tag:theconversation.com,2011:/au/topics/deaths-in-custody-10039/articlesDeaths in custody – The Conversation2023-12-09T00:30:10Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2188212023-12-09T00:30:10Z2023-12-09T00:30:10ZInquest into Soleiman Faqiri’s death at an Ontario ‘super jail’ reignites calls for reform<iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/inquest-into-soleiman-faqiris-death-at-an-ontario-super-jail-reignites-calls-for-reform" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>Imagine your family member is experiencing a mental health crisis, but instead of being treated at a mental health facility, they are locked inside a <a href="https://www.kawartha411.ca/2019/10/24/eight-inmates-have-died-at-central-east-correctional-centre-in-less-than-two-years/">notorious provincial jail</a>. You go to help by bringing their medication and medical records but are turned away again and again. Days later, a knock at the door brings the devastating news that your loved one is dead.</p>
<p>The Faqiri family has been living this nightmare for the last seven years. They had come to Canada as <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-after-my-brothers-death-in-prison-my-family-has-lost-faith-in-the/">refugees from Afghanistan</a> in the early 1990s hoping for a better life. </p>
<p>On Dec. 15, 2016, 30-year-old Soleiman Faqiri died at the Central East Correctional Centre, a “<a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/why-wasn-t-soleiman-faqiri-sent-to-hospital-inquest-reveals-jailhouse-dysfunction-ahead-of-mentally/article_e0c8b78c-b381-535c-b798-346839d42aab.html">super jail</a>” in Lindsay, Ont. </p>
<p>He had been repeatedly struck by guards, pepper sprayed twice, his face covered in a “spit hood” and forced onto his stomach in a prone restraint position. He had earlier been arrested for allegedly stabbing a neighbour during a mental health episode. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/soleiman-faqiri-inquest-day-15-homicide-1.7053159">coroner’s inquest</a> into Faqiri’s death is concluding with Ontario coroner’s counsel calling his death a homicide and making 55 recommendations for jurors to consider to prevent further deaths. The inquest saw <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/soleiman-faqiri-video-inquest-1.7033938">graphic and disturbing</a> video evidence and <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/soleiman-faqiri-inquest-day-12-thibeault-1.7049636">witness testimony</a> of the final days and moments of his life, and the brutal force used against him by corrections officers. </p>
<p>Coroner’s counsel Prabhu Rajan told jurors at the inquest that Faqiri’s death was a “preventable tragedy” and that evidence points in the direction of homicide.</p>
<p>In 2022, the Ontario Provincial Police told Faqiri’s family they would not be laying any charges against the guards involved in his death, saying there was “<a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/soleiman-faqiri-no-charges-1.6558485">insufficient evidence</a>” to do so.</p>
<p>The inquest has reignited concerns surrounding the use of force and deaths in custody of people experiencing mental health distress. This tragic case serves as a poignant reminder that our current approach to dealing with mental health issues within the prison system is deeply flawed, and demands immediate attention and reform from federal, provincial and territorial governments.</p>
<h2>Elevated risk of death in custody for people with mental health issues</h2>
<p>Faqiri’s death in custody is not an isolated incident. Studies have shown that a significant number of deaths in custody involve mental health issues. Tragically, federally incarcerated individuals are <a href="https://www.criminallegalnews.org/media/publications/canadian_deaths_in_custody_report_2007.pdf">eight times</a> more likely to die from homicide and suicide than the general population. </p>
<p>In one study, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jflm.2017.03.002">researchers examined 478 deaths</a> in custody in Ontario between 1996 and 2010. They found that around “half of all deaths in custody occurred among those with a history of mental illness or substance use and those deaths disproportionately occurred in local police or provincial custody.” </p>
<p>Canada has formally abolished the death penalty as a legal sanction, yet it effectively remains in place for many people with mental illness who are incarcerated.</p>
<p>Individuals with mental health issues face elevated risks in correctional facilities, where force is often used to control inmates. From restraint equipment to pepper spray, the arsenal of tools employed by corrections officers can exacerbate the trauma and distress of those already struggling with mental health disorders. </p>
<p>Moreover, the conditions of incarceration, including overcrowding and double-bunking, contribute to heightened stress, anxiety and incidents of self-harm and suicidal behaviour.</p>
<p>The 2020-21 annual report by the federal correctional investigator, Ivan Zinger, revealed that a staggering <a href="https://oci-bec.gc.ca/en/content/office-correctional-investigator-annual-report-2020-2021">41 per cent</a> of use-of-force incidents in federal prisons involve individuals with documented mental health conditions. However, this likely underestimates the true extent of the problem, as reliable data from the Correctional Service of Canada on mental health indicators is lacking.</p>
<p>Another disturbing aspect highlighted by Zinger is the overuse of pepper spray, a practice particularly cruel and traumatic for individuals with serious mental health conditions. He recounted a case where a certified individual undergoing a health procedure was subjected to two bursts of pepper spray, handcuffs and “physical handling.”</p>
<p><a href="https://johnhoward.on.ca/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Broken-Record.pdf">A report</a> from the John Howard Society found that common behaviour and symptoms of severe mental health disorders (like bipolar or schizoaffective disorder) can be misinterpreted by corrections staff, leading to increased disciplinary sanctions and use of segregation. </p>
<h2>Independent investigators</h2>
<p>While we have an independent corrections investigator for federal institutions, there is no comparably empowered independent watchdog for provincial jails. This must change. </p>
<p>Additionally, Canada has so far refused to join 90 other countries that have ratified the <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/instruments-mechanisms/instruments/optional-protocol-convention-against-torture-and-other-cruel">United Nations Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment</a>. The protocol requires countries to open up all places of detention to independent national and international inspections. We need greater transparency and accountability, and to fundamentally change how incarcerated people are treated.</p>
<p>Faqiri’s death is a haunting example of the fatal consequences of the criminal justice system being used to address mental health issues. Despite the <a href="https://www.thestar.com/opinion/contributors/canada-s-prisons-are-failing-the-mentally-ill/article_a98ee7cb-22fb-583b-9bc6-558394d217a3.html">coroner’s report</a> detailing the severe mistreatment leading to his death, the lack of accountability so far is deeply troubling.</p>
<p>The systemic issues plaguing our correctional facilities need to be addressed and the mental well-being of those in custody must be prioritized. Reform should focus on providing medically and culturally-appropriate trauma-informed treatment, medication and therapies in a supportive environment, rather than in prisons that exacerbate the challenges faced by individuals with mental health issues.</p>
<p>Evidence-based community mental health services are also vital to better meet the needs of people with mental health issues while protecting society. Where such services are not provided, there is an elevated risk of harm. Prevention is key.</p>
<p>“People who have a psychotic illness who are treated have the same or lower rates of violence than the general population,” Sandy Simpson, chair in forensic psychiatry at the University of Toronto’s Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, explained in an interview for my book <em><a href="https://utorontopress.com/9781487506278/indictment/">Indictment: The Criminal Justice System on Trial</a></em>. “So, it’s treatable if care is available and acceptable and delivered in the right way to people in need.”</p>
<p>The tragic stories of those like Faqiri demand that we reevaluate our approach to mental health in the community and in prisons as we strive for a system that promotes healing rather than perpetuating harm. Faqiri’s death must not be in vain. His family deserves answers, justice and accountability.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/218821/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Benjamin Perrin receives funding from the Law Foundation of British Columbia.</span></em></p>People with mental health challenges are more likely to die in custody. The coroner’s inquest into the death of Soleiman Faqiri in an Ontario jail is one such tragedy that calls out for reform.Benjamin Perrin, Professor of Law, University of British ColumbiaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2106942023-08-16T02:50:54Z2023-08-16T02:50:54Z3 ways the Victorian government’s bail reforms fall short – and why it must embrace ‘Poccum’s Law’<p><em>Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised this article contains the name and image of a deceased person.</em></p>
<p>The bail reform bill <a href="https://www.legislation.vic.gov.au/bills/bail-amendment-bill-2023">tabled</a> in the Victorian parliament this week seeks to undo some of the worst parts of the Bail Act, which was condemned as a “complete and unmitigated disaster” in the <a href="https://www.coronerscourt.vic.gov.au/sites/default/files/2023-04/COR%202020%200021%20-%20Veronica%20Nelson%20Inquiry%20-%20Form%2037%20-%20Finding%20into%20Death%20with%20Inquest%20-%2030%20January%202023%20-%20Amended%20%281%29.pdf">coronial inquest</a> into the passing of Gunditjmara, Dja Dja Wurrung, Wiradjuri and Yorta Yorta woman Veronica Nelson in 2020. </p>
<p>The proposed bail changes have come about because of the tireless advocacy of Nelson’s family. </p>
<p>However, the bill <a href="https://www.vals.org.au/victorian-governments-bail-bill-is-a-good-first-step-but-can-be-improved/">doesn’t go far enough</a> to address the discriminatory effects of the current bail regime, nor fix the state’s remand crisis.</p>
<h2>The disaster of Victoria’s bail laws</h2>
<p>Bail is a process which allows people accused of crimes to remain in the community, with conditions, until their court matter is finalised. However, the <a href="https://www.unswlawjournal.unsw.edu.au/article/changing-the-rules-on-bail-an-analysis-of-recent-legislative-reforms-in-three-australian-jurisdictions">progressive hardening of Victoria’s bail laws</a> over the past decade has made bail much harder to obtain, giving rise to ballooning rates of people on remand (that is, in prison without having been convicted or sentenced).</p>
<p>Unsentenced people in Victoria now make up <a href="https://www.corrections.vic.gov.au/annual-prisons-statistical-profile">42% of the total prison population</a>, compared to only 18% a decade ago. The proportions are even higher among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and women. The number of unsentenced Indigenous women entering prison each year has grown by <a href="https://www.corrections.vic.gov.au/annual-prisons-statistical-profile">243% over the past decade</a>.</p>
<p>The negative consequences of remand are significant and can include family separation, trauma, and cycles of homelessness, unemployment, and reincarceration.</p>
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<p>The human cost of the state’s toughened bail regime was put in the spotlight by the cruel and preventable <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/politics/victoria/bail-reforms-aimed-at-fixing-disaster-law-face-one-year-wait-20230726-p5drd5.html">death of Veronica Nelson</a> at Dame Phyllis Frost Centre women’s prison in January 2020. She had been arrested and refused bail for shoplifting related offences just three days earlier. Due to changes made to the Bail Act in 2018, she faced a presumption against being granted bail, and was refused bail for this reason.</p>
<p>Following the Coroner’s findings, Veronica’s family and legal experts called for the implementation of “<a href="https://www.vals.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Poccums-Law.pdf">Poccum’s Law</a>”, after the nickname for Veronica by her mother, Aunty Donna Nelson.</p>
<p>Poccum’s Law provides a best practice, evidence-based model for bail reform which would have prevented Veronica’s death in custody.</p>
<p>However, the bail reform bill put forward by the government this week falls short of this call. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/number-of-women-on-remand-in-victoria-soars-due-to-outdated-bail-laws-165301">Number of women on remand in Victoria soars due to outdated bail laws</a>
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<h2>3 ways the bill falls short</h2>
<p>There are three major aspects of the bill which legal and health experts say undermine real progress.</p>
<p><strong>1.</strong> First, bail reforms wouldn’t be implemented until six months after passing parliament. This would mean the changes would come into effect in early 2024, which is over four years after Veronica Nelson’s passing, and over 12 months after the Coroner recommended urgent and sweeping reforms to the laws.</p>
<p>After the tragic Bourke Street incident in January 2017, Premier Daniel Andrews acted rapidly to implement <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-01-23/bourke-st-rampage-prompts-bail-law-review-in-victoria/8202300">changes to bail laws</a> to create a presumption against bail for a large number of offences, including many minor offences. In doing so, he <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/jan/25/delaying-tragedy-the-bourke-street-deaths-and-the-push-to-change-victorias-bail-laws">ignored the advice of experts</a>, who warned the changes would have devastating consequences for already disadvantaged people.</p>
<p>There’s no clear reason for the government to now delay implementation of laws which would curb Victoria’s inflated prison population and prevent the needless harm and suffering caused by large numbers of people cycling through prison unsentenced.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/victorias-prison-health-care-system-should-match-community-health-care-180558">Victoria’s prison health care system should match community health care</a>
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<p><strong>2.</strong> Second, the bill doesn’t change the unacceptable risk test enough to ensure that people who pose no risk to community safety aren’t held in prison. Poccum’s Law requires that a person is only refused bail where they pose an immediate and identifiable risk to the safety of another person, serious risk of interfering with a witness, or a demonstrable risk of fleeing the jurisdiction. </p>
<p>The bill retains the power for magistrates to refuse bail where there’s only a risk that a person will not attend court or meet strict bail conditions. Retaining this power won’t address the discriminatory effects of bail laws, since people experiencing significant social disadvantage – such as people who are homeless, <a href="https://www.crimejusticejournal.com/article/view/1882">victim-survivors of family violence</a>, or people with disability – are less likely to be able to comply with onerous bail conditions. </p>
