Coroner urges ban on ‘ineffective’ spit hoods
The use of “ineffective” spit hoods to prevent disease transmission in prisons, police observatories or hospitals cannot be justified, a coroner says.
Northern Territory Coroner Elisabeth Armitage recommends banning hoods in a report into the death in custody of an Aboriginal man at Alice Springs Hospital in September 2023.
The report, released on Friday, stated that the 65-year-old man, known as Big Brother to his family, was fitted with a spit hood while under observation at the hospital two days before he died.
The homeless man had an alcohol use disorder and suffered cognitive impairment when he was booked into jail, then was transported to the hospital with chest pain.
The coroner said Big Brother was at times belligerent in hospital and spat at a corrections officer on two occasions on September 9 and 10, 2023, and was placed in a spit hood.
He was transferred to the palliative care unit and died on September 12.
The forensic pathologist found no indication that the use of a spit hood contributed to Big Brother’s death, the medical examiner said.
However, he stated that he was a dying and defenseless man and being placed in a spit hood would upset him even more.
“I’m not criticizing individual officers… the question is whether the system allows spit caps to continue to be used,” the coroner said.
South Australia criminalized spit hoods in prisons in 2021, Tasmanian prisons also stopped their use, Queensland Police banned them in 2022 and police in Victoria and NSW also do not use them.
In 2023, the Australian Federal Police and ACT Police banned hoods.
The coroner stated that the internal review concluded that “the risk of using saliva outweighs the benefits of its use, given that they are ineffective in protecting against infectious disease”.
“Evidence from multiple sources suggests that the risk of disease transmission is an insufficient justification for the use of spit hoods,” he said.
The coroner quoted AFP’s chief medical officer as saying the risk of blood-borne infection from spitting was non-existent to extremely low and the use of spit caps could not be justified on medical grounds.
“I am satisfied that the evidence of the risk of disease in this investigation is insufficient to justify the use of spit hoods in a hospital or other setting,” Judge Armitage said.
“The use of spit caps should be banned unless empirical evidence is established to justify continued use,” he said.
The NT recommended that if spit hoods continue to be used by correctional officers, training and procedures should be updated to ensure staff are fully informed of the risk of any disease transmission if exposed to saliva.
They should also be fully informed of the potential for physical and psychological harm that the use of spit hoods may cause to prisoners and be trained in alternative methods of managing spitting incidents without the use of a spit hood.
This included wearing personal protective equipment.
Judge Armitage said prison guards should also seek the advice of medical doctors before using hoods.
He said hoods should be removed within five minutes and any use of them should be reviewed by senior corrections officers.
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