was regularly used by his father. He has never met his sister and has had no contact with his mother since he was aged four years, when his parents separated. He was largely raised by his grandmother and described having a violent and abusive relationship with his father. He reported having had a restrictive upbringing and that when he engaged in delinquent behaviour, he was beaten with fists, sticks and other implements.
72Mr Tabbah developed antisocial behaviours as an adolescent, to gain peer acceptance. His increasing anger and aggression resulted in early cessation of schooling and the development of an "us against them" view, which unfortunately, has carried into adulthood.
73Mr Tabbah denies any drug or alcohol abuse. He reported experiencing significant inexplicable anger from approximately 12 years of age, which has continued. He reports that he then began associating with older peers and began engaging in fighting, to appear cool and be liked. He was academically average at school, but was often disciplined for disruptive behaviour. He was expelled from school in year eight for fighting and soon afterwards went into juvenile detention, when aged 15. He has never pursued other education or employment, as the result of his frequent incarceration.
74Mr Tabbah has engaged in many fights while in custody and says that he has experienced racial vilification and abuse from other inmates, which was not sanctioned by staff, but resulted in him not being able to control or manage his intense anger. The result was that extreme force has had to be used on occasion to subdue him. On one occasion he was seriously assaulted. He also quickly developed strong anger towards prison officers and an "us and them" approach.
75Mr Tabbah acknowledged being easily angered by trivial events and almost immediately responding with violence, as the result of which he would escalate the violence and sustain serious injuries. He has had many periods of incarceration for violent offences as a result, as well as negative interaction with prison officers while in custody.
76Mr Tabbah also said that he had suffered significant head and facial injuries in prison; that he had been beaten unconscious; and that he twice believed he would be killed. He reported experiencing agitation day and night without triggers, nightmares, flashback memories of previous assaults and panic responses when approached by prison officers.
77Mr Jones' opinion was that Mr Tabbah was likely to have become institutionalised, having spent approximately six and a half years in custody since aged 15 years. He explained that this is a process where an inmate is shaped and transformed by the institutional environment in which they live in custody, with the result that the norms of prison life are incorporated into habits of thinking, feeling and acting. To survive the prison experience, the inmate culture, patterns of behaviour and interacting with others are internalised, in ways which may be counterproductive outside prison.
78Mr Jones explained that this process may have more effects on those who enter institutions early in life, with significant psychological costs the result. Release can then be traumatic, with disorientation resulting, as well as behaviours counterproductive to re-entry into the community, whose effects impede successful reintegration. Mr Jones considered that:
"Regrettably, further incarceration of Mr Tabbah is likely to solidifying (sic) a personal identity that runs counter to the prosocial identity he will need to successfully navigate his re-entry into society."
79In the result Mr Jones assessed Mr Tabbah as posing a high risk of committing further violent offences. He diagnosed him to be suffering intermittent explosive disorder, antisocial personality disorder and posttraumatic stress disorder
80Mr Jones also considered that treatment in custody to manage and decrease his risk of recidivism would be in Mr Tabbah's interest, but that treatment of his symptoms could only occur to a limited capacity, given the nature of correctional facilities and the difficulty of providing him the necessary treatment there. In Mr Jones' view such treatment could only be appropriately provided in the community, with strict compliance with a treatment plan.