SHOCKFACTS: Aboriginal deaths in custody

• The Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody produced a report in 1991 that called for custody be used as a last resort, and for the decriminalisation of public drunkenness. Few of its 339 recommendations have been implemented and Aboriginal deaths in custody continue.

• Indigenous people make up only 2% of the Australian population, but 20% of the prison population — an incarceration rate 12 times higher than for non-Indigenous Australians.

• Since the release of the Royal Commission's report, imprisonment of Indigenous people has increased.

• In 1990, Indigenous Australians accounted for 14% of the prison population; in 2000, they accounted for 20%.

• Between 1990 and 2000, Indigenous people accounted for 18% of all deaths in custody.

• In 1993, 1997 and 1998, the number of Indigenous deaths was higher than the number of non-Indigenous deaths.

• Since 1990, around 200 Indigenous people have died in custody. The largest number in any one year was 21 deaths in 1995.

[Source: <http://www.abs.gov.au>. Got a shockfact? Email <glw@greenleft.org.au>.]

From Green Left Weekly, December 8, 2004.

Visit the Green Left Weekly home page.

From GLW issue 609