<p>What’s more, Poccum’s Law specifies that a person must not be refused bail if they would be unlikely to receive a sentence of imprisonment. <a href="https://www.corrections.vic.gov.au/annual-prisons-statistical-profile">Half of those discharged from prison</a> have not spent any time under sentence. The bill won’t properly prevent this, which means people will continue to needlessly “<a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1462474520967566">churn</a>” through the prison system.</p>
<p><strong>3.</strong> Finally, the bill doesn’t remove the presumption against bail for all offences. A presumption against bail means the accused person, who hasn’t been found guilty of any crime, has to demonstrate they should be granted bail. </p>
<p>Depriving someone of their liberty is one of the most serious restrictions that can be imposed on a person’s human rights. The presumption against bail <a href="https://academic.oup.com/bjc/article/57/3/664/2623968">erodes the presumption of innocence</a>, and should be repealed in its entirety.</p>
<p>Instead, the onus should be on the prosecutor to persuade the court an accused person shouldn’t be granted bail. This aligns with the <a href="https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/15/treatybodyexternal/Download.aspx?symbolno=CAT%2fC%2fAUS%2fCO%2f6&Lang=en">UN Committee against Torture’s</a> recommendation that remand be “resorted to only in exceptional circumstances” and the <a href="https://openresearch-repository.anu.edu.au/bitstream/1885/229826/2/WP_140_Anthony_et_al_2021.pdf">continued calls</a> to properly implement the findings of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody.</p>
<p>Half-hearted bail reforms can only lead to more suffering and harm. The government ought to listen to the family of Veronica Nelson and the expertise of the 56 Aboriginal, legal, human rights and health organisations that have endorsed Poccum’s Law.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/210694/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Emma Russell is a Visiting Scholar at the Centre for Crime Law and Justice at University of New South Wales. She is affiliated with Smart Justice for Women. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andreea Lachsz was the Head of Policy, Communications and Strategy at the Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service during the Inquest into the passing of Veronica Nelson.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sarah Schwartz is the Principal Lawyer of the Wirraway Practice at the Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service and acted in the Inquest into the passing of Veronica Nelson.</span></em></p>Poccum’s Law provides a best practice, evidence-based model for bail reform which would have prevented Veronica Nelson’s death in custody.Emma Russell, Senior Lecturer in Crime, Justice & Legal Studies, La Trobe UniversityAndreea Lachsz, PhD Candidate, University of Technology SydneySarah Schwartz, Lecturer, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1746492022-01-17T16:30:50Z2022-01-17T16:30:50ZHow going from care to prison compounds women’s trauma – new research<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/441307/original/file-20220118-17-lgee9s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Of the women in custody, those who have been through the care system are over-represented. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/silhouette-womans-head-waving-hair-back-563555992">MikeDotta | Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In the year to June 2021, for every 1,000 women in custody in England and Wales, 3,808 incidents of self-harm were recorded. This represented a shocking increase of <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/safety-in-custody-quarterly-update-to-june-2021/safety-in-custody-statistics-england-and-wales-deaths-in-prison-custody-to-september-2021-assaults-and-self-harm-to-june-2021">16%</a> on the previous year. Between March 2007 and March 2018, 37 women in prison <a href="https://www.inquest.org.uk/Handlers/Download.ashx?IDMF=8d39dc1d-02f7-48eb-b9ac-2c063d01656a">took their own lives</a>. </p>
<p>Evidence suggests that the link between self-harm and suicide is <a href="https://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ukgwa/20130206102659/http:/www.justice.gov.uk/publications/docs/corston-report-march-2007.pdf">stronger in prisons</a> than in the wider community. For a <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/17488958211067914">recent study</a> we conducted interviews with 37 women in three closed prisons in England between September 2019 and February 2020. A key aim of our research was to amplify women’s voices. Self-harm was not an issue we had set out to explore in this study, but it was a topic that many nevertheless chose to share. </p>
<p>Our findings show that having prior experience of living in care can provide crucial context for understanding why some women in prison might self-harm. All the women we spoke with had experience of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/new-laws-in-england-will-leave-16-year-olds-living-alone-167756">care system</a> before going to prison. Self-harm was raised as a key issue by some.</p>
<h2>Unmet needs</h2>
<p>Women who have been through the care system are over-represented in prisons in England. While there are challenges in obtaining accurate data, estimates suggest that <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/278837/prisoners-childhood-family-backgrounds.pdf">31% of female prisoners</a> (compared to 24% of imprisoned men) spent time in the care of the state as children. </p>
<p>This is, of course, <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-have-so-many-people-in-prison-spent-time-in-care-as-children-66941">not inevitable</a>. Many care leavers go on to do very well when appropriately supported. But a significant minority do come into contact with the justice system, with challenging behaviour such as minor damage to property still <a href="http://www.prisonreformtrust.org.uk/Portals/0/Documents/In%20care%20out%20of%20trouble%20summary.pdf">more likely to be criminalised</a> in some care settings than for those living at home with their birth families. This is often compounded by the stigma attached to being in care. Negative attitudes assume some care leavers will inevitably be troublesome.</p>
<p>Many of the women we interviewed described backgrounds of abuse and neglect and being taken into care for their welfare and protection. As one interviewee, Mandy, explained:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I was a traumatic child … very, very out of control … I didn’t know how to ask for help. Because in the care system I was never shown all that. </p>
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<p>For some, self-harm became a way of communicating their trauma. Several described harming themselves as a way of alleviating psychological pain. In the most severe cases, for those women who tried to take their own lives, it became an attempt to end that pain. </p>
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<img alt="A woman with a clipboard holds another woman's hands in a therapy setting." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/441050/original/file-20220117-19-1v0so5f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/441050/original/file-20220117-19-1v0so5f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441050/original/file-20220117-19-1v0so5f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441050/original/file-20220117-19-1v0so5f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441050/original/file-20220117-19-1v0so5f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441050/original/file-20220117-19-1v0so5f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441050/original/file-20220117-19-1v0so5f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Women describe having difficulty accessing mental health support and medication when arriving in prison.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/close-female-doctor-hold-woman-patient-1714751662">fizkes | Shutterstock</a></span>
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<h2>Systemic failure</h2>
<p>There has been a tendency for research to focus on <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanpsy/article/PIIS2215-0366(20)30190-5/fulltext">the personal factors</a> that might lead an individual to self-harm. Research on the sociology of punishment, however, has highlighted how self-injury may be <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1362480615595283">linked</a> to the painful experiences of imprisonment for some women, such as separation from loved ones.</p>
<p>Our own research draws attention to what is lacking in the systems designed to support these women. Women described delays in accessing medication on entry to prison and in obtaining mental health appointments, among other challenges. Not feeling listened to in care was a common theme often repeated in prison. As Leanne put it:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>There’s a lot of self-harm in this prison, a lot. Because they don’t feel heard … they don’t get dealt with in the right manner. They just get locked away and … labelled.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>For some, experiences of the prison system echoed experiences the women described from their time in care, which was often characterised by instability and a lack of support. Their mental health needs went unmet – they were frequently moved from placement to placement. </p>
<p>For women who were previously in the care of the state as children, access to mental health support is crucial, as is making sure that those who leave care are <a href="http://wp.lancs.ac.uk/care-custody/files/2019/10/CareCustodyLiteratureReview.pdf">not abandoned</a>. More broadly, our findings raise serious questions about how we, as a society, use imprisonment as a punitive measure for these women. </p>
<p>While there are ongoing efforts to identify and improve the <a href="https://hmppsintranet.org.uk/uploads/6.6018_HMPPS_People%20with%20care%20experience%20strategy_WEB.pdf">support</a> available to those who have gone from care to prison, research also shows the <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-rehabilitation-not-harsher-prison-sentences-makes-economic-sense-132213">potential of community sentences</a>, such as deferred prosecution schemes, to be credible, cost-effective alternatives to custody that avoid the trauma of imprisonment. Even better, however, is to ensure that children in care receive all the support they need. This would help to <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/765082/The_national_protocol_on_reducing_unnecessary_criminalisation_of_looked-after_children_and_care_.pdf">prevent</a> those who have been in care from being unnecessarily criminalised in the first place.</p>
<p><em>All names have been changed to protect the identity of the participants. If you are affected by any of the issues in this piece, please consider talking to someone. The Samaritans helpline - 116 123 - is available 24 hours a day.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/174649/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The study on which this piece is based was carried out with Dr Katie Hunter (Lancaster University), Dr Julie Shaw (Liverpool John Moores University) and Dr Jo Staines (University of Bristol). This research was funded by the Nuffield Foundation, but the views expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily the Foundation. Visit <a href="http://www.nuffieldfoundation.org">www.nuffieldfoundation.org</a></span></em></p>Care leavers are over-represented in the justice system. Rising rates of self-harm show an urgent need for greater mental health support.Claire Fitzpatrick, Senior Lecturer in Criminology, Lancaster UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1693542021-10-10T23:35:38Z2021-10-10T23:35:38ZAustralia had a record number of police shootings in the past year. Should we be concerned?<p><a href="https://www.aic.gov.au/publications/sr/sr36">Data</a> released by the Australian Institute of Criminology (AIC) this week show fatal police shootings in Australia have reached an all-time high. </p>
<p>With the <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-australia-should-be-wary-of-the-rise-of-the-warrior-cop-with-tools-to-match-94175">move to weaponise our police</a> with widespread access to weapons such as military-style rifles and crowd control equipment munitions, are we seeing a move from a community service focus to a more force-orientated model of policing?</p>
<h2>Fatal police shootings</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://www.aic.gov.au/publications/sr/sr36">report</a> on deaths in custody in 2019-20 indicated that there were 24 deaths in police custody or custody-related operations. Of these, 16 were attributable to police shootings. This is the highest number of shooting deaths since record keeping began in 1989-90.</p>
<p>Over that period, Australian police have shot dead some 164 people. The latest AIC report shows there has been a 78% increase in fatal police shootings between 2018-19 and 2019-20. </p>
<hr>
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<p>New South Wales and Queensland had the most police shootings with five each, followed by Victoria and Western Australia with two each.</p>
<p>Two of those fatally shot were Indigenous, 11 were non-Indigenous, and in three cases the Indigenous status was not stated.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-australia-should-be-wary-of-the-rise-of-the-warrior-cop-with-tools-to-match-94175">Why Australia should be wary of the rise of the warrior cop, with tools to match</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>The threat environment</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://npm.org.au/">National Police Memorial</a> lists those police who have been killed on duty or have died as a result of their duties. Since 2010, 22 police members have died, only five of those through the actions of armed offenders. Four involved firearms and one a knife. </p>
<p>To put this in perspective, in 2019-20 there were 58,514 <a href="https://www.pc.gov.au/research/ongoing/report-on-government-services/2021/archive/police-services">sworn police officers in Australia</a>. While the number of deaths is small, it must be acknowledged that policing is still an inherently dangerous and difficult occupation.</p>
<p>In terms of the general population, <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-why-homicide-rates-in-australia-are-declining-128124">homicides in Australia are at historic lows</a> and compare well against international trends.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.theaustralian.com.au/inquirer/the-vanishing-criminal-explains-the-decline-of-crime/news-story/96f867bc47c187602a02209a368d171f">Crime in general has declined</a> in Australia. This <a href="https://theconversation.com/some-crimes-have-seen-drastic-decreases-during-coronavirus-but-not-homicides-in-the-us-142718">trend has continued</a> since the COVID pandemic began.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-why-homicide-rates-in-australia-are-declining-128124">Explainer: why homicide rates in Australia are declining</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Are police becoming more enforcement-orientated?</h2>
<p>There is little doubt <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-australia-should-be-wary-of-the-rise-of-the-warrior-cop-with-tools-to-match-94175">Australian police forces are weaponising</a> in the same way as police in the United States have done in recent years. The rise of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/urban-combat-ferguson-and-the-militarisation-of-police-30568">warrior cop is well documented</a>. But it seems the <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-why-police-will-be-crucial-players-in-the-battle-against-coronavirus-134392">COVID pandemic</a> has also encouraged a move away from community engagement to enforcing health directives with little room for tolerance.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1440941936127270915"}"></div></p>
