Indigenous deaths in custody rises to 516 since the 1991 royal commission, report says. Australia recorded 106 deaths in custody between July 2021 and June 2022, with the number of Indigenous people who died in custody rising to 516 in the 31 years since the royal commission.
Indigenous people are still 10 times more likely to die in custody than the general population.
Most Aboriginal deaths in custody are due to inadequate medical care, lack of attention and self-harm. The Guardian database shows indigenous people are three times less likely to receive medical care than others.
Aboriginal people represented 37.2 per cent of deaths in custody and police operations in NSW – more than 10 times the proportion of Aboriginal people in the state.
The evidence suggests that most of the increase is due to increased severity by the criminal justice system in its treatment of Indigenous offenders. One quarter of the increase has come from remandees and three quarters from sentenced prisoners.
Some studies suggest that one of the factors contributing to the high number of custodial sentences is that Indigenous people are denied bail more frequently, resulting in longer periods of pre-trial detention or remand than non-Indigenous accused.
There were 106 deaths in custody in Australia between July 2021 and June 2022, including 16 First Nations people, according to a report by the Australian Institute of Criminology.
Recent Reports
The NDICP is supported by a steering group. There have been 527 Indigenous deaths in custody since the Royal Commission.
Indigenous people are overrepresented in Canadian criminal courts and far more likely than white people to be convicted and locked up once they come before a judge, according to a recent federal government study.
It's a story that has been repeated for generations of Aboriginal families in Australia, and it's still happening today. In 2019/20, 952 Aboriginal children across NSW were removed from their families, a 2.6% increase on the year prior.
Expanding court services and programs, including the NSW Drug Court; Investments to remove hanging points in correctional facilities; Reviewing health services in correctional facilities, and improving support for mental health and people with disabilities; and. Improving support for people leaving custody.
1969. By 1969, all states had repealed the legislation allowing for the removal of Aboriginal children under the policy of 'protection'.
The largest rate ratios are seen for deaths from Diabetes (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander rate 5.2 times higher than the Non-Indigenous population), Cirrhosis and other diseases of the liver (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander rate 3.7 times higher than the Non-Indigenous population), and Chronic lower ...
Life expectancy by remoteness
The equivalent comparison for Indigenous females was 6.9 years lower (69.6 years compared with 76.5 years). While life expectancy for Indigenous males and females decreases with remoteness, life expectancy for non-Indigenous males and females is similar across all remoteness categories.
Issues of violence and brutality, continuing assimilation policies, marginalization, dispossession of land, forced removal or relocation, denial of land rights, impacts of large-scale development, abuses by military forces and armed conflict, and a host of other abuses, are a reality for indigenous communities around ...
“The crux of the argument is that the family exposure to the residential school system is driving the overrepresentation of Indigenous kids in care,” said Barker.
The latest Australian Institute of criminology figures show there were 489 Indigenous deaths in custody since the end of the 1991 royal commission to June 30, this year. Stanley Russell: why did NSW police shoot an Aboriginal man dead in a Sydney house?
The Bringing Them Home report (produced by the National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from Their Families in 1987), says that "at least 100,000" children were removed from their parents.
The Commission found that Aboriginal people died in custody at the same rate as non-Aboriginal prisoners, but they were far more likely to be in prison than non-Aboriginal people. The Royal Commission identified child removal as a significant precursor to these high rates of imprisonment.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander imprisonment rates
The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander imprisonment rate was 2,354 persons per 100,000 adult Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population: up from 2,315 in the June quarter 2022.
Nationally, the apparent retention rate for female Indigenous students was 65% from Year 7/8 to Year 12, compared with 57% of male Indigenous students (Table D2. 05.2).
Aboriginal people are more likely than non-Aboriginal people to reoffend on release, often due to: • a history of offending • unstable living conditions • low levels of education • high levels of unemployment, a significant contributor (84 per cent of Aboriginal inmates were unemployed at arrest or frequently ...
Compared with non-Indigenous Australians, cardiovascular diseases and cancer represented a smaller proportion of deaths, and external causes and endocrine, metabolic and nutritional disorders represented a larger proportion of deaths, among Indigenous Australians.
Suicide is the leading cause of death for Indigenous peoples aged 15 to 35 years. Suicide death rate is three times higher for Indigenous peoples aged 15 to 35 years compared to non-Indigenous Australians.