Meeting prepares for deaths in custody summit
By Jennifer Thompson
So far this year, there have been seven Aboriginal deaths in custody — "almost one for every week of the year", Tauto Sansbury, National Aboriginal Justice Advisory Committee chairperson, points out.
A two-day national crisis meeting of indigenous representatives in February, preparing for the May ministerial summit on deaths in custody, called on state, territory and Commonwealth governments to re-commit themselves to implementing the recommendations of the 1988-91 Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody.
Six years ago, the royal commissions final report made 339 recommendations to tackle the horrifying number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (TSI) people dying in custody. Many of the recommendations were about reducing the vastly disproportionate rate of incarceration of indigenous people, and $400 million was allocated to state governments to implement them.
Despite this, the situation is much worse. Last year, after the release of a shocking report by Indigenous Social Justice Commissioner Mick Dodson which examined 96 deaths in custody between 1989-96, federal Aboriginal affairs minister John Herron called a state-federal ministerial summit for May.
Dodson's report showed that over the last seven years the number of Aboriginal and TSI prisoners grew by 61%, almost twice the growth rate of the non-indigenous prison population. It also found that indigenous people were 16.5 times more likely to die in custody and that there were numerous breaches of royal commission recommendations in each of the deaths investigated.
According to a new ATSIC report by Chris Cunneen and David McDonald, Keeping Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People Out of Custody, released last month, there is a wider socio-political context hindering the "fair and just treatment" of Aboriginal people by the legal system. It identifies a more punitive approach to law and order across Australia that is "particularly evident in changes to sentencing law" and treatment of public drunkenness — still a criminal offence in Victoria, Queensland and Tasmania.
Sansbury cites the police use of "the trifecta" — offensive language, resisting arrest and assaulting police — against public drunkenness, even where it is decriminalised. Aboriginal people were physically noticeable to police, he said, and more often stopped and arrested as a result.
According to Sansbury, the February meeting discussed five main issues: juvenile justice; options for diverting Aboriginal and TSI people from prison; problems with policing practices, the corrections and coronial systems; and the underlying recommendations of the royal commission for improving the health, education, housing and employment of indigenous Australians.
Many of the royal commission's recommendations were about diversionary strategies, aiming to develop non-custodial alternatives, better and non-discriminatory use of bail and summons provisions, and the use of prison as a last resort. "We simply cannot allow practices such as the establishment of archaic youth 'boot' camps [like those established under the WA's 1995 Young Offenders Bill] and mandatory minimum sentencing [like the NT's 14 days minimum for a first offence] to continue in direct contravention of the recommendations." Rather, he points to successful royal commission recommendations for Aboriginal community patrols in WA and the NT.
While emphasising the need for action on deaths in custody, the NSW Aboriginal Deaths in Custody Watch Committee's Ray Jackson expressed doubts about the May summit prior to the February meeting. The summits would try to shift the blame, he said, "first to the states/territories and ultimately to indigenous people themselves".
A positive aspect of the February meeting was the inclusion of families of those dead and grassroots activists from Brisbane's Murri Mura centre. Two preparatory meetings with senior officers involved with criminal justice will be held prior to the May summit, which will be attended by 10 Aboriginal representatives from the February meeting, along with Mick Dodson and new ATSIC chairperson, Gatjil Djerrkura.