Challis, George Edgar

40y · Male·Head injury from assault

George Edgar Challis, a 40-year-old remand prisoner, died on 12 July 2006, eleven days after being assaulted by another inmate at Woodford Correctional Centre. He sustained a severe head injury from stomping to the head, resulting in subdural haemorrhage and traumatic brain injury. The coroner found that while the assault itself was the criminal act of another prisoner, corrective services officers (CSOs) failed to respond appropriately to the initial fight in the exercise yard. Had CSO Ruddock entered the yard immediately upon awareness of the first assault, the second and fatal assault likely would have been prevented. Officers failed to either physically intervene or call emergency assistance (code yellow) as policy required and training suggested. Medical care was appropriate and timely. The case highlights failures in dynamic security (officers managing units from behind closed stations) and lack of urgency in responding to prisoner-on-prisoner violence.