'Blackout' on information on indigenous man Steven Freeman's death in custody

It has been 52 days since her son, 25, was found dead in his cell at the Alexander Maconochie Centre, and relatives still don't know how he died.

Mrs King is distraught, unable to look at photographs of Steven and come to terms with the death of a child she had promised to protect.

"The hardest thing is nobody's telling me what happened to him, and I'm just living every day to find out what really happened," she said. "I just don't understand why."

Winnunga Nimmityjah Aboriginal Health Service chief executive Julie Tongs has now written to the man tasked with investigating, Philip Moss, alerting him to the "virtual blackout of all communication with the family".

Mrs King has received no information about the autopsy. Nor has she been able to extract any information about her late son's health treatment since he was so badly bashed that he was in a coma in intensive care.

No one has been charged with the bashing on April 28, 2015, despite police identifying three suspects with the help of fingerless gloves and a bloodied shoe.

Mrs King said she had not been able to get information from the hospital or prison about his injuries, medication or treatment after the bashing, since he was in custodial care. The hospital had identified a heart condition requiring a pacemaker, but her son had never been returned to have treatment, she believed. The bashing had affected his memory and she wonders also whether the heart condition could have contributed to his death, but in the absence of information any number of theories are circulating in the Aboriginal community, which is distrustful and angry.

Steven Freeman was arrested in April last year and was facing a string of charges: six charges of riding or driving in a car without consent, one count of being an unlicensed driver, one count of stealing a car, two charges of theft, one charge of burglary and another of aggravated burglary and one charge of arson. Mr Freeman had court dates of June 1, June 30 and July 27.

Since his death her only contact with officials, other than a letter from the coroner, had been the visit police made to break the news.

Mrs King struggles to talk about her son without sudden tears, her grief so close to the surface and her anger also clear. She says his life was made harder than it should have been before and after he went to prison, with police constantly watching and following him and the prison putting obstacles in his way. She claims that even during regular visits her son was brought to the visiting room last, so much of the hour-long visit time would be gone by the time he arrived. When he turned 25 in February, she arranged in advance to bring salads and other food for a barbecue in the prison, as allowed under prison rules, but on the day she was told there would be no barbecue because the correct paperwork had not been filed.

"He was very fearful for his life in there. Every time I walked out of that prison I cried, because I knew my son wasn't going to come out of there."

Mrs King doesn't explain why police or prison authorities would choose to harass her son, but insists that while he had been in trouble since the age of 12, when his oldest sister had died of a heroin overdose, he was never violent. He stole cars and he broke into houses. More recently he was on ice, a drug that has gripped the Indigenous community.

Mrs King had six children and said after her own childhood with a single mother and absent father "I always swore that if I had children they would be my children. I have tried to protect the whole six of them". Tragically, her daughter's drug death derailed their home life, sending Steven "in with the wrong crowd". For Mrs King, you feel this sense that she has not been able to protect two of her children hits hardest.

"He had a family that loved him very much," she says of Steven. "I have never had a decent sleep since my son died."

Winnunga Nimmityjah also suggests the prison and Corrections Minister Shane Rattenbury should have done more to protect Steven Freeman after calls last year for an independent inquiry into the bashing were rejected.

Mr Rattenbury wrote to the group in November saying the police investigation "meets the requirements of an independent investigation". He told Ms Tongs that Corrective Services had done "a rigorous internal incident review" and he was "satisfied with the conduct and professionalism exhibited … in managing this unfortunate incident". He warned her that claims Corrective Services "was complicit in some way" were "damaging to the relationship" between the department and the Indigenous community.

Mr Rattenbury finally set up an independent inquiry after Steven Freeman's death in May to be conducted by former integrity commissioner Phillip Moss, who will look at Steven Freeman's care. It reports on August 31. Separately, the coroner is holding an inquest.

Winnunga Nimmityjah has been trying to get information about the police investigation into the bashing so it can make a detailed submission to Mr Moss. But Mr Rattenbury told the group it was up to ACT Policing to release the assault report. Police in turn told Ms Tongs to make a freedom of information request, but her request was then declined.

In her letter to Mr Moss, Ms Tongs asked him to look into the "deeply flawed" advice from prison authorities last year that prison was the safest place for Steven Freeman. She called for the inquiry to be open, with public submissions from the public and witness protection.

Mr Rattenbury said Mr Moss was free to inquire into any aspects of Steven Freeman's care he sees relevant. There were no restrictions on who he spoke to, including detainees. The release of submissions would be up to him and the report would be made public except for any details that went to operational security of the prison.

While Mrs King says she has not heard from Mr Rattenbury, he again this week made a public statement of his "deepest sympathies to Mr Freeman's family and friends".

"This is a very serious matter that warrants appropriate scrutiny and review," he said. "… I do understand that the limited amount of information available can be frustrating or distressing for the family; however, in order to get accurate findings, it is important that these processes are allowed to continue independently. It is because of this that unfortunately at this stage I am unable to provide any further commentary on the specific concerns that have been raised."

Five prisoners have died in custody since the ACT prison opened in 2009, one suicide, three from natural causes, and Steven Freeman. Two of the five were Indigenous.