Queensland’s Indigenous community will march on State Parliament today, enraged over the circumstances surrounding a recent death in custody.

An 18-year-old prisoner died late last month and there are claims Brisbane jail staff denied him adequate medical treatment even though he was too sick to walk.

Today’s march coincides with the reopened inquest into the controversial Palm Island death in custody.

Prison chaplain Reverend Alex Gator says inmates at the Arthur Gorrie correctional centre called her with news of the latest tragedy last month.

“This young youth, only 18 years of age, he had spent five weeks on remand and then the five weeks he was at Arthur Gorrie he became ill, so he was ill for six days,” she said.

“The first time he’d gone to the medical centre he was given Panadol, other times he’d gone he was told that there was nothing wrong with him. So he was repeatedly denied medical assistance.

“Towards the end the boys had to carry him, the Murri boys in his unit had to carry him, because he could hardly walk.

“They nearly caused a riot, the Murri boys. They yelled out to the officer, ‘get him to the hospital’ because something was wrong with him.

“And one officer made the comment, ‘Well if he can go to the toilet, there’s nothing wrong with him’.”

Reverend Gator says the teenager was ultimately rushed to hospital and put on life support. But he died a few days later on February 20.

“I conducted a memorial service. The boys said they only saw him a couple of weeks ago talking, laughing, joking and next thing they hear this young man is dead,” she said.

Reverend Gator says the teenager should never have been put in jail because he had a serious pre-existing medical condition.

“That is the question we’re asking – why? Why was he in prison, not in hospital? I mean he wasn’t a terrorist, a paedophile, rapist or a murderer,” she said.

“He was in there for a misdemeanour. And as far as I’m concerned, it’s just racial discrimination towards Aboriginal people. This is about racial hatred attitudes towards Aboriginal people.

“They’re deliberately turned away and told there’s nothing wrong with them. And Corrective Services have failed in their duty of care to provide a service to this young man.”

‘Could have been avoided’

Brisbane Indigenous community leader Sam Watson says news of the death in custody has spread like wildfire.

“We are very concerned about this because this appears to be yet another Aboriginal death in custody that could have been avoided, that should have been avoided,” he said.

Queensland Corrective Services has issued a written statement saying “there are no suspicious causes” in the teenager’s death.

The statement adds that all deaths in custody are referred to the coroner and to the chief inspector of prisons for investigation.

But Mr Watson says the Indigenous community is calling on the Queensland Government to instigate a full coronial inquest.

“There have to be a lot of questions answered. We want to get to the bottom of this and we want to do it very, very quickly,” he said.

“We don’t want this to drag on like Palm Island. The Palm Island death in custody happened six years ago. Here we are six years down the track; we still haven’t received any outcomes, we still haven’t received any real closure.”

No one has been convicted over Cameron Doomadgee’s death on Palm Island in 2004 and the circumstances surrounding his death remain shrouded in doubt.

This week the third coronial inquest into the watch house death is being heard and today Senior Sergeant Chris Hurley is expected to take the stand.

The initial inquiry found the policeman fatally wounded Mr Doomadgee but Senior Sergeant Hurley was later acquitted of manslaughter charges.