Aborigines, Fijians imprisoned without charges

By Ray Jackson

On June 12, a young man died of a suspected brain haemorrhage after receiving a blow, supposedly from another inmate. Between now and then four men have been placed in segregation, and two of those have been moved to the Goulburn jail's high security unit, known to us as "the concrete sarcophagus".

There is nothing really remarkable about this except that none of the men have been formally charged with any offence at all — unless one can count "possible complicity" as a charge.

Two of the men are Aborigines, the other two Fijian. The two Aborigines are currently being held in segregation at Goulburn (prior to that they were placed in the inhumane High Security Unit illegally), while the other two are still in segregation at Lithgow.

After eight weeks plus, no charges have been laid. What has occurred are abuses of human rights against all four inmates, along with some questionable practices from investigating police and the spouse of the Lithgow detective in charge of the investigation, who coincidentally is a Corrective Services officer at Lithgow.

The inmates, with the support of the Aboriginal Deaths in Custody Watch Committee, are calling for an investigation into the slipshod manner in which they have been treated. Corrective Services has placed each of these four inmates' lives at risk with no legal grounds to do so.

For too long our people have been dealt with improperly by "the law", and this abuse is another example that human rights of Aborigines and Fijians mean nothing to the power structures of this land.
[Ray Jackson is a spokesperson for the Aboriginal Deaths in Custody Watch Committee.]

From GLW issue 243