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.^[2]

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 Commission.

The issue has recently surfaced again in the 2004 Palm Island death in custody controversy.