Research by the University of Wollongong has revealed that putting people into detention decreases their health levels - and that this accelerates with the time their freedom is restrained.
The research was conducted on 720 people held in immigration centres and revealed a 3% decrease in health for those held for just three months - and a whopping 45% for those held for two years.
This is probably academically interesting, but the result comes with the implied suggestion that we should refrain from putting people into detention centres - and gaols - because if we cease doing that we will have a healthier population.
It ignores the reality that if some people are not kept in detention, the health of the rest of the community will suffer !
Detention usually serves one of two purposes. For criminals it is punishment for a crime committed.
For those who try and force their way into our community by arriving - unannounced and uninvited - it is to stop them disappearing into the diaspora until we check their bona-fides.
In a perfect world there would be no need for prisons or immigration detention centres. Unfortunately we live in the real world - hence this report will certainly be of interest in the library of scientific knowledge, but nothing will change because this is a case where reality comes into conflict with the best of human emotions.
In such cases - reality always wins !
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