<p><a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/police-commissioner-says-officers-wrongly-issuing-tickets-won-t-be-held-to-account-20210819-p58k76.html">New South Wales Police Commissioner</a> Mick Fuller instructed his staff to move to a more enforcement-focused approach to COVID health order restrictions.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I am asking you to put community policing to the side for a short period of time […]</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In recent weeks, we saw <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/sep/21/victoria-covid-update-rubber-bullets-fired-on-second-day-of-construction-protests-which-block-freeway">Victoria Police fire rubber bullets</a> to disperse anti-lockdown protesters as their use-of-force choice. Police warned the protesters:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Leave now or force may be used. No further warnings will be given.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/sep/21/victoria-covid-update-rubber-bullets-fired-on-second-day-of-construction-protests-which-block-freeway">Victoria Police Chief Commissioner</a> Shane Patton later confirmed police used a variety of weapons including pepper balls, foam baton rounds (theses are a less lethal alternative to traditional bullets, also known as kinetic impact projectiles), smoke bombs and stinger grenades that deploy rubber pellets. He <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/sep/21/victoria-covid-update-rubber-bullets-fired-on-second-day-of-construction-protests-which-block-freeway">justified the use by arguing</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>These crowd control equipment munitions were necessary […] because we can’t allow this type of conduct to go on.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Yet when the unlawful gathering of large crowds took place for <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-06-03/melbourne-black-lives-matter-protest-will-break-law-police-warn/12314412">Black Lives Matter protests during COVID restrictions</a>, Victoria Police took little or no action. Such inconsistency in responses simply undermines the legitimacy of police.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/police-order-investigation-after-officers-overrun-at-anti-lockdown-protest-20210924-p58uf5.html">Victoria Police deployed a Bearcat armoured vehicle</a> in response to an anti-lockdown protest. This is despite the claim these vehicles would only be used in high-risk incidents such as sieges or the apprehension of armed offenders. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1023456896957595650"}"></div></p>
<h2>Holding police accountable</h2>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/shoot-to-kill-the-use-of-lethal-force-by-police-in-australia-34578">Any use of force must be lawful</a>, and simply being a police officer does not necessarily provide that justification. The application of force, be it lethal or otherwise, must be authorised, justified or excused by law. If not, then the use of such force may be criminal. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/424987/original/file-20211006-23-wkv718.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/424987/original/file-20211006-23-wkv718.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/424987/original/file-20211006-23-wkv718.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424987/original/file-20211006-23-wkv718.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424987/original/file-20211006-23-wkv718.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424987/original/file-20211006-23-wkv718.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=628&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424987/original/file-20211006-23-wkv718.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=628&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424987/original/file-20211006-23-wkv718.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=628&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The range of use-of-force options available to police.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Queensland Police Service</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In Western Australia, a police officer is on trial for the death of Indigenous woman <a href="https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/cops-shot-killed-distressed-mum-joyce-clarke/news-story/f192f3f15701c36033510ef519b4442c">Joyce Clarke</a>, who was fatally shot while allegedly armed with a knife in 2019. </p>
<p>In the Northern Territory, <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-08-23/zachary-rolfe-high-court-ruling-murder-trial-delay-nt/100398282">Constable Zachary Rolfe</a> is charged with the alleged shooting murder of Indigenous man Kumanjayi Walker.</p>
<p>In 2018, the Queensland government agreed to a <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-05-01/palm-island-riots-qld-government-pay-$30m-class-action-decision/9714640">$30 million payment</a> following a Federal Court ruling that claimants were deemed to have suffered racial discrimination at the hands of police in their response to the 2004 Palm Island riots. The <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-05-02/riot-class-action-payout-prompts-police-union-anger/9717084">Queensland Police Union of Employees</a> disagreed with the government’s decision.</p>
<h2>What do complaint levels about use of force tell us?</h2>
<p>In 2019-20 in Victoria, there were 354 allegations of misconduct through use of force, accounting for 11% of total complaints. In the previous year, use-of-force allegations accounted for 18% of complaints. </p>
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<div style="width:100%!;margin-top:4px!important;text-align:right!important;"><a class="flourish-credit" href="https://public.flourish.studio/visualisation/7470783/?utm_source=embed&utm_campaign=visualisation/7470783" target="_top"><img alt="Made with Flourish" src="https://public.flourish.studio/resources/made_with_flourish.svg"> </a></div>
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<p>In Queensland, Crime and Corruption Commission data show the number of use-of-force allegations declined from 892 in 2016 to 493 in 2020. In New South Wales the converse occurred, with the number of allegations increasing from 395 in 2015-16 to 864 in 2019-20. </p>
<p>These data would suggest there is no uniform increase in use-of-force complaints.</p>
<h2>Where to now?</h2>
<p>We should be concerned about such a drastic increase in fatal police shootings. As COVID continues to affect all aspects of life, police are playing a more pivotal role in enforcing new health and social regulations while ensuring society continues to function in a civil manner. </p>
<p>The welfare of the community should always take precedence. However, we need to ensure police do not move to an enforcement-only mentality to achieve this. We want our police to be safe and enforce the law, but we also want them to keep us safe.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/169354/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Terry Goldsworthy does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>There are signs Australian police have moved away from community service towards more enforcement – this is a troubling development.Terry Goldsworthy, Associate Professor in Criminology, Bond UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1578792021-03-30T00:23:03Z2021-03-30T00:23:03ZFour Aboriginal deaths in custody in three weeks: is defunding police the answer?<p>In the lead-up to the 30th anniversary of the royal commission into Aboriginal deaths in custody report, there have been <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/nitv/article/2021/03/25/barkindji-man-dies-after-police-chase-fourth-indigenous-death-custody-3-weeks">four Indigenous deaths in custody in three weeks</a>. </p>
<p>The royal commission report presented 339 recommendations to ensure the safety of First Nations people in custody. If all these recommendations had been implemented, there could have been lives spared, including perhaps these recent deaths in custody. </p>
<h2>Too many lives cut short</h2>
<p>The latest deaths bring the number of Aboriginal people who have died in custody since the royal commission to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/mar/14/when-will-we-have-peace-grief-and-outrage-at-three-indigenous-deaths-in-custody-in-a-week">over 450</a>. </p>
<ul>
<li><p>On March 2, an <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/mar/09/nsw-had-two-indigenous-deaths-in-custody-last-week-parliament-told">Aboriginal man</a> in his mid-30s died in his cell at the hospital within Long Bay prison in NSW. However, there were many preexisting medical issues that may have contributed to his early death.</p></li>
<li><p>On March 5, at Silverwater Women’s Prison in NSW, an <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/mar/09/nsw-had-two-indigenous-deaths-in-custody-last-week-parliament-told">Aboriginal woman</a> in her mid-50s died in her cell. Peter Severin, Corrective Services Commissioner said he believed the woman had “killed herself”. </p></li>
<li><p>On March 7, in Victoria, an <a href="https://nit.com.au/third-indigenous-death-in-custody-in-one-week/">Aboriginal man</a> held in Ravenhall medium security prison died in custody. His death is being investigated, after Corrections Victoria made a public statement four days after his death.</p></li>
<li><p>On March 18, Barkindji man <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/news/another-precious-life-lost-a-fourth-indigenous-person-has-died-in-custody-in-just-three-weeks">Anzac Sullivan</a> suffered a medical episode during a police pursuit in NSW. Despite attempts by police to resuscitate him, he was declared deceased at Broken Hill Hospital.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>The <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-03-09/two-indigenous-deaths-in-custody-in-sydney-last-week/13229962">news</a> of two deaths this month in New South Wales came as the state’s corrective services defended the decision not to make a public statement to announce the deaths in custody.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/392408/original/file-20210329-17-tuw8tw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Only hands visible; hands are in chains. The person wears all black." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/392408/original/file-20210329-17-tuw8tw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/392408/original/file-20210329-17-tuw8tw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/392408/original/file-20210329-17-tuw8tw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/392408/original/file-20210329-17-tuw8tw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/392408/original/file-20210329-17-tuw8tw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/392408/original/file-20210329-17-tuw8tw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/392408/original/file-20210329-17-tuw8tw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">First Nations people continue to be overrepresented in Australian prisons.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/brisbane-australia-november-14-unidentified-aboriginal-233505988">https://www.shutterstock.com</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Recommendations ignored</h2>
<p>April 15 marks the <a href="https://www.amnesty.org.au/nsw-deaths-in-custody-when-will-someone-be-held-accountable/">30 year anniversary</a> of the <a href="https://apo.org.au/node/30017">Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody report</a> tabled in parliament in 1991. The report recorded 99 deaths in custody between 1980 and 1989, and made <a href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/other/IndigLRes/rciadic/national/vol5/5.html">339 recommendations</a> to prevent further Aboriginal deaths in custody. The report also addressed other issues leading to the over-representation of Indigenous people within Australia’s legal system.</p>
<p>The recommendations in the royal commission report could have prevented the four deaths this month, had they been implemented. </p>
<ul>
<li><p>The Long Bay man in this mid-30s who died due to pre-existing conditions could have been saved if <a href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/other/IndigLRes/rciadic/national/vol5/5.html">recommendation 154</a> had been in place. There would have been appropriate cultural health services available for him, and other Aboriginal people in custody.</p></li>
<li><p>It’s possible the woman who died in Silverwater Prison could have been safer if <a href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/other/IndigLRes/rciadic/national/vol5/5.html">recommendation 165</a> had been implemented (if she did in fact take her own life). This recommendation suggests police and corrective services carefully assess equipment and facilities to eliminate or reduce the potential for harm. An example of this is the removal of hanging points in police and prison cells. Peter Severin has said removing hanging points from cells <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-03-09/two-indigenous-deaths-in-custody-in-sydney-last-week/13229962">is a budget issue</a>.</p></li>
<li><p><a href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/other/IndigLRes/rciadic/national/vol5/5.html">Recommendation 133(a)</a> addresses the necessity for police to undertake training to know when someone is in distress from their presence. This training could have assisted the police when approaching Anzac Sullivan.</p></li>
</ul>
<h2>What needs to be done?</h2>
<p>There are no words to describe the loss suffered by families of those who die in custody. This is especially so amid the knowledge justice will never be served — there has not been one person ever held <a href="https://theconversation.com/despite-432-indigenous-deaths-in-custody-since-1991-no-one-has-ever-been-convicted-racist-silence-and-complicity-are-to-blame-139873">criminally responsible for the death</a> of an Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander person in custody, despite there being <a href="https://thewest.com.au/politics/fresh-calls-to-stop-indigenous-jail-deaths-c-2442816">450 such deaths</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://indigenousx.com.au/defunding-the-police-and-abolishing-prisons-are-not-radical-ideas/">Police brutality</a> has been the centre of debates relating to the treatment of Aboriginal people in this country since colonisation began. However, since the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement gained momentum in Australia and globally, we have seen a shift in the way wider society perceives police and their interactions with the public. </p>
<p>A recurring suggestion is the idea to <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10612-018-9400-4">defund and abolish</a> the police and divert funds to First Nations community-led solutions. An ANROWS (Australia’s National Research Organisation for Women’s Safety) <a href="https://apo.org.au/node/306658">report</a> highlights the importance of community-led solutions that are culturally safe, but community law efforts are often undermined by settler law and forms of government. Academic <a href="https://theconversation.com/defunding-the-police-could-bring-positive-change-in-australia-these-communities-are-showing-the-way-140333">Chris Cunnen writes of </a> community-based justice reinvestment projects in First Nations communities, which have seen reductions in offending and and incidences of domestic violence. </p>
