'Nothing has changed' since John Pat's death

BY ROBERTO JORQUERA

FREMANTLE — "This ceremony of remembrance was for all peoples who have died in police and prison custody and police pursuits", WA Deaths in Custody Watch Committee chairperson Murray Jones told the 60 people who gathered for the John Pat memorial at the old Fremantle Prison on September 28.

The ceremony is an annual commemoration of the death of 16-year-old John Pat, who died of head injuries in a police cell in Roebourne on the night of September 28, 1983. Pat's death was instrumental in bringing about the groundswell for action to address Aboriginal deaths in custody.

Watch committee representatives noted, "The Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths In Custody established that John Pat had been assaulted by police in the police yard following his arrest. He was then placed in an unconscious or semi-comatose state in a cell and left there until he was found dead during a cell check."

"WA continues to have the highest rate of Aboriginal imprisonment, and sadly, we also have the highest rate of Aboriginal juvenile detention", Jones said. "In other words nothing has changed! Since the royal commission, 112 people have died in custody in WA and this is a damning indictment of WA governments and instrumentalities."

Other speakers included Aboriginal elder Ben Taylor, Kath Mallot from the watch committee, Rev Marion Millian, a Uniting Church prison chaplain, Dennis Eggington from the Aboriginal Legal Service and relatives of deaths in custody victims.

From GLW issue 423