I refuse to believe this.
 

As I read this with bleary eyes at 1 30 AM in the morning,I can only wonder what the fuck is going on with the "Daily Telegraph".
This story has been reported on radio just now and the text below is how it appears.

The way that this is presented indicates a rushed out attempt to sell papers,but this story will lead all news in the morning.
Despite the grammatical errors.

If it is true then,well,...I just don't know anymore.
........................................................................................................
EXCLUSIVE

$100,000 for falling out of bed

By TONY WALL


LINK TO STORY

September 1, 2003

A PRISONER who injured himself in a fall from his bunk bed has won more than $100,000 in compensation from taxpayers.


Former prisoner Craig Ballard, jailed for the vicious assault of a woman, successfully sued the State of NSW after he fell out of the bunk in his cell at Grafton Correctional Centre.

He suffered a serious head injury and claimed negligence


on the part of the Corrective Services Department was to blame. The bunk had not been properly bolted down.


The Crown decided not to fight the case -- believed to be the first of its kind -- and now taxpayers will foot the bill.


The terms of the Crown's out-of-court settlement with Ballard -- finalised last week -- are confidential, but The Daily Telegraph has learned that he will pocket at least $100,000.


But the Grafton man told The Daily Telegraph the total was "a bit more than that".


The six-figure payout is the after he sued NSW Health for releasing him prior to the killing. Presland claimed that the doctor who freed him breached his duty of care.The case prompted the Government to act to prevent such claims.


And The Daily Telegraph can reveal that the Ballard case has led to proposals to limit the rights of prison inmates to make claims.


Inmates currently have the right to claim under the Crimes (Administration of Sentences) Act, but they must establish negligence on the part of Corrective Services.


They can't make victims' compensation claims -- so they can't sue if they are bashed in jail.


Ballard's accident occurred in Grafton Correctional Centre periodic detention unit in 1999 when he was at the end of a six-month weekend detention sentence for assault.


Speaking to The Daily Telegraph at his Grafton Housing Commission home, he said he couldn't recall what happened.


It had been, he said, his last night in the unit. He went to sleep on a top bunk and the next thing he knew he was in hospital two days later.


Describing his injuries, Ballard said he had to learn to talk again and the past four years were "hell". He had suffered mental problems, concentration lapses and needed treatment and medication.


He had also been unable to work and was claiming a disability benefit.


Ballard said he had claimed negligence because the bunk was not bolted to the wall as it should have been and did not have safety bars on the edge.


"I don't usually sleep on top bunks, I don't like them," he said.


Crown solicitor Ali Nasseri said the state had agreed to settle after weighing up the risks and possibilities if the case had gone to court.


In the past, the state decided on principle against settling cases.


In 2001, taxpayers faced a legal bill when a paedophile wanted to sue the department for refusing him a sex change while in custody.


The Government refused to pay.

They can't even get his name right; is it Ballard or Presland? Did he assault a woman or kill her? If he didn't, who did he kill? Did he sue the Corrective Services Department or NSW Health? That's some great journalisting stuff there ...:hmm:

They have free copies of the Daily Telegraph at McDonalds. How appropriate.

If true I would say that he has a case and has a right to sue, but otherwise--and more likely--he is a complete moron who can't stay in a bunkbed while he sleeps.

Hey, when they can award a big settlement for spilling coffee, then I can believe anything.

True--lol, maybe they should think about putting up toddler bed rails on the top bunks these days.

that is fucking wrong, i hope the puke chokes on his cellmates nut sack

Seems unlikely considering he has already been released. Kind of interesting this happened on his last day. Got to wonder if someone didn't help him out of that bunk.

^^ yea hmmm

Holy Sh!t!!!

What next prisoners demanding taxpayers shell out every time they drop the soap?

These crazy payoffs have to stop!

I'm gonna go against the grain on this one. This smells to me like the corrections facility really fucked up, and mauled this (admittedly horrible) man. The fact that he got a plea bargain that cheep and easily is a good hint that something inside that prison isn't kosher.

Prisons are notoriously abusive, and dangerous places. You don't lose your rights as a human when you get checked in (well not all of them) either.

Seriously though listen to it a little closer.
If the state rolled over that fast it means he could probably demonstrate the injury. Thats also not the sort of injury I think usually comes from falling out of bed.

My guess is that what happened is one of the prison guards beat some brain damage into the man, and this is the announced settlement because he is basically taking a bribe to be silent. (or perhaps he's blackmailing the prison)

Any of explanations I can come up with though still amount to the prison fucking up big time and knowing it. This is one of those cases where we will never know the truth.

I was watching TV this morning and they had a thinggy in the news cast about it. Its kinda hard to believe. Before you know it, we will be like the US....

Your tax dollars hard at work!

