A former prison psychologist has been reprimanded for professional misconduct after her flirty conversations with a maximum-security inmate emerged.
The details of Melanya Polata’s conduct with a male inmate in an unnamed Queensland prison were revealed in a judgement made by the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal (QCAT) on Tuesday.
Judge Geraldine Dann, the QCAT deputy president, said Ms Polata’s comments to the inmate were ‘well short’ of how a psychologist should behave with an inmate, in the referral action brought by the Psychology Board of Australia.
The psychologist had told the inmate how she ‘really missed talking to him’ after she was banned from speaking to him, and fielded dozens of phone calls from the man after she stopped working in the prison.
She also lied to her supervisor about making a visit to the inmate despite the ban.
Ms Polata worked in the prison for nearly eight months in 2019.
Judge Dann said Ms Polata needed ‘to focus carefully on ethical guidelines for practice should she resume practice as a psychologist’.
It was also noted that Ms Polata dealt unprofessionally with the inmate who had made ‘sexual innuendos’, according to the decision, and called Ms Polata ‘gorgeous’.
Melanya Polata was found to have behaved inappropriately with an inmate she met, wrote a letter to and called numerous times against the wishes of a superior
Ms Polata was banned from seeing the inmate by her supervisor.
The inmate’s medical history included self-harm, suicide attempts, violent and aggressive behaviours, domestic and family violence, problematic substance abuse and personality disorders, according to the decision.
Ms Polata had been asked to stop engaging with the inmate because he was becoming ‘fixated’ on her.
‘(The inmate) had been requesting visits only from (Ms Polata) and had demonstrated coercive and manipulative behaviours in the past,’ the decision detailed.
Despite this, Ms Polata made a visit to the inmate shortly after the ban, which was apparently reported by a colleague.
When questioned by her boss, Ms Polata said she hadn’t had any contact with the inmate.
Three days later she admitted to having seen the inmate.
Ms Polata resigned from her role as provisional psychologist for Queensland Corrective Services at the prison just a day later.
The inmate called Ms Polata on her mobile 49 times between March and June 2020 using a prison phone, over which calls are recorded.
In one call, the inmate told Ms Polata he loved their friendship and said: ‘I love our friendship’; ‘I haven’t stopped thinking about you’; and ‘I miss you’.
He told her he’d been self harming, and repeatedly called her ‘gorgeous’.
In response, Ms Polata said she also missed him, and invited him to call her whenever he needed to.
She told the inmate: ‘I told you that I was, I was going to stay in your life forever’; ‘you know that I’m married’; ‘even as a, as a, as a closest friend I can be I told you I’m there for you and I will always be’; ‘(we) have a very good connection’.
She said she really would miss talking to him and told him she’d collect him from prison upon his release.
Ms Polata told the inmate she would stay in his life forever, despite her marriage, even as a closest friend she could be to him
Ms Polata had been warned to stay away from the inmate who had a reportedly violent past and had previously demonstrated coercive behaviours
A cell search found the inmate had kept a letter from Ms Polata during her period of employment at the prison.
‘I need you to understand that the upper management in this place have restricted me from having any contact with you and, in the last week l have had a lot of trouble with trying to justify to them why I have spent time with you in the first place…’ she had written.
‘I know I said I would help you in dealing with so many of these, and I promise that I will.
‘It’s just not going to be here. You have so much love and support around you. You are blessed. Don’t take them for granted.
‘I will never turn you away. I would never say no to somebody reaching out and wanting to not only get help but be a part of my life. And I promise that.’
The judge found no suggestion of any sexual relationship between the pair.
Ms Polata had received a degree of Bachelor of Psychological Science with Honours from Central Queensland University before working with corrective services.
Her conduct was referred to the QCAT after the Psychology Board of Australia suspended her registration on May 2020, upon which she agreed not to practice psychology.
Her registration then expired in November 2020, after the Board refused her application.
The tribunal on Tuesday decided that Ms Polata had behaved in a manner that constitutes professional misconduct and reprimanded the former psychologist.
Judge Dann said that Ms Polata was ‘now agreeing’ to allegations made in the disciplinary action brought by the Board, after initially ‘downplaying’ her conduct.
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