6.4.3. Roy

Roy is an Indigenous man in his thirties. He has a borderline intellectual disability with a reported IQ of 71 and has been diagnosed with a personality disorder. He has a long history of problematic drug use, including cocaine, marijuana, amphetamines and heroin, and it is this that frames the majority of his interactions with the police, corrective services and the health system. As a child, Roy lived primarily with his mother and brothers in public housing. He left school at the age of 13 after attending a special class. Roy had two periods in out-of-home care as a teenager and was often homeless.

Roy’s early contact with the criminal justice system was mostly in regard to matters of petty theft and victimisation, and he was often recorded as co-offending with his brothers and a friend. As a teenager Roy was given orders that required he not go out without a responsible adult, but as he had no adult to be with him he frequently breached his orders resulting in juvenile justice custody.

Roy has had a high level of interaction with police with over 200 incidents and 46 police custody days over his life to do with family altercation and violence, travelling without a ticket, drugs, theft, break and enters, malicious damage, and breaching orders. He has been regularly recorded as homeless as an adult. He has spent over 1400 days in adult custody to date. During these custody episodes his LSI risk assessments indicate high risk, specifically for  ‘accommodation’, ‘alcohol’, ‘attitude’, ‘crime’, ‘employment’, ‘family’, ‘finance’, and ‘leisure’. He is recorded as attempting suicide. He has numerous admissions to hospital (over 100 days) for drug related, mental health and self-harm matters and has had over 5,000 days of methadone treatment.

Roy’s engagement with the criminal justice system at a relatively early age appears to be significantly related to the presence of his cognitive impairment, in his co-offending with his brothers and friend and their use of his identity as an alias. His adult offending is linked to his misuse of alcohol and drugs, which also precipitated his mental health disorders. He has had minimal housing support.