polydaidaloi.com

The events that lead up the to the death of “Ribs” Ward are horrific. The victim of the callousness of bureaucracy that has no concern for those they are responsible for. ABC’s PM program had this information:

But there was an arbitrary and inflexible rule that all prisoners should be considered high risk in the case when there’s only one person being transported and should be placed further away from the cabin.

MARK COLVIN: What did he say about the officers?

DAVID WEBER: Well, he said that the officers in evidence had said that they thought the air conditioning was working and really at this point he hasn’t been able to give us any detail on what should happen to the officers.

The officers were not… no action was taken against them by the company GSL because a representative from the company said that they hadn’t broken any of the procedures or rules and they had said they didn’t know.

The dead man’s crime? Drink driving.

The statement that no action was taken against the officers responsible for transporting the prisoner because procedures were not violated is morally repugnant. You would think that common sense and a duty of care would mean that procedures were relaxed to ensure the safety of the prisoner.

It is amazing how inhumanity and avoidance of responsibility is still easily justified through company policies and procedures. Just because something is not illegal it doesn’t mean that your actions weren’t wrong.