<p>Unfortunately, although the BLM movement has caused people to see the ways police can abuse power, some people remain so <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/jun/09/three-quarters-of-australians-biased-against-indigenous-australians-study-finds">detached</a> from what is happening to Indigenous people they have no desire to question or <a href="https://d1wqtxts1xzle7.cloudfront.net/59709186/deficit_discourse_report20190613-34013-1ubjl8o.pdf?1560469440=&response-content-disposition=inline%3B+filename%3DDeficit_Discourse_and_Indigenous_Health.pdf&Expires=1616737423&Signature=ZGcEtdEUJURgvvLu7oE67QiQYZHg7vg2LhSfUjSehXkoS8plui7V7msDB4bv0bkcym9vFXBIjKiTkwBY%7EuPMEkEFl5kW%7Eqhz-w4FcQVDqqXOGHuGLZIZPxwqMPz3ce4y5N1NnrahjenuYEoX1ibVbT7qHWZ4S9GuerTJtvOOOLPhHLLPU6QUJ2XEAK-Vpy7MiBq0wCv9Dsj2uOIAH3mVV9qkfGxrasXvpUf4mlK7XIg%7EJpSy9i9Rv9dV4YJuV6l2K4%7EH3u4TZQ1BXlFHTgNnICTdfoHb%7ET-9sAKEO21Tmrbr-fcOuo3UaC9aMJuLfNsV4SdjvxJHojtTAlNqOHOp6Q__&Key-Pair-Id=APKAJLOHF5GGSLRBV4ZA">challenge</a> the dominant government paradigm for achieving safer communities. It speaks volumes regarding the public’s perceived value of Aboriginal lives, despite being the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/sep/22/indigenous-australians-know-were-the-oldest-living-culture-its-in-our-dreamtime">oldest, continuing living culture</a> in the world. </p>
<p>Police brutality and lack of adequate knowledge on medical issues has become a <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1739351">common theme</a> in Aboriginal deaths in custody, and something must be done to remedy this.</p>
<p>This government needs to take action to protect the lives of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander people. This can be done by <a href="http://classic.austlii.edu.au/au/journals/IndigLawB/2001/37.html">implementing</a> the 339 recommendations from the 1991 royal commission report.</p>
<p>Another option is to <a href="https://theconversation.com/defunding-the-police-could-bring-positive-change-in-australia-these-communities-are-showing-the-way-140333">defund the police</a> and institute community-led solutions. Both of these options are viable and easily achievable in order for Australia to stop the <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/26423245?seq=1">racist, dehumanising and degrading</a> treatment of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander people.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/157879/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Robyn Newitt does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>In the wake of four Aboriginal deaths in custody in three weeks, the government needs to reassess the police and corrections systems in Australia.Robyn Newitt, Lecturer, Criminology, Western Sydney UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1489222020-10-28T02:35:38Z2020-10-28T02:35:38ZKumanjayi Walker murder trial will be a first in NT for an Indigenous death in custody. Why has it taken so long?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/365962/original/file-20201027-19-i70ppv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=342%2C19%2C3789%2C2929&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">DAVID CROSLING/AAP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised this article contains names and images of deceased people.</em></p>
<hr>
<p>The Northern Territory court decision this week to commit Police Constable Zachary Rolfe to <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-10-26/nt-zachary-rolfe-murder-trial-kumanjayi-walker/12812480">stand trial</a> for the shooting death of 19-year-old Warlpiri man Kumanjayi Walker marks a historic moment in accountability for First Nations deaths in custody. </p>
<p>It is the first time a police officer <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/nt-police-officer-to-face-murder-trial-over-death-of-kumanjayi-walker-20201026-p568rx.html">will face a murder trial</a> in a First Nations death in custody case in the Northern Territory since the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody in 1991.</p>
<p>The decision was handed down months after another policeman <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-09-18/murder-trial-for-police-shooting-death-jc-held-in-perth/12679314">was charged with murder</a> in the shooting death of an Indigenous woman in Western Australia. He has pleaded not guilty and is expected to face trial next year. </p>
<p>The cases are moving ahead amid a global reckoning on police and prison violence as part of the Black Lives Matter movement, which has focused new attention on <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/sep/03/without-accountability-there-is-no-justice-for-my-mothers-death-in-australian-police-custody">First Nations families</a> fighting for justice for the deaths of their loved ones.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-the-black-lives-matter-protests-must-continue-an-urgent-appeal-by-marcia-langton-143914">Why the Black Lives Matter protests must continue: an urgent appeal by Marcia Langton</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Circumstances of Walker’s death</h2>
<p>Late on the evening of November 9 2019, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/oct/26/nt-police-officer-zachary-rolfe-to-stand-trial-for-over-death-of-kumanjayi-walker">police officers</a> entered Walker’s family home in Yuendumu, central Australia, to try to arrest him. This set in motion the events that led to Rolfe firing the <a href="https://arena.org.au/three-shots-by-melinda-hinkson-and-thalia-anthony/">three shots</a> that killed the teenager.</p>
<p>Murder charges were laid against Rolfe days later, and <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-03-08/yuendumu-residents-question-grant-of-bail-to-zachary-rolfe/12035990">bail was granted</a> the same day. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/365966/original/file-20201027-13-1bpbwzb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/365966/original/file-20201027-13-1bpbwzb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=747&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/365966/original/file-20201027-13-1bpbwzb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=747&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/365966/original/file-20201027-13-1bpbwzb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=747&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/365966/original/file-20201027-13-1bpbwzb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=939&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/365966/original/file-20201027-13-1bpbwzb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=939&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/365966/original/file-20201027-13-1bpbwzb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=939&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Kumanjayi Walker.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">PR handout</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The NT Criminal Lawyers Association described the granting of bail over the phone for a serious homicide as “<a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-03-08/yuendumu-residents-question-grant-of-bail-to-zachary-rolfe/12035990">very unusual in the extreme</a>”. It also raised <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/nitv/article/2020/09/02/kumanjayi-walker-elders-call-officers-bail-be-revoked">concerns</a> among Yuendumu elders that justice was being compromised in Walker’s death. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://apnews.com/article/australia-police-canberra-australian-capital-territory-trials-5e624936014d4e9a91d9225282577c17">freedom</a> that Rolfe enjoys on bail contrasts with the high remand rates for First Nations people <a href="https://www.indigenousjustice.gov.au/wp-content/uploads/mp/files/publications/files/the-growth-in-remand-13-08-2.pdf">(85%)</a> in the NT. </p>
<p>Rolfe has also been stood down from the police force while on bail, but is <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-10-26/nt-zachary-rolfe-murder-trial-kumanjayi-walker/12812480#:%7E:text=Constable%20Rolfe%20appeared%20in%20court,Court%20for%20the%20first%20time.">still receiving pay</a>.</p>
<h2>Sufficient evidence to stand trial</h2>
<p>Before a trial for a serious crime can proceed to the NT Supreme Court, the local court must determine whether the prosecution’s evidence is “<a href="https://legislation.nt.gov.au/en/Legislation/LOCAL-COURT-CRIMINAL-PROCEDURE-ACT-1928">sufficient to put the defendant</a> on trial”. This occurs through a committal hearing. </p>
<p>Rolfe’s <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-09-05/nt-committal-hearing-zachary-rolfe-what-happened/12631574">three-day committal</a> occurred in early September in Alice Springs. His lawyer made a “<a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-09-25/nt-zachary-rolfe-kumanjayi-walker-committal-hearing-final-day/12701972">no-case submission</a>” that the charges be dropped on the grounds of self-defence.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/365970/original/file-20201027-19-1k9k5ed.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/365970/original/file-20201027-19-1k9k5ed.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/365970/original/file-20201027-19-1k9k5ed.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/365970/original/file-20201027-19-1k9k5ed.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/365970/original/file-20201027-19-1k9k5ed.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=534&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/365970/original/file-20201027-19-1k9k5ed.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=534&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/365970/original/file-20201027-19-1k9k5ed.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=534&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Relatives of Kumanjayi Walker outside Alice Springs Local Court in December.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">CHLOE/AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This week, the presiding local court judge, John Birch, determined there was sufficient evidence for <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/oct/26/nt-police-officer-zachary-rolfe-to-stand-trial-for-over-death-of-kumanjayi-walker?fbclid=IwAR2VHF6Q5UF67PPVYPhmRH25fpOMpAQLxFJ8cV0IliYbB7WTeHD1b7ReOxE">Rolfe to stand trial</a>. </p>
<p>Birch indicated the case will proceed in Alice Springs <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/nitv/article/2020/10/26/nt-police-officer-stand-trial-murder-over-death-custody-kumanjayi-walker">next year</a> unless an application is accepted by the court to move the trial to Darwin.</p>
<h2>434 deaths in custody since 1991</h2>
<p>There have been at least <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/jun/06/aboriginal-deaths-in-custody-434-have-died-since-1991-new-data-shows#:%7E:text=Today%2C%20Guardian%20Australia%20has%20published,in%20Custody%20ended%20in%201991.">434 First Nations deaths in custody</a> since the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody handed down its final report in 1991.</p>
<p>The commission followed years of community outrage and <a href="https://theconversation.com/deaths-in-custody-25-years-after-the-royal-commission-weve-gone-backwards-57109">protests</a> over mounting Aboriginal deaths in custody. It put forward <a href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/other/IndigLRes/rciadic/national/vol5/5.html#Heading5">339 recommendations</a> that called for the use of arrest and imprisonment as a last resort, safer police and prison practices, independent investigations into deaths in custody and Aboriginal self-determination. </p>
<p>Yet, First Nations deaths in custody have continued in violent, reckless and negligent circumstances, reflecting the <a href="https://openresearch-repository.anu.edu.au/handle/1885/154725">failure</a> of governments to implement and enforce the recommendations. </p>
<p>Gomeroi scholar <a href="https://theconversation.com/despite-432-indigenous-deaths-in-custody-since-1991-no-one-has-ever-been-convicted-racist-silence-and-complicity-are-to-blame-139873">Alison Whittaker</a> has argued colonial violence in custody has been institutionalised through the lack of accountability in First Nations death in custody cases. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/despite-432-indigenous-deaths-in-custody-since-1991-no-one-has-ever-been-convicted-racist-silence-and-complicity-are-to-blame-139873">Despite 432 Indigenous deaths in custody since 1991, no one has ever been convicted. Racist silence and complicity are to blame</a>
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</em>
</p>
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<p>This lack of accountability is pronounced in the NT, where deaths in custody and police violence rarely proceed to charges or prosecutions. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2007-12-03/family-urges-law-change-after-wadeye-death-finding/976236">2002 killing</a> of 18-year-old Robert Jongmin by <a href="http://netk.net.au/Aboriginal/Aboriginal59.asp">Senior Constable Robert Whittington</a> resulted in murder, then manslaughter, charges being brought against the officer, which were eventually dropped.</p>
<p>The constable was then charged with the downgraded offence of “<a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2006-08-11/charges-against-wadeye-police-officer-quashed/1236180">dangerous act causing death</a>”, which was quashed by the NT Supreme Court on statutory grounds in 2006.</p>
<p>The royal commission also <a href="https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-1940942794/view?partId=nla.obj-1949281937#page/n23/mode/1up">investigated the 1980 killing</a> of an Aboriginal man, Jabanardi, who was shot during a fight with police following a traffic stop in the NT. The constable was <a href="http://www.unswlawjournal.unsw.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/GRAY-Advance-Access.pdf">put on trial</a> for Jabanardi’s murder in Alice Springs in 1981 and was acquitted. </p>
<h2>Trials against police in other states</h2>
<p>Outside the NT, two well-publicised manslaughter trials in First Nations deaths in custody cases have resulted in not guilty verdicts. </p>
<p>The first was in the trial of <a href="https://www.sydneycriminallawyers.com.au/blog/john-pats-death-in-custody-the-impetus-for-the-royal-commission/">four police officers and a police aide</a> for the the death of 16-year-old Yindjibarndi man John Pat in Roebourne police lock-up (Western Australia) in 1983. The second was <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-11-19/palm-island-community-still-struggling-after-death-in-custody/5901028">Senior Sergeant Chris Hurley</a> for the death of Mulrunji Doomadgee in Palm Island watch house (Queensland) in 2004.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/365972/original/file-20201028-23-1997d6g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/365972/original/file-20201028-23-1997d6g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=443&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/365972/original/file-20201028-23-1997d6g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=443&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/365972/original/file-20201028-23-1997d6g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=443&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/365972/original/file-20201028-23-1997d6g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=557&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/365972/original/file-20201028-23-1997d6g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=557&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/365972/original/file-20201028-23-1997d6g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=557&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Tracey Twaddle (left), Doomadgee’s partner, reacting to the not guilty verdict passed down at the Townsville Supreme Court in 2007.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">DAVE HUNT/AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The empanelment of <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/an-island-death-20090618-clzx.html">all-white juries</a> to try the officers in both cases has been questioned by justice advocates. The <a href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/other/IndigLRes/rciadic/individual/brm_jpp/118.html">Royal Commission</a> asked in 1991 in relation to Pat’s death,</p>
