Government urged to act on black deaths in custody

SYDNEY — "The media release from the Institute of Criminology (ACT), along with the media release from Amnesty International (London), echoes the many statements made by the Aboriginal Deaths in Custody Watch Committee and other Aboriginal organisations on the desperate situation involving Aborigines in custody nationally", Ray Jackson from the Watch Committee said on June 26.

In May the watch committee gave a complete state/territory year-by-year breakdown of Aboriginal deaths in custody since May 30, 1989. "The figure of 21 deaths for 1995 received scant interest from the mainstream media", Jackson said. In 1994 there were 15 deaths, and this year eight people have died in custody so far.

For more than two years, the Watch Committee has been calling for a federal summit to include corrective services ministers and commissioners and representatives from Aboriginal Legal and Medical Services, Jackson said. These calls have fallen on deaf ears.

Jackson called on the Coalition government to take note of the rising Aboriginal death rate in custody since 1983 and to implement the recommendations of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody.

From GLW issue 237