Another Aboriginal death in custody in WA

Issue 

Another Aboriginal death in custody in WA

PERTH — Another Aboriginal person has died in custody in Western Australia, the Deaths In Custody Watch Committee (WA) has reported.

"His body was found in his cell on the evening of November 14 at the Greenough Regional Prison", Glenn Shaw, chairperson of the committee, said. "Prison authorities state that it is believed the death was due to natural causes, but there is nothing natural about prisons and we will be looking very closely at the medical issues involved.

"The majority of the deaths which have occurred in our prisons since the royal commission [into Aboriginal deaths in custody] have been due to the appalling lack of health care, and the WA government has steadfastly refused to increase funding and resources to improve prison health services.

"We continue to question the circumstances of every death which occurs within prison custody and refuse to be fobbed off with the term 'natural causes'", Shaw said.

Shaw added that in that week, three Aboriginal men had died in custody in Australia. The latest Aboriginal death was the 28th in custody in WA since the royal commission and the second in WA this year. Seven other people have also died in custody in WA in 1997.

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