<blockquote>
<p>How does it come about in the Pilbara that a very important trial was conducted before a jury without Aboriginal representation, given the number of Aboriginal people in that region?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Another perceived factor behind the not guilty outcome in the Doomadgee case was the campaign run by the <a href="https://nit.com.au/blak-lives-betrayed-mulrunji-doomadgee/">Queensland Police Union</a> in support of Hurley. The defence of Hurley and his characterisation as a <a href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/journals/AltLawJl/2009/71.pdf">victim</a> — demonstrated at <a href="https://newmatilda.com/2015/05/22/palm-island-death-custody-cop-chris-hurley-investigated-queensland-police/">police rallies and on wrist bands</a> — received widespread media attention. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/365973/original/file-20201028-21-1xydz8u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/365973/original/file-20201028-21-1xydz8u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=320&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/365973/original/file-20201028-21-1xydz8u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=320&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/365973/original/file-20201028-21-1xydz8u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=320&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/365973/original/file-20201028-21-1xydz8u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/365973/original/file-20201028-21-1xydz8u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/365973/original/file-20201028-21-1xydz8u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Queensland police vote to march on state parliament in response to a decision to charge Hurley in Doomadgee’s death.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Dave Hunt/AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-11-22/police-federation-of-australia-condemns-charge-against-rolfe/11730078">Police Federation of Australia</a> and <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/thousands-attend-rally-in-alice-springs-after-fatal-shooting-of-young-aboriginal-man-20191114-p53ajx.html">NT Police Association</a> have similarly defended the legitimacy of Rolfe’s actions in Walker’s death.</p>
<h2>Accountability and justice</h2>
<p>From the outset, Warlpiri people in Yuendumu have been strident in their demands for justice for Walker and protections from ongoing police violence. They have also called for police there to be <a href="https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2019/12/07/yued-d07.html">disarmed</a>. </p>
<p>Yuendumu Elder Harry Jakamarra Nelson deplored the recent $7 million spent on the local police station. He also <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/nitv/article/2020/06/25/guns-not-our-law-it-not-our-culture-calls-systemic-change-kumanjayi-walker-matter">implicated</a> the lasting effects of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/ten-years-on-its-time-we-learned-the-lessons-from-the-failed-northern-territory-intervention-79198">Northern Territory Intervention</a> in the oppression of First Nations people by taking power out of the hands of locals. </p>
<p>This policy has contributed to the mass imprisonment of Indigenous people in the NT — described by many as a “<a href="https://arena.org.au/the-aboriginal-gulag-the-northern-territory-criminal-legal-system/">gulag</a>” — and the allegations of <a href="https://arena.org.au/three-shots-by-melinda-hinkson-and-thalia-anthony/">systemic racism</a> in NT police practices. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/instead-of-demonising-black-lives-matter-protesters-leaders-must-act-on-their-calls-for-racial-justice-143269">Instead of demonising Black Lives Matter protesters, leaders must act on their calls for racial justice</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
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<p>Yuendumu community members, nonetheless, recognise they have made <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/northern-territory-policeman-charged-with-murder-over-shooting-of-indigenous-man-20191113-p53aei.html">history</a> as a result of the murder trial. </p>
<p>Ned Jampijinpa Hargraves, a senior Warlpiri man and chairperson of the Warlpiri Parumpurru [Justice] Committee, said the case provides the community with “<a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/northern-territory-policeman-charged-with-murder-over-shooting-of-indigenous-man-20191113-p53aei.html">relief</a>”. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, other families continue their fight for justice. This week, the NSW coroner is <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/oct/27/nsw-prison-officer-who-fatally-shot-indigenous-man-as-he-tried-to-escape-may-face-charges">hearing arguments</a> about whether a corrective services officer who shot and killed Wiradjuri man Dwayne Johnstone as he tried to escape should be referred for prosecution. Like Walker, Johnstone was killed by an officer who fired three shots at him. </p>
<p>A coronial inquiry is also investigating the death of Anaiwan man Nathan Reynolds from an untreated asthma attack at a Sydney prison in 2018.</p>
<p>And the NSW Parliament has <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/oct/27/deaths-in-custody-david-dungays-mother-tells-nsw-parliament-the-system-is-broken">commenced hearings</a> in an <a href="https://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/committees/listofcommittees/Pages/committee-details.aspx?pk=266">inquiry</a> into the high rate of Aboriginal incarceration. </p>
<p>Walker’s cousin, Samara Fernandez, <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/nitv/article/2020/06/25/guns-not-our-law-it-not-our-culture-calls-systemic-change-kumanjayi-walker-matter">raised concerns</a> earlier this year about the unequal application of the law and the lack of procedural fairness for First Nations people. She said,</p>
<blockquote>
<p>You’d think it’s common sense to have a system that works equally for all populations … we want the system to be reinvented in a way that doesn’t have those stereotypes towards our people.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The dignity of procedural fairness and impartiality is the minimum First Nations families should expect when their loved one is taken by the law enforcement system.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>Correction: The story has been updated to add details of a police officer who stood trial for murder in the shooting death of an Aboriginal man in the NT in 1980. It also removes reference to the number of officers at Walker’s house.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/148922/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Thalia Anthony receives funding from the Australian Research Council.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Eddie Cubillo does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Warlpiri people in Yuendumu have been strident in their demands for justice for Walker and protections from ongoing police violence.Thalia Anthony, Professor of Law, University of Technology SydneyEddie Cubillo, Senior Fellow Indigenous Programs, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1472742020-10-21T01:09:06Z2020-10-21T01:09:06ZThe tale of ‘habitual criminal’ William King: a Black life in Victoria’s white justice system<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/363589/original/file-20201015-23-10gtmid.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">William King circa 1890.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Public Records Office, Victoria</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The <a href="https://blacklivesmatter.com/herstory/">Black Lives Matters movement</a> in the United States and Australia has drawn welcome attention to Black deaths in the criminal justice system. Such fatalities are extreme manifestations of a long history of excessive punishment of Black bodies: from the use of <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/religion/one-photo-brings-australia-history-of-colonial-violence-into-fo/12363912">neck chains</a> on Indigenous Australian prisoners into the 1940s to their <a href="https://theconversation.com/as-indigenous-incarceration-rates-keep-rising-justice-reinvestment-offers-a-solution-107610">over-incarceration</a> for minor offences today.</p>
<p>One historical case that demonstrates this in Australia is that of William King, an African-American sailor who arrived in Melbourne in 1887. Little is known about King’s life before this but the following year he was convicted for burglary and sentenced to 18 months’ hard labour. Thus began a cycle in and out of prison.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/captain-cook-wanted-to-introduce-british-justice-to-indigenous-people-instead-he-became-increasingly-cruel-and-violent-127025">Captain Cook wanted to introduce British justice to Indigenous people. Instead, he became increasingly cruel and violent</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>King’s second conviction in 1889 — on four charges of receiving stolen goods — earned him nine years’ imprisonment. This sentence was unusually steep. <a href="https://prosecutionproject.griffith.edu.au/">Data</a> on prosecutions for this crime in Victoria during the 1880s show the vast bulk of offenders were sentenced to less than two years in prison, even when facing multiple charges.</p>
<p>Even more remarkable is the wide range of additional punishments King was subjected to in prison.</p>
<h2>‘Insolence’</h2>
<p><a href="https://criminalcharacters.com/">Prison records show</a> during his time in Pentridge, King was punished for 53 infractions of prison discipline, far more than any other prisoner at the time. These infractions, mostly consisting of “insolence” or “disobedience of orders”, were punished by stints of solitary confinement, months spent wearing heavy, iron chains and an extension of his original sentence.</p>
<p>King was a problematic individual. But the colour of his skin probably engendered hostility from the guards or increased their perception he was a dangerous offender in need of rigid control. King later said he believed his race had made him a target.</p>
<p>Public attention was drawn to King’s treatment in 1898 when an anonymous informant — most likely a former inmate — alerted socialist newspaper The Tocsin to his plight. </p>
<p>In a lengthy <a href="https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/197528727">exposé</a>, the paper alleged prison guards not only deliberately targeted King by imposing groundless punishments on him, but even ganged up to give him beatings at night. King had spent more than 100 days in solitary confinement in the previous year alone.</p>
<p>Continued <a href="https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/89454595">media attention</a> may have prompted the decision to release King by “special authority” in 1900. </p>
<p>Just six weeks later he was convicted on two counts of burglary. At his trial, King said he would “<a href="https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/190052007">rather be hanged</a>” than return to prison. He alleged continual police persecution following his release, and said he was merely a convenient suspect for the crimes.</p>
<p>While King’s assertions of innocence must be read with a grain of salt, officials at the time were undoubtedly influenced by pervading racist rhetoric that associated Black men with increased criminality and violence.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-the-black-lives-matter-protests-must-continue-an-urgent-appeal-by-marcia-langton-143914">Why the Black Lives Matter protests must continue: an urgent appeal by Marcia Langton</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>‘Big, burly, repulsive’</h2>
<p>One of the detectives who worked the 1900 case, David George O’Donnell, tellingly recalled King in his later reminiscences as “a big, burly, repulsive looking American nigger … absolutely dangerous to life and limb”. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/363591/original/file-20201015-13-1hi9z1y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/363591/original/file-20201015-13-1hi9z1y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=439&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/363591/original/file-20201015-13-1hi9z1y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=439&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/363591/original/file-20201015-13-1hi9z1y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=439&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/363591/original/file-20201015-13-1hi9z1y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=552&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/363591/original/file-20201015-13-1hi9z1y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=552&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/363591/original/file-20201015-13-1hi9z1y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=552&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">William King circa 1908.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Public Records Office Victoria</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>King’s return to prison was marked by further infractions and solitary confinement. In 1908, he was released for only a month before again being convicted of burglary. Declared a habitual criminal under the 1907 Indeterminate Sentences Act, King was remanded to prison indefinitely.</p>
<p>In 1909, King was convicted of stabbing prison guard William Sharp in the cheek with a knife. King claimed Sharp had brought the knife into his cell, and had been stabbed as King tried to get it away from him. As a result, King spent even more time in solitary confinement.</p>
<p>Later that year, Pentridge’s medical officer expressed concerns about the toll lengthy solitary stays were having on King’s mental and physical health after he lost ten pounds (4.5 kilograms) in just one week.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/from-molten-lava-to-cobbled-laneways-how-bluestone-shaped-melbournes-identity-118755">From molten lava to cobbled laneways: how bluestone shaped Melbourne’s identity</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The use of solitary confinement against King was halted for several months — until he stabbed another warder. King’s defence was that he had been held down and beaten by five warders until he had managed to draw out a knife to defend himself. </p>
<p>King’s final trial occurred in 1911, this time for attempted murder of a guard. While admitting the offence, King again claimed to have been defending himself after repeated, racially-motivated violence from both guards and fellow prisoners. </p>
<h2>‘Treated like a wild beast’</h2>
<p>He claimed to have been treated “not like an ordinary prisoner, but more like a wild beast”. The jury appears to have been sympathetic, returning a verdict of not guilty.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/363592/original/file-20201015-19-19wryrq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/363592/original/file-20201015-19-19wryrq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=438&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/363592/original/file-20201015-19-19wryrq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=438&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/363592/original/file-20201015-19-19wryrq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=438&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/363592/original/file-20201015-19-19wryrq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=550&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/363592/original/file-20201015-19-19wryrq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=550&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/363592/original/file-20201015-19-19wryrq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=550&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">William King, circa 1915.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Public Records Office Victoria, VPRS 515/P1, volume 60, page 277.</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>King remained incarcerated until 1916, when the government ordered his release on the condition he be immediately deported to the US. Police escorted King on board the ship Puacko, bound for San Francisco.</p>
