SHOCKFACTS: Aboriginal deaths in custody

December 8, 2004
Issue 
609

  • The Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody produced a report in 1991 that called for custody be used as a last resort, and for the decriminalisation of public drunkenness. Few of its 339 recommendations have been implemented and Aboriginal deaths in custody continue.

  • Indigenous people make up only 2% of the Australian population, but 20% of the prison population — an incarceration rate 12 times higher than for non-Indigenous Australians.

  • Since the release of the Royal Commission's report, imprisonment of Indigenous people has increased.

  • In 1990, Indigenous Australians accounted for 14% of the prison population; in 2000, they accounted for 20%.

  • Between 1990 and 2000, Indigenous people accounted for 18% of all deaths in custody.

  • In 1993, 1997 and 1998, the number of Indigenous deaths was higher than the number of non-Indigenous deaths.

  • Since 1990, around 200 Indigenous people have died in custody. The largest number in any one year was 21 deaths in 1995.

[Source: <http://www.abs.gov.au>. Got a shockfact? Email <glw@greenleft.org.au>.]

From Green Left Weekly, December 8, 2004.
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