Black deaths in custody continue

By Maureen Baker and Sean Magill The 1991 Royal Commission into Black Deaths in Custody made 339 recommendations to reduce the rate of Aboriginal imprisonment and the federal government allocated $400 million over five years to implement them. Four years on, however, there is little evidence that the recommendations have even been taken seriously. Just last week, the sixth Aboriginal death in custody this year occurred in South Australia. The Autumn issue of Reportage contains an article documenting the rising incidence of both deaths in custody and the rate of imprisonment of Aboriginal people. In March, ATSIC social justice commissioner Mick Dodson described the first Commonwealth annual report on the implementation of the royal commission recommendations as a "self serving account of bureaucratic activity designed to bury failure in a sea of words, reports and committee meetings rather than expose it to public scrutiny and discussion." Journalist Jan Mayman, Gold Walkley award winner for her coverage of the John Pat case, told Reportage: "Royal commissions ... seem to me to be simply a way of defusing public anger and concern, and exhausting critics of the government by a process of legal attrition. Sometimes they even conceal the truth by creating an illusion of action, when the bureaucracies move along behind the scenes at their usual glacial pace." Meanwhile, the September 20 Koori Mail reported that the family of Wilcannia man Mark Quayle, found dead in a police cell, has been awarded more than $190,000 compensation for mental anguish. The decision was the first successful compensation claim by the family of a death in custody victim. The judge found that NSW police and a NSW hospital were negligent. The success of this landmark claim opens the way for other families to seek compensation. It is therefore a victory — a blow for social justice in this racist society. But it in no way substitutes for action to prevent further loss of Aboriginal lives in prison. The campaign to have the recommendations of the royal commission must be continued. "Saw the white walls of freedom, never found the black door." — Kev Carmody.