<p>According to Detective O’Donnell’s <a href="https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/152596366">memoir</a>, the vessel’s Captain told King if they had any trouble from him during the voyage, a quick burial at sea would mean there would be no coroner’s inquest. </p>
<p>King was indeed buried at sea during the voyage. His cause of death was recorded as a stomach complaint.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/147274/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alana Piper does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The case of an African-American sailor who arrived in Melbourne in 1887 illustrates the long history of excessive punishment of Black bodies.Alana Piper, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, University of Technology SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1439142020-08-05T02:03:35Z2020-08-05T02:03:35ZWhy the Black Lives Matter protests must continue: an urgent appeal by Marcia Langton<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/351194/original/file-20200805-43856-1w1c7gb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=23%2C38%2C5152%2C3305&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Glenn Hunt/AAP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>This is an edited transcript of the 2020 Thea Astley Address delivered by Marcia Langton at the <a href="https://byronwritersfestival.com/">Byron Writers Festival</a>. It’s a longer read at 4,500 words. You can listen to the the speech <a href="http://byronwritersfestival.com/digital/byron-writers-festival-2020-thea-astley-address-marcia-langton-black-lives-matter/">here</a>.</em></p>
<p><em>Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised this article contains names and images of deceased people.</em></p>
<hr>
<p>Hello, I’m Marcia Langton and welcome to the 2020 Thea Astley Address.</p>
<p>I acknowledge the traditional owners of Bundjalung of Byron Bay Arakwal people, the Minjungbal people and the Widjabul people as Traditional Owners and custodians of their homelands in the Byron Shire. I pay my respects to their Elders, past and present. I also acknowledge the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin nations on whose lands I live and work and salute their Elders throughout the thousands of generations.</p>
<p>I hope Thea Astley in the other world has watched the last few weeks of the Black Lives Movement and pondered on the history of Palm Island. </p>
<p>When she wrote <a href="https://www.booktopia.com.au/the-multiple-effects-of-rainshadow-thea-astley/book/9781925603569.html?source=pla&gclid=CjwKCAjwjqT5BRAPEiwAJlBuBYeY0hDlO4z9GLJcIPIB4s5IEmI4U_F6_b4Tupfv8uSjyM77KmvPSRoC90gQAvD_BwE">The Multiple Effects of Rainshadow</a> published in 1996, she could not have imagined that the injustices meted out to the Palm Islanders from 1919 when the settlement was established, to 1957 when the Palm Island strike was savagely put down, would result in a telling instance of how Black Lives Matter in history, in the present, and for our future.</p>
<p>Thea Astley passed on in 2004, the same year as Mulrunji or Cameron Doomadgee, who <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-11-19/palm-island-community-still-struggling-after-death-in-custody/5901028">died in a police cell</a> on Palm Island on Friday, November 19, in an encounter with Sergeant Chris Hurley. The office of the state coroner reported on the inquest on May 14, 2010. </p>
<p>Doomadgee was a resident of Palm Island. He was found dead in a cell in the police station on Palm Island. A post-mortem examination showed that he had a cut above his right eye, four broken ribs, his portal vein had been ruptured and his liver had been almost cleaved in two.</p>
<p>The Doomadgee case tells us that there is something rotten in the state of Denmark, and leaders from every Australian government are oblivious to the stench. It is an exemplary case of the persistent habit of police forces and criminal justice systems to fail Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. At this point in time, the numbers of deaths in custody <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/jun/06/aboriginal-deaths-in-custody-434-have-died-since-1991-new-data-shows">exceed 400</a> and they’re probably closer to 500 since the <a href="https://apo.org.au/node/30017">royal commission</a> commenced in 1987.</p>
<p>The deputy state coroner, Christine Clements, had conducted an inquest into the death and stood down to avoid a perception of bias. She <a href="https://www.courts.qld.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0008/86642/cif-doomadgee-mulrunji-20060927.pdf">published her findings</a> on September 27, 2006. </p>
<p>She found </p>
<blockquote>
<p>the deceased died from intra-abdominal haemorrhage due to or as a consequence of the rupture of his liver and portal vein. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>And concluded that </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Senior Sergeant Hurley, the police officer on Palm Island at the time of the death of the deceased, caused these injuries to the deceased.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>She also found </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Senior Sergeant Hurley and the deceased fell through the doorway of the police station onto the floor and then Mr Hurley, angered by the unruly behaviour of the deceased, hit the deceased whilst he was on the floor a number of times, in a direct response to himself having been hit in the jaw and then falling to the floor.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>And lastly, she wrote </p>
<blockquote>
<p>the fatal injuries suffered by the deceased were not caused in or as a result of the fall but by Senior Sergeant Hurley punching the deceased after the fall.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>But the later inquest report which superseded the one I’ve just read from, was careful to account for what followed.</p>
<p>The then Queensland attorney-general, Kerry Shine, initiated <a href="https://www.news.com.au/national/policeman-charged-with-manslaughter/news-story/4a3e53fb24191f4bb91188a6f20fdaf5?sv=e2306db5bad364524d4c8767a8593e08">criminal proceedings</a> against Hurley for the manslaughter and the assault of Doomadgee, following the receipt by him of legal advice from former New South Wales chief justice, Laurence Street.</p>
<p>The trial was conducted in the Supreme Court in Townsville in June 2007 and the jury <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/7.30/hurley-acquitted-after-controversial-case/2679506">acquitted</a> Hurley of both charges. </p>
<p>The Doomadgee case tells us that over a period of 14 years the Queensland Police and criminal justice system denied justice to the deceased and the family. </p>
<p>Lex Wotton later took a case against the Queensland government after Peter Beattie, the premier, had sent in riot police to put down the protests of the community. The racism and the impunity of the police in their attacks ended up <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/may/01/queensland-to-pay-palm-islanders-30m-over-police-response-to-2004-riots">costing</a> the Queensland government $30 million. </p>
<p>But there are hundreds of other cases where justice has been denied. Thirteen years ago, Chris Hurley was the first policeman to stand trial for an Aboriginal death in custody. Hurley pleaded not guilty. And as you know now he was acquitted of all charges.</p>
<h2>Court finds police acted with impunity</h2>
<p>Returning to Lex Wotton: on the day of Doomadgee’s autopsy results arriving on Palm Island, Wotton read them out to a large crowd of the residents. This occurred about a week after his death. Led by Wotton, angry residents marched from the town square and burned down the police station, courthouse and police houses. Officers tried to barricade themselves as they were attacked with sticks and rocks, and told to leave the island.</p>
<p>Wotton was later <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-03-04/lex-wotton-nominee/12023890?nw=0">convicted</a> of inciting a riot and served 19 months in jail before being released on parole in 2014. </p>
<p>The Federal Court found in litigation taken by Wotton in November 2016 that police were racist in their response and ordered compensation for one family, prompting momentum for the community to take a class action. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Protestors holding a sign that reads, 'Free Lex Wotton'" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/351198/original/file-20200805-46094-1l68lac.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/351198/original/file-20200805-46094-1l68lac.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351198/original/file-20200805-46094-1l68lac.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351198/original/file-20200805-46094-1l68lac.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351198/original/file-20200805-46094-1l68lac.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351198/original/file-20200805-46094-1l68lac.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351198/original/file-20200805-46094-1l68lac.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Protestors calling for the release of Lex Wotton in 2008.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Tony Phillips/AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Federal Court Justice Debbie Mortimer <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-12-05/palm-island-riots-federal-court-upholds-discrimination-suit/8093182">found</a> police had acted with impunity. She also found the Queensland police service’s failure to suspend Hurley after Doomadgee’s death was unlawful discrimination. </p>
<p>In that case, Wotton and his family were awarded $220,000 in damages for racial discrimination in December 2016. Doomadgee’s death resonated on the island, in the Queensland government, nationally and internationally for another 14 years. </p>
<p>And despite the sadness and grief felt for his far too early death, a measure of justice was finally delivered after these years of protest and litigation, when the Queensland government settled an out-of-court class action for the egregious attacks on the residents of Palm Island by the Queensland riot police. And as I said, the class action resulted in a $30 million payout.</p>
<h2>Systemic racism that pervades the police</h2>
<p>That Hurley, like all other police involved in the long history of Aboriginal deaths in custody, was cleared of any wrongdoing, with all that the history of this case tells us about Aboriginal deaths in custody, the cynical contempt for justice demonstrated by the Queensland police and many in the judiciary, cannot be ignored. </p>
<p>And it was not ignored. The death of Doomadgee became the subject of books, documentaries and litigation, including, as I said, the successful class action. One of the outstanding books on the subject is Chloe Hooper’s <a href="https://www.penguin.com.au/books/the-tall-man-9780143010661">The Tall Man</a>. It was also made into a documentary.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, Hurley had been transferred to a police station on the Gold Coast where he was charged while serving as a police officer with assault, dangerous driving and other offences. </p>
<p>Criminal lawyers were moved to write blogs about Hurley. On July 15, 2017, Paul Gregoire and Ugur Nedim of Sydney Criminal Lawyers <a href="https://www.sydneycriminallawyers.com.au/blog/senior-sergeant-chris-hurley-a-criminal-with-a-badge/">referred to him</a> as “a criminal with a badge” on the website of their law firm, summing up for all of us the true state of affairs denied by the entire criminal justice system in Queensland. </p>
<p>They detailed his criminal activities on the Gold Coast. He was <a href="https://www.goldcoastbulletin.com.au/news/crime-court/christopher-hurley-fights-charges-after-pacific-pines-car-chase/news-story/e5390208c6480b14fa6713179d973225">found guilty</a> on two counts of dangerous driving during a high speed police pursuit in the suburb of Pacific Pines on the Gold Coast in May 2015. </p>
<p>He pleaded guilty to <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-01-24/suspended-cop-chris-hurley-fined-assault-female-police-officer/8209328">assaulting</a> a female police officer in a Gold Coast shopping centre 12 months earlier. </p>
<p>He was found guilty of <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-12-02/chris-hurley-fined-$900-assaulting-motorist/8087284">assaulting</a> Luke Cole during a roadside arrest in November 2013, when he unjustifiably put the driver in a chokehold. At the time of his hearing for that offence, Hurley was already suspended without pay due to a string of charges against him. He took medical retirement. However, the bloggers <a href="https://www.sydneycriminallawyers.com.au/blog/senior-sergeant-chris-hurley-a-criminal-with-a-badge/">write</a>, </p>
<blockquote>
<p>if one takes a closer look at Hurley’s police career, or rather, the times he’s been on the wrong side of the law, what one finds is an example of the systemic racism that pervades the Queensland police service and on a broader scale, many other Australian institutions.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Findings from Guardian investigation</h2>
<p>There is no time here to recount the many failings of the Queensland Justice System in the Doomadgee case and so many others involving Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander detainees. </p>
<p>But the findings of the <a href="https://www.naa.gov.au/explore-collection/first-australians/royal-commission-aboriginal-deaths-custody">Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody</a>, which commenced in 1987, were highly relevant to the coroner who conducted the second inquest into Doomadgee’s death, if it was totally ignored by the subsequent criminal trial of Hurley.</p>
<p>The denial of rights of, and natural justice to, the victims in the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander deaths in custody saga, the arrest and incarceration of Aboriginal adults and children, have reached the level of a national crisis. </p>
<p>This is the view of many Indigenous people, human rights advocates, many in the legal fraternity and thousands of citizens. It is not the view, however, of the political leadership in Australian governments. </p>
<p>Even the most reasonable reforms have been rejected. Those who campaigned this year to <a href="https://theconversation.com/ten-year-olds-do-not-belong-in-detention-why-australia-must-raise-the-age-of-criminal-responsibility-142483">raise the age</a> of criminal responsibility from 10 to 14 years of age are bitterly disappointed by the decision of the Council of Attorneys-General this week to <a href="https://www.als.org.au/bitter-disappointment-at-delays-in-raising-the-age-of-criminal-responsibility/">delay a decision</a> until next year, citing as the reason the risk to community safety, particularly on behalf of the Western Australian government.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/ten-year-olds-do-not-belong-in-detention-why-australia-must-raise-the-age-of-criminal-responsibility-142483">Ten-year-olds do not belong in detention. Why Australia must raise the age of criminal responsibility</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>How bad is it?</p>
<p>Throughout the first half of 2020, as people chanted “Black Lives Matter” across the world in protest of the killing of George Floyd and too many others, the Guardian Australia <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/ng-interactive/2018/aug/28/deaths-inside-indigenous-australian-deaths-in-custody">conducted a study</a> of Aboriginal deaths in custody in Australia. </p>
<p>After reading 589 coronial reports, the team at the Guardian found “a record of systemic failure and neglect” and reported on a number of key issues that are too often ignored by police and the criminal justice system. There are too many myths about trends in deaths and incarceration rates and how Aboriginal people in custody are treated, both by the police who charge them, and when they are in custody, whether in police custody or in a correctional facility. </p>
<p>So, the Guardian team write,</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The key finding of the Royal Commission was that Aboriginal people are more likely to die in custody because they are arrested and jailed at disproportionate rates.</p>
<p>That remains as true in 2020 as it was in 1991. In 1991, 14.3% of the male prison population in Australia was Indigenous. In March 2020 it was 28.6%. So, the numbers have increased dramatically but so too has the proportion.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The proportion has doubled since 1991. And,</p>
<blockquote>
<p>According to data released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics this month, 4.7% of all Indigenous men are in jail, compared with just 0.3% of all non-Indigenous men.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>And the Guardian writers continue,</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Then as now, non-Indigenous people died in greater numbers and at greater rates in custody than Indigenous people. But then as now, Indigenous people made up just 3% of the total population.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>That means more Aboriginal people are imprisoned and dying as a proportion of their total population. And they continue,</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Using the most recent census and Australian Institute of Criminology figures, to calculate a crude rate per 100,000 people, showing Indigenous people are 10 times more likely to die in prison than non-Indigenous people.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Their examination of coronial reports also showed a stark difference in the treatment of Indigenous people who died in custody compared with non-Indigenous people, and they write,</p>
<blockquote>
<p>While the most common cause of death for both Indigenous and non-Indigenous people in custody was medical issues, or what coronial reports referred to as natural causes, Indigenous people were much less likely to have been given all of the medical care they needed prior to their death.</p>
<p>Agencies such as police watch houses, prisons and hospitals failed to follow all of their own procedures in 37% of cases where Indigenous people died, compared with 21% for non-Indigenous people. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander defendants were more likely to receive a sentence of imprisonment upon conviction than non-Indigenous defendants.</p>
<p>Almost a third of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander defendants were jailed, compared to 18% of non-Indigenous defendants, despite the two groups having similar conviction rates: 85% to 81%.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>And the Guardian revealed that,</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Police in New South Wales pursued more than 80% of Indigenous people found with small amounts of cannabis through the courts while letting others off with warnings, forcing young Aboriginal people into a criminal justice system that legal experts say they will potentially never get out of.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>And the Guardian concluded that,</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Between 2013 and 2017 the police disproportionately used the justice system to prosecute Indigenous people despite the existence of a specific cautioning scheme introduced to keep minor drug offenses out of the courts.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>No justice, no prosecutions</h2>
<p>So, I ask rhetorically, where is the stench coming from?</p>
<p>I worked for the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody from 1989 to 1990. After the primary recommendation of the royal commission that incarceration or arrest and imprisonment of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people should be a last resort, the key recommendation pertained to the principle and implementation of duty of care by all involved in the criminal justice system from police to correctional services officers. </p>
<p>We can see from the evidence unearthed by the Guardian team that the failure of police and correctional service officers to exercise duty of care remains the primary contributing factor to Aboriginal deaths in custody. The Guardian team found that, for instance,</p>
<blockquote>
<p>An Aboriginal woman with a chronic injury and a tooth abscess was denied pain medication for six weeks after being transferred to Townsville Women’s Prison in 2010. Her medical records had not arrived with her and apart from issuing Panadol, authorities did not believe she was in need of pain relief. Six weeks after the transfer she took her own life. The coroner said the pain was a contributing factor in her despair during her final weeks.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In another instance,</p>
<blockquote>
<p>An Aboriginal man in the grip of cardiac arrest was made to walk to a guard station to use a portable oxygen unit before an ambulance was called. Another Aboriginal man died of heart disease lying on a concrete bench in a Darwin police watch house cell. The coroner said, a sick middle-aged Aboriginal man was treated like a criminal and incarcerated like a criminal. He died in a police cell which was built to house criminals. In my view he was entitled to die as a free man.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>And,</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The well-known case of Mr Ward, a Ngaanyatjarra elder, who the coroner found was cooked to death in a prison transport van in circumstances described as wholly unnecessary and avoidable.</p>
<p>Families of those who die experience poor treatment. Coroners have criticised unnecessary delays in notifying next-of-kin. In one case a father found out his son had died when another prisoner called him several hours after the death, long before police notified him officially. In many cases police investigating a death on behalf of the coroner failed to interview anyone other than the prison or police officers directly involved. Aboriginal witnesses were left out.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>And so, having read so much from that very important Guardian report, I want to acknowledge my gratitude to the Guardian for covering this issue of Aboriginal deaths in custody so assiduously.</p>
<p>Like hundreds of other Australians, I was distressed by the death of <a href="https://www.hrlc.org.au/news/2017/8/2/three-years-since-ms-dhus-tragic-death-in-custody-unfair-laws-remain">Ms Dhu</a> in custody in a police cell in Western Australia, and then later, the death of <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-04-09/tanya-day-coronial-finding-into-death-in-custody/12134398">Tanya Day</a> in a police cell in Victoria. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Tanya Day's children holding a picture of their mother." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/351195/original/file-20200805-5580-ha5q2k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/351195/original/file-20200805-5580-ha5q2k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=454&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351195/original/file-20200805-5580-ha5q2k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=454&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351195/original/file-20200805-5580-ha5q2k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=454&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351195/original/file-20200805-5580-ha5q2k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=570&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351195/original/file-20200805-5580-ha5q2k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=570&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351195/original/file-20200805-5580-ha5q2k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=570&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Tanya Day’s family have been campaigning for justice after the death of the Yorta Yorta mother and grandmother.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Julian Smith/AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>There are too many other cases of Aboriginal women who have died in police custody to recount here. Their lives were cut short by violence compounded by what seemed to be a contempt for Aboriginal women, that can pass for normal and acceptable across all classes and cultures in Australia. </p>
<p>There has been no justice, no prosecutions, just a cold silence from the authorities. Only their families, a few journalists and a very small number of people holding vigils, until the Black Lives Matter protesters this year have brought these matters to our attention. These deaths are the tip of the iceberg. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/aboriginal-woman-tanya-day-died-in-custody-now-an-inquest-is-investigating-if-systemic-racism-played-a-role-122471">Aboriginal woman Tanya Day died in custody. Now an inquest is investigating if systemic racism played a role</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>The death of Ms Dhu</h2>
<p>Most others have passed without any public attention or anything like justice. </p>
<p>Ms Dhu, a Yamatji woman, was 22 years old when she died in Port Hedland, Western Australia in 2014. She had been arrested for unpaid fines on August 2, then detained for three days at the South Hedland police station under a controversial policy of paying fines through jail time. She owed $3,622. </p>
<p>During those three days, she cried in agony for hours and vomited as pneumonia and septicaemia, resulting from untreated broken ribs, took her life. The police took her to the Hedland Health Campus three times while she was in custody. She was twice discharged back into police custody without treatment and clearly without any competent diagnosis. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Supporters of Ms Dhu outside a coroner's court." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/351197/original/file-20200805-5896-17suf0y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/351197/original/file-20200805-5896-17suf0y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351197/original/file-20200805-5896-17suf0y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351197/original/file-20200805-5896-17suf0y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351197/original/file-20200805-5896-17suf0y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351197/original/file-20200805-5896-17suf0y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351197/original/file-20200805-5896-17suf0y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Ms Dhu, a Yamatji woman, died in police custody in 2014.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Richard Wainwright/AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Medical personnel stated that she had behavioural issues. She continued to complain that she was unwell. In CCTV footage from her third day in custody she appeared barely conscious, prompting police to take her back to the Hedland Health Campus a third time. Shortly after her arrival she went into cardiac arrest and died. Her death and its circumstances were ignored by authorities.</p>
<p>In October 2014, Ms Dhu’s grandmother, Carol Roe, working with the Deaths in Custody Watch Committee, <a href="https://www.themonthly.com.au/issue/2016/july/1467295200/marcia-langton/two-victims-no-justice#mtr">issued</a> a public appeal for an independent investigation to be held for a series of reforms, such as stopping imprisonment for the non-payment of fines, and infringement to be implemented and for demonstrations to be held. </p>
<p>A coronial inquest commenced in Perth on November 23, 2015. The <a href="https://www.coronerscourt.wa.gov.au/I/inquest_into_the_death_of_ms_dhu.aspx">coronial inquiry</a> was an extraordinarily painful document to read. Some of it was televised and I myself cried at the appalling treatment of Ms Dhu. </p>
<p>The police and the health campus staff denied that they were in any way racist. That they seemed oblivious to their responsibilities of duty of care to Ms Dhu and performed their duties with general contempt and incompetence, as revealed in the evidence to the inquest, says otherwise.</p>
<h2>What the royal commission recommended</h2>
<p>So I ask this question again: Are the police and correctional services racist? Is there structural or systemic racism in the Australian criminal justice system?</p>
<p>The answer to these questions that emerge from the thousands of pages of evidence is a resounding yes.</p>
<p>Until measures are taken to prevent police and correctional services officers from failing in their duties to the Indigenous people they detain or any Australian they detain, and ensuring that an encounter with them is not fatal, we must say yes, and demand that all Australian governments implement the recommendations of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody.</p>
<p>And here I want to be specific. Governments <a href="https://humanrights.gov.au/our-work/indigenous-deaths-custody-chapter-8-custodial-conditions">must ensure that</a>,</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Police services, corrective services and authorities in charge of juvenile centres recognise that they owe a legal duty of care to persons in their custody. That the standing instructions to the officers of these authorities specify that each officer involved in the arrest, incarceration or supervision of a person in custody has a legal duty of care to that person and may be held legally responsible for the death or injury of the person caused or contributed to by a breach of that duty, and that these authorities ensure that such officers are aware of their responsibilities and trained appropriately to meet them both on recruitment and during their service.</p>
<p>That these authorities ensure that such officers are aware of their responsibilities and trained appropriately to meet them. That police and corrective services establish clear policies in relation to breaches of departmental instructions. </p>
<p>Instructions relating to the care of persons in custody should be in mandatory terms and be both enforceable and enforced. Procedures should be put in place to ensure that such instructions are brought to the attention of, and are understood by, all officers and that those officers are made aware that the instructions will be enforced. Such instructions should be available to the public. </p>
<p>In all jurisdictions a screening form be introduced as a routine element in the reception of persons into police custody. That in every case of a person being taken into custody and immediately before for that person is placed in a cell, a screening form should be completed and a risk assessment made by a police officer or such other person who is trained and designated as the person responsible for the completion of such forms and the assessment of prisoners.</p>
