Black Blueprints: From Medical Incarceration to Communal Liberation
Gabriel (2025). Image Credit: @angel.phlox
Trigger Warnings: Ableism, Physical Abuse, Sexual Abuse, Familial Abuse, Medical Incarceration, Systemic Abuse, Queerphobic Antagonism.
In recent times, the global collective has been responding to increasingly repressive governmental and social manufacturing. The freedom of the cruelty of the ruling class and those in minoritised power has diffused into everyday interaction in ways that continue to prop up colonial hegemony. Due to the organisation of power to shield and protect itself, this sort of cruelty frequently goes not only unchecked but often deliberately silenced.
Gabriel (2025). Image Credit: @angel.phlox
Gabriel Duraye was shocked by the levels of violence he discovered while doing his best to support a loved one, ‘Daisy’, who was undergoing medical incarceration at the hands of West Midlands mental health institutions. During this time, while fighting tirelessly for the release of his loved one, Gabriel unearthed extensive illegal barriers, dismissals and dishonesty across hospitals and personnel, as well as several instances of unchecked cruelty. Over a timeline of about six months, Gabriel was rebuffed, confused and overwhelmed. A search for answers about the typicality of this violent experience took him on an unprecedented journey that resulted in revelations of institutional violence deeper than he could have ever considered possible.
Gabriel is a software engineer by trade, and a ‘writer and general artist’ by investment, in his own words. Early on in our interview, Gabriel divulged that he had previously experienced his own difficulties with medical racism in the form of ableist anti-black assertions towards their own reliability as a narrator in his own life. Owing to this, Gabriel felt immediate concern about Daisy’s quality of life and in line with his understanding of mental health violence levied disproportionately against Black people [1], a deep scepticism of any actual possibility of their recovery within these violent constructs. From his own parental neglect that spanned four years in an overseas medical school he was made to attend, to a projected decade long wait to be seen for an autism diagnosis due to the defunding of the NHS that culminated in a racist misdiagnosis based on personal histories, Gabriel rightfully had approached Daisy’s incarceration with mistrust for the system and a commitment to offering as much care as he could, from the outside.
The subject of medical incarceration had come up months into the establishment of friendship, with Daisy divulging that their religious family had, on prior occasions, had them detained whenever they were ’non-compliant’. Just weeks later, this would happen again: abusive and complicit family members accosting them in order to solicit their obedience through medical detainment. It was at this juncture that Gabriel had prepared to offer as much support as possible in this sudden and violent landscape. However, upon trying to support his friend materially through bringing comfort items and visiting for company, Gabriel realised that there was a harrowing trend of deceit, evasion and mistrust on both sides between him and hospital staff.
‘This led to the falsifying of documents, which were forward-dated to… clerically justify Gabriel’s detention.’
The first institution Daisy was held in, met Gabriel with hostile stonewalling and caustic interactions when engaged. Gabriel decided to bring a companion for support on one of these visits. The two were aghast and disheartened to realise that this manner of treating incarcerated patients with deprivation and isolation was common across interactions. Weeks of his incarcerated loved one being prevented from having a phone, writing letters or receiving visitors led to Gabriel’s frustration, resulting in extensive internet searches about whether or not other people had also experienced these suppressions while trying to support someone in a psychiatric ward. He discovered not only that Daisy’s rights were being violated under the Mental Health Rights Act (1983)[2] but that these experiences were common in logs of files from records he unearthed dating back over two centuries within the history of UK mental health incarceration.
Gabriel (2025). Image Credit: @angel.phlox
The initial cause for doubtful concern came at the outset of Daisy’s detention. Gabriel had experienced a personal instance which brought up an expectation of malpractice. The legal requirement for psychiatric detention is the signature of a practitioner titled Psychiatrist; however, psychiatrists are only available to offer evaluations at that institution on particular days of the week. Gabriel, having been incarcerated towards the weekend, meant that there was no such practitioner on call to greenlight his detention. This led to the falsifying of documents, which were forward-dated to the upcoming Monday in order to clerically justify Gabriel’s detention. He knew Daisy’s case was likely to be similar. This was proven to be true when an uncooperative ward manager informed Gabriel that Daisy was in seclusion due to ‘instability’ and unsafety ‘...for themselves and others…’ and as such, could not be visited nor could Daisy have items dropped off for them.
Gabriel refused to back down, however, and advocated further on the basis of disability accommodation he had learned from self-research. He argued that if Daisy truly was as mentally infirm as was being implied, then that sort of unnuanced isolation was ableist discrimination. After this, the ward manager let Gabriel drop books and plush toys off for Daisy, in the hopes of offering whatever minimal comfort was possible during that time. Upon leaving and trying to contact the ward after the fact, however, Gabriel’s presence in the ward that day and his interaction with the ward manager about Daisy’s case were disputed by staff who asserted he had never been there that day. After filing multiple complaints following a series of similar episodes with hospital staff, Gabriel was allowed a supervised visit with Daisy, where they verbally confirmed that they were being denied the legal rights afforded to the medically incarcerated.
‘…the institution demanded that he cease all investigation into the prior institution and suppress the sharing of any sort of information surrounding Daisy’s mistreatment or the first institution’s hostility.’
Gabriel (2025). Image Credit: @angel.phlox
Daisy confirmed physical and sexual abuse on the part of the staff, as well as not receiving any of the items Gabriel had brought. It came to light that Daisy’s personal belongings were being used as decoration in the ward’s common areas. Upon confirming these violations, Gabriel set out to see what he could do about acquiring some sort of justice.
This search led Gabriel across blogs, personal anecdotes and a startling lack of news coverage all the way to public court records. Dissatisfied individuals who had encountered a similar tense silence around psychiatric incarceration, being defined by isolation and misconduct, had been led to sue in the absence of answers or recourse. The only relevant experiences were buried in the court notes of cases where people in situations similar to Gabriel’s sued for the mistreatment of their loved ones in psychiatric care. Gabriel chose a different route and publicised this experience by creating and circulating a petition to bring attention to Daisy’s mistreatment through a social media campaign.
The whistleblowing led to Daisy being moved from one institution to another, where the corrupt collusion continued. At the second ward, Gabriel was told that Daisy’s security, safety and wellness could be ensured. However, the institution demanded that he cease all investigation into the prior institution and suppress the sharing of any sort of information surrounding Daisy’s mistreatment or the first institution’s hostility. This infrastructural oppressive silencing was indicative of Gabriel’s own experiences in public healthcare and undergirded Daisy’s situation with an indelible and continued commitment to state violence.
‘Gabriel was asked what the goal of sharing his three-month-long fight with a violent West Midlands psychiatric system was. In his own words, sharing this experience was born of a desire to ensure no one else would have to resort to manually searching court records for a trace of a similar circumstance to see if their abuse was isolated.’
Right up until our initial interview, Daisy had been staying with Gabriel after their release from the ward. Following the intervention of a previously absent older sibling, however, Daisy had returned home under the coercion of their family owing heavily to gaslighting from multiple directions, which delegitimised the mutual care and commitment shared by Gabriel and Daisy.
Gabriel (2025). Image Credit: @angel.phlox
Upon the imminent writing of this piece, Gabriel was asked what the goal of sharing his three-month-long fight with a violent West Midlands psychiatric system was. In his own words, sharing this experience was born of a desire to ensure no one else would have to resort to manually searching court records for a trace of a similar circumstance to see if their abuse was isolated. Since Daisy’s family had requested the cessation of the awareness campaign and conspired with institutions to have Daisy detained and held indefinitely, Gabriel was left retraumatised by the system and at the ultimate loss: burned out and without the support he had extended being returned in kind.
‘Aligned Black queer communities need to be tightly interwoven to be able to blueprint alternative and quickly-responsive community intervention structures…’
Gabriel’s story is a rallying beacon for the continued abuse of institutional violence transpiring against vulnerable Black people detained against their will. His determination to self-equip and challenge is a call for us to recognise our intra-communal power and find ways to come together to challenge the intricacies of familial abuse Black, trans and queer communities face, while noting how these patterns can (and often do) mirror repression at the hands of the State.
Communally, collective power is needed from us to ensure that power is decentralised and that the coalescing oppressions stemming from the hands of governmental oppression and the nuclear/biological family are dismantled. Aligned Black queer communities need to be tightly interwoven to be able to blueprint alternative and quickly-responsive community intervention structures to ensure vulnerable people like Daisy are unable to be detained while naked in the shower due to family collaboration with police. Those of us discovering the violence of medical incarceration on record need dedicated sharing spaces to pool information so people in Gabriel’s place have easier access to true information about the callous and violent indifference and abuse of hospital staff. Care structures designed to meet and hold the physical, mental and emotional needs people like Gabriel experience during and after meeting several barriers of distress, trauma and futility throughout his campaign need to be intra-communally orchestrated. These solutions aren’t simple, but tangible steps look like increased responsive communal interconnectedness, clear routes to knowledge-sharing and connected power-building. Gabriel’s bravery led him to a single-handed, ceaseless campaign for over three months for the defence of Daisy’s rights. His efforts not only led to the release of Daisy but have created a vital template for us to challenge the callous mistreatment and the abuse of Black queer people’s mental health rights.
Gabriel (2025). Image Credit: @angel.phlox
In the aftermath of his campaign, Gabriel is rallying to offer and share the skills and tools he diligently self-curated during his fight to our wider communities and vulnerable kinfolk experiencing these ongoing violences. Through Neuromancers UK, he will be offering capacity-building workshops for anyone in need of acquiring knowledge surrounding these forms of resisting disinformation and abuse at the hands of the healthcare system. In doing so, Gabriel’s continued work and tireless efforts to free a loved one from institutional violence have formed a reusable communal resource to assist people in both his and Daisy’s positions and defend our communities by sharing power-building knowledge and equipping us better to resist abusive incarceration.
To sign up for Gabriel’s online workshops, please email: hello@neuromancers.org.uk to enquire about further details.
Sources:
[1] Detentions under the Mental Health Act. (2024, August 16). GOV.UK Ethnicity Facts And Figures. Available at: https://www.ethnicity-facts-figures.service.gov.uk/health/mental-health/detentions-under-the-mental-health-act/latest/#:~:text=in%20the%20year%20to%20March,based%20on%20the%202011%20census.
[2] What is the Mental Health Act 1983? Available at: https://www.mind.org.uk/information-support/legal-rights/mental-health-act-1983/about-the-mha-1983/ (Accessed: 28 August 2025).
