Aboriginal deaths in custody
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Aboriginal deaths in custody became a major issue because of a widespread perception that a disproportionate number of indigenous Australians were dying in jail after being arrested by police. This concern was particularly acute in the 1980s, when there was a perception amongst some sections of the community that these deaths were being caused, either directly or indirectly, by the police and prison authorities.
Because of this public concern, the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody was established in 1987 to investigate the problem. One major finding of this Royal Commission was that the actions of police officers were not the direct cause of these deaths.[1]
A large part of the problem is that a disproportionately high number of indigenous Australians are imprisoned by the law. Contrary to popular belief, the number of indigenous Australians who die in custody is roughly proportional to the total number who are imprisoned, compared to other ethnicities. For example, in 2005, an indigenous Australian is 11 times more likely to be in prison than a non-Indigenous Australian, and in 2003, 20% of prisoners in Australia were Indigenous, and 10 of the 39 deaths that occurred in prison custody (26%) were Indigenous.(Source: ABS).
However, the number of indigenous deaths in custody may have been higher in the past, although statistics for this are not readily available. Several examples of these deaths are listed by John Pilger in his book "A Secret Country." For example:
Eddie Murray was 21 when he was last arrested. On June 21 1981 he was drinking under a tree with his cousin and some friends. He was arrested at 1.45 am, taken to Wee Waa police station, and held under the Intoxicated Persons Act. Within the hour he was dead, strangled with a blanket in his cell. At the inquest the police claimed he had killed himself by hanging, even though they agreed under cross examination that he was "so drunk he couldn't scratch himself". Yet according to them, Eddie had managed to tear a strip off a thick prison blanket, deftly fold it, thread it through the bars of the window, tie two knots, fashion a noose, and hang himself without his feet leaving the ground.
Later the police were found to have lied under oath. The coroner ruled that Eddie had died "at the hands of person or persons unknown" and strongly criticised the police. No-one was charged with Eddie's murder.
As a result of this and other deaths, a Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody was set up in 1987 to investigate allegations of murder of Australian Aboriginals in prison. A central conclusion of the Royal Commission was that "the immediate causes of the deaths do not include foul play, in the sense of unlawful, deliberate killing of Aboriginal prisoners by police and prison officers". The findings were critical of the standard of care afforded to all prisoners, concluding there was "little appreciation of and less dedication to the duty of care owed by custodial authorities and their officers to persons in custody", and that that had contributed to the deaths.[1] It also criticised the system for not investigating each death fully, noting that most investigations were "perfunctory and from a narrow focus and the coronial inquest mirrored the faults in the investigations." Perhaps the most significant recommendation was that "It must never again be the case that a death in custody, of Aboriginal or non-Aboriginal persons, will not lead to rigorous and accountable investigations and a comprehensive coronial inquiry."
Since the Royal Commission, the numbers of Aboriginal deaths in custody has been roughly commensurate with the fraction of prison inmates who are Aboriginal. It is now therefore not clear whether (a) there never was a widespread problem, other than one or two isolated (but nevertheless very significant) incidents, such as the Eddie Murray incident, or (b) there was once a widespread problem, but it has been cleaned up as a result of the Royal Enquiry.
The issue has recently surfaced again in the 2004 Palm Island death in custody debacle.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody
Note: The Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation draws your attention to the cultural sensitivity of issues and material in the individual death reports of the Royal Commission. The Council asks that, in accessing and using these reports, you be aware of this and of the sensitivities of the living relatives and friends of those whose deaths are recorded in these documents.
See also: John Pilger (1992): "A Secret Country" ISBN 0-09-915231-2
National Indigenous Times Australia's Largest Circulating Indigenous Affairs Newspaper
[edit] References
- ^ a b NATIONAL REPORT VOLUME 1 - CHAPTER 3 THE FINDINGS OF THE COMMISSIONERS AS TO THE DEATHS. Royal Commission on Aboriginal Deaths in Custody. AUSTLII Reconciliation and Social Justice Library (1998). Retrieved on May 17, 2006.