<p>The assessment of a detainee and other procedures relating to the completion of the screening form should be completed with care and thoroughness.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Recommendations of the royal commission included not just the compulsory Custody Watch Service be implemented in every jurisdiction, but also that:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Upon initial reception at a prison all Aboriginal prisoners should be subject to a thorough medical assessment with a view to determining whether the prisoner is at risk of injury, illness or self-harm. Such assessment on initial reception should be provided wherever possible by a medical practitioner.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>And further:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>That where persons are held in police watch houses, that authorities arrange in consultation with police services for medical services, and as far as possible other services, to be provided, not less adequate than those that are provided in correctional institutions. </p>
<p>That the use of breath analysis equipment to test the blood alcohol levels at the time of reception of persons taken into custody be thoroughly evaluated by police services in consultation with Aboriginal legal services, health services, health departments and relevant agencies. </p>
<p>Protocols be established for the transfer between Police and Corrective Services of information about the physical or mental condition of an Aboriginal person which may create or increase the risks of death or injury to that person when in custody.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The hundreds of recommendations of the royal commission are very detailed, and these in particular and many more, addressed the practices of police that we now know have not changed since the royal commission report was made public, with the result that there have been hundreds more cases of Aboriginal deaths in custody. </p>
<p>These recommendations also extended to correctional services officers and likewise, they too have failed in their duty of care far too many times.</p>
<p>Another important recommendation was that,</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Police services should be immediately in negotiation with Aboriginal health services and government health and medical agencies, to examine the delivery of medical services to persons in police custody. </p>
<p>Such examinations should include, but not be limited to, the following: The introduction of a regular medical or nursing presence in all principal watch houses in capital cities, and in such other major centres as have substantial numbers detained. In other locations the establishment of arrangements to have medical practitioners or trained nurses readily available to attend police watch houses for the purpose of identifying those prisoners who are at risk.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>And, the establishment of protocols in relation to those measures:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The development of the protocols for the care and management of Aboriginal prisoners at risk with attention to be given to the specific action to be taken by officers with respect to the management of intoxicated persons, persons who are known to suffer from illnesses such as epilepsy, diabetes or heart disease or other serious medical conditions. </p>
<p>Persons who make any attempt to harm themselves or who exhibit a tendency to violent, irrational or potentially self-injurious behaviour. Persons with an impaired state of consciousness, angry aggressive or otherwise disturbed persons, persons suffering from mental illness and other serious medical conditions. Persons in possession of or requiring access to medication and other such persons as agreed.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The tragedy of this situation is that hundreds of people have died because those recommendations were not implemented fully. In fact, we can see from just the few cases I’ve mentioned today that in many parts of Australia the recommendations, if they were ever implemented, have certainly not been implemented in recent times and that in each case the responsible officers should have been held responsible for those deaths and they were not. </p>
<p>Not one of them has been convicted for the deaths of detainees in their care. They utterly failed in their duty of care and they were contemptuous of the lives that they contributed to taking.</p>
<h2>Protests must continue</h2>
<p>So, I want to conclude by pointing to the performance of the Aboriginal health sector, the Aboriginal community controlled health sector, during the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result of their excellent performance, at about midway during the pandemic, there had been only 56 positive cases amongst our population of 800,000 and no deaths. </p>
<p>More recently, in the last week, we’ve heard that there have been quite a few positive cases in Victoria of Aboriginal people. But as yet, fortunately no deaths.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-self-determination-is-vital-for-indigenous-communities-to-beat-coronavirus-137611">Why self-determination is vital for Indigenous communities to beat coronavirus</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Compared with Australia’s record and the record of many other countries, that is an outstanding outcome. And it is due to the very clear understanding in the Aboriginal community-controlled health sector that the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population was particularly at risk and indeed probably most at risk because of pre-existing medical conditions. </p>
<p>And all of the planning and implementation of plans and measures to ensure that COVID-19 did not enter Aboriginal communities and populations were aimed at protecting the most vulnerable and the sickest people in Australia.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Protestors during a traditional smoking ceremony at a Black Lives Matter rally" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/351199/original/file-20200805-46600-1g2pnqc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/351199/original/file-20200805-46600-1g2pnqc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351199/original/file-20200805-46600-1g2pnqc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351199/original/file-20200805-46600-1g2pnqc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351199/original/file-20200805-46600-1g2pnqc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351199/original/file-20200805-46600-1g2pnqc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351199/original/file-20200805-46600-1g2pnqc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Protests for Black Lives Matter, like this Sydney rally in July, should continue.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Joel Carrett/AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This should likewise be the intention of all police and correctional services facilities in their dealings with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Governments need to recognise that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are particularly at risk of losing their lives when they go into detention. </p>
<p>It is now too late for all of those people who’ve died in custody at the hands of careless and negligent officers, but it is not too late for the generations to come. It is a primary responsibility of the Australian government and the state and territory governments, to act immediately and responsibly to prevent further deaths in custody of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.</p>
<p>To achieve this, they must reduce the incarceration rate. They must reduce the arrest and imprisonment rates. Australians like myself expect to see the principle of Black Lives Matter implemented as soon as possible and the deaths prevented. Should we accommodate the tactics of governments who delay the implementation of these recommendations?</p>
<p>I say no.</p>
<p>I say <a href="https://theconversation.com/instead-of-demonising-black-lives-matter-protesters-leaders-must-act-on-their-calls-for-racial-justice-143269">the protests</a> must continue.</p>
<p>I say the human rights organisations, the <a href="https://changetherecord.org.au">Change the Record</a> campaign, the Black Lives Matter campaign, must turn their minds to these particular recommendations to stop further deaths in custody.</p>
<p>I thank you for listening to me.</p>
<p>Black Lives Matter.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/143914/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Professor Marcia Langton does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>It’s a tragedy that hundreds have died because the recommendations of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody were not implemented fully.Professor Marcia Langton, Foundation Chair in Australian Indigenous Studies, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1218142019-08-27T04:44:54Z2019-08-27T04:44:54ZLegal and welfare checks should be extended to save Aboriginal lives in custody<p>As the inquest begins into the death in custody of Yorta Yorta woman Tanya Day, who fell asleep on a train in Victoria before she <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/aug/24/tanya-day-death-custody-inquest-family-want-answers">was arrested</a> for public intoxication, questions are being asked about what it takes to stop Aboriginal people dying in custody.</p>
<p>Earlier this month was the fifth anniversary of the death of Ms Dhu, a young Yamatji woman <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-07-20/ms-dhu-family-to-sue-wa-over-death-in-custody/8728620">who died</a> after four days in South Hedland police lockup. The Western Australian coroner said: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>In her final hours she was unable to have the comfort of the presence of her loved ones, and was in the care of a number of police officers who disregarded her welfare and her right to humane and dignified treatment.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>And in 2016, Wiradjuri mother Rebecca Maher died in custody after police failed to conduct any physical checks for her safety or take her to hospital, where <a href="http://www.coroners.justice.nsw.gov.au/Documents/Findings%20-%20Rebecca%20Maher.pdf">expert evidence</a> indicated she could have survived. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/deaths-in-custody-25-years-after-the-royal-commission-weve-gone-backwards-57109">Deaths in custody: 25 years after the royal commission, we've gone backwards</a>
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<p><a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/news/indigenous-australians-more-likely-to-be-imprisoned-than-african-americans">A recent analysis</a> found Australia’s incarceration rate is sitting at 0.22%, the highest it’s been since 1899, with Indigenous people <a href="https://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Lookup/by%20Subject/4517.0%7E2018%7EMain%20Features%7EAboriginal%20and%20Torres%20Strait%20Islander%20prisoner%20characteristics%20%7E13">making up 28%</a> of those in prison. Tanya Day, Ms Dhu and Rebecca Maher are among the <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/how-many-times-does-one-person-have-to-be-tested-20190724-p52adv.html">400 people</a> who have died in custody, more than 25 years since the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody. </p>
<p>But how many deaths could have been avoided? </p>
<p>In Ms Dhu and Maher’s inquests, the families believed access to a custody notification service would have been an important check in the absence of police care.</p>
<p>The custody notification service is a 24/7 “telephone hotline” for Aboriginal people <a href="https://theconversation.com/nsw-ditches-another-protection-for-indigenous-people-in-custody-42811">to receive</a> legal advice and a welfare check. The Royal Commission <a href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/other/IndigLRes/rciadic/national/vol5/5.html">recommended</a> it be</p>
<blockquote>
<p>mandatory for Aboriginal Legal Services to be notified upon the arrest or detention of any Aboriginal person. </p>
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<p>A custody notification service is necessary as a health and legal line, including to alert police when a person needs medical help and make crucial referrals to community-controlled health and legal services. </p>
<p>But custody notification services aren’t accessible to people in protective custody, such as for intoxication. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/ms-dhu-coronial-findings-show-importance-of-teaching-doctors-and-nurses-about-unconscious-bias-60319">Ms Dhu coronial findings show importance of teaching doctors and nurses about unconscious bias</a>
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<p>And the services operate inconsistently across Australia, on short-term funding arrangements. Often they do not enable a conversation between the person in custody and the person on the line. Generally, the police are the ones who contact the service.</p>
<p>If Aboriginal deaths are to be prevented, the custody notification service needs to be funded nationally and implemented locally. It must encompass a well-being and legal service to Aboriginal people in police custody, a direct line to the Aboriginal person in custody and a mechanism for police accountability.</p>
<h2>Northern Territory: too little and too late</h2>
<p>In the Northern Territory, protective custody <a href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/legis/nt/consol_act/paa1978227/s128.html">was introduced</a> to decriminalise intoxication. But it has led to police stations becoming <a href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/other/IndigLRes/rciadic/national/vol2/100.html">known as</a> “drunk tanks” exclusively for Aboriginal people. </p>
<p>Between 2003 and 2012, eight Aboriginal men and women died in the Northern Territory while in, or associated with, protective custody. </p>
<p>The Northern Territory government set down <a href="https://legislation.nt.gov.au/en/Subordinate-Legislation/Police-Administration-Amendment-Regulations-2019">regulations</a> for a custody notification service only last month – the last Australian jurisdiction to commit to such a service. </p>
<p>While the regulations provide little detail, they do have two notable exclusions: protective custody and paperless arrests.</p>
<p>The regime of <a href="http://theconversation.com/paperless-arrests-are-a-sure-fire-trigger-for-more-deaths-in-custody-42328">paperless arrests</a> allows police to take a person into custody where they would otherwise <a href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/legis/nt/consol_act/paa1978227/s133ab.html">receive an</a> on-the-spot fine. </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/paperless-arrests-are-a-sure-fire-trigger-for-more-deaths-in-custody-42328">Paperless arrests are a sure-fire trigger for more deaths in custody</a>
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<p>Under these laws, Warlpiri artist and children’s book illustrator Kumunjayi Langdon died on <a href="https://justice.nt.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0009/208962/d00752015-perry-langdon.pdf">a concrete bench</a> in police lockup in Darwin in 2015 from treatable heart disease.</p>
<p>Both paperless arrests and protective custody already provide fewer procedural protections than arrests for an offence that result in charges. Removing access to the custody notification service for Aboriginal people arrested under these laws is another denial of safeguards.</p>
<h2>New South Wales is leading by example</h2>
<p>New South Wales led the way with its state-wide custody notification service, implemented <a href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/legis/nsw/consol_reg/learr2016542/s37.html">in 2007</a>. It is set apart from many other custody notification services in Australia by providing direct contact with the person in custody.</p>
<p>Like the NT and most other Australian jurisdictions, NSW