By Lisa Macdonald
Last year, 22 Aboriginal people died in custody — one and a half times the number reported in the previous year and the highest number since 1987. At least another 16 people have died so far this year.
Over the last seven years, the number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in prison has increased by 61%, almost twice the growth rate of the non-indigenous prison population. Compared to non-indigenous people, Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders are 17.3 times more likely to be arrested, 14.7 times more likely to be imprisoned and 16.5 times more likely to die in custody.
The horrendous story that these figures tell is far from unfamiliar to the politicians and decision-makers. The 1988-91 Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody was probably the most extensive and well-publicised inquiry ever conducted into issues affecting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, and its 399 recommendations presented a clear plan for beginning to address them. They just had to be implemented. The fact that they have not been, and the resulting personal and social costs to indigenous Australians, is starkly revealed in a report released by the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission on November 25.
The report, Indigenous Deaths in Custody 1989-1996, aimed to audit the implementation of the royal commission recommendations by examining the findings of coronial inquests into the deaths of 96 Aboriginal people in custody since the recommendations were handed down. The deaths of another seven Aboriginal people who died after contact with police and prisons were also examined.
Of the 96 who died in custody between May 31, 1989, and January 13, 1996, 31 died in NSW, 26 in Queensland, 16 in WA, 14 in SA, 7 in the NT and 6 in Victoria. Fifteen of the 96 were juveniles. The study found that an average of 8.5 recommendations were breached in each death (the rate was significantly higher in Queensland and WA). The number of breaches has not lessened over time.
Ray Jackson from the Aboriginal Deaths in Custody Watch Committee emphasises that this is "definitely not just another report". It is especially significant because it "highlights the utter contempt of all Australian governments in implementing the royal commission recommendations", he said.
The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice commissioner, Mick Dodson, agrees, noting that from the outset "governments offered policies but not mechanisms for ensuring their effectiveness. Further, governments were not held accountable for the $400 million they were given to implement the recommendations."
The report makes a number of proposals for immediate action, including that the Queensland, Victorian and WA governments decriminalise public drunkenness and drinking in public; that governments review prison health services, repeal all Summary Offences Acts, monitor charges made by the police and phase out the use of police prosecutors; and that investigations be required for deaths in all forms of institutional care. As Dodson points out, "As with the royal commission recommendations, all Australians who come into contact with the criminal justice system will benefit from the recommendations in this report".
Placing these proposals in their broader context, ATSIC chairperson Lois O'Donoghue said in launching the report, "It's clear that the circumstances that put our people in jails — and keep them there — have not significantly improved. The royal commission made it clear that any programs or policies aimed at redressing indigenous disadvantage and the impact of past deprivation must be provided in ways which increase self-determination ... it also made it clear that programs or policies aimed at redressing disadvantage and deprivation must reflect an approach to service delivery based on rights ... it's these issues of self-determination and rights that remain unfulfilled." [The next issue of Green Left Weekly will provide a more detailed report on this latest study and responses to it.]