Thank god we don't have a legal system like that in New Zealand

GHAY! Long live CANADA!!!

Who says crime does not pay??


A friend of mine had a stereo shop in Long Beach, well one night two crimminals cut through the roof (it was a two story shop) as the first one is climbing down through the hole he slipped and went right through the second floor and fell through to the ground floor.

His friend bailed on his ass as he laid there in pain after breaking both his legs. He laid there till the next morning when Lyle walked in and sees this guy on the floor, calls the cops and they haul this POS off.

Well the guy gets sentenced to three years and files a lawsuit against Lyle for having a faulty floor and for him breaking both his legs because of this........HE WINS....$125,000.00.

Lyle goes bankrupt.....loses his business.......the crimminal serves one year and gets out with a nice chunk of change.....UNFUKINREAL!!

yes, long live Canada indeed!
but what does that have to do with this?

as for the standard of journalism... well, thats just the normal, shitty level of journalism that this publication exudes.... whats worse, i know the journo (he went to my school - you´d expect better!). i´d get failed in my course if i handed something in like that.

as for the story... i think its attrocious since i´ll be paying for this.

i thought the whole idea of prison was to pay a debt to society... not to put society in debt.

this may be lead to a snowballing effect, since all of those crims who were bashed and injured in the yard, or in the cells or whatever, may start coming forward accusing the Correctional Services of negligence. but maybe they deserve some... i don´t know... perhaps a case by case examination would be required.

however, Bob Carr (NSW state premier), did have a hand in overturning the decision to grant that idiot who jumped into a sandbar those millions in compo last year...

There was just a bulletin on it in the news headlines. The Department of Corrections (or something) is denying it.

I don't like the thoughts of prisoners being able to sue.

Um... Bolted down? WTF? My bed isn't bolted down.. and I Don't fall out of it. If you need it bolted to the floor to sleep.. you don't deserve a bed, and the force of nature was just fixing the problem by moving him to a safer place to sleep.

[add-in]
Whoa.. Just reread it.. and saw the "relearn to talk part".. yeah something sounds a little shifty...

If that is true..then well..I really don't know. :|

I disagree. Just because you're in jail, doesn't mean you've lost (all of) your civil rights. If I was in jail and got maimed by a faulty washer or something, I'd like to me elegible for a bit of compensation!

Argh, that just pisses me off...

i'm with gak........if the guy can't stay in bed correctly, he should be given nothing more than a nice blanky for the floor. maybe a pillow (to bite).

Don't they have those siderails that keep you from falling off? I wonder if this is the only instance of this happening in prisons (someone falling out of bed from the top bunk). If he really went through what he says he did, I guess he deserves the money, but still...

Only in America could a inmate sue his captors and win...

[QUOTE] Tickford said

Before you know it, we will be like the US....

[QUOTE]

don't say that..agghhhh

as for the case, it seems a little rich, i hope it doens't set any kind of precedent for other cases....

dont get you're ass in jail...

i agree.. i think its a little ridiculous.. but.. but you never really hear the entire story behind these kinds of things...

they need to send them suckers over to see this guy..
Hot Enough for You?

It's even hotter than usual in Phoenix, the Associated Press reports:

About 2,000 inmates living in a barbed-wire-surrounded tent encampment at the Maricopa County Jail have been given permission to strip down to their government-issued pink boxer shorts. On Wednesday, hundreds of men wearing boxers were either curled up on their bunk beds or chatted in the tents, which reached 138 degrees inside the week before. Many were also swathed in wet, pink towels as sweat collected on their chests and dripped down to their pink socks. "It feels like you are in a furnace," said James Zanzo't, an inmate
who has lived in the tents for 1 1/2 years. "It's inhumane."

Joe Arpaio, the tough-guy sheriff who created the tent city and long ago started making his prisoners wear pink, is not sympathetic. He said Wednesday that he told the inmates: "It's 120 degrees in Iraq and the soldiers are living in tents and they didn't commit any crimes, so shut your mouths." :D
ya gota love him..

Don't do anything that will get you thrown in prison and then you don't have to worry about the faulty washers....

If it really was a broken bed and it dumped him on his head unto the floor while he slept then he deserves the money. That might cover his medical bills if he had to have alot of theropy. Wouldn't you sue motel 6 or the hilton if their bed dumped you onto the floor causing that much damage?

but anyways, I was hoping to use this joke: With all the suing going on I think I'm gonna sue Hustler for giving me carpal tunnel in my right hand... heh I just watched blue collar comedy tour last night :)

I remember reading a while ago about a a guy who broke into someones house and fell down the stairs. He succesfully sued the homeowner for a large chunk of change. If you are in the place illeagally then you should not be able to get recompence. If you break into my house and I shoot you can i be sued for assault in the act of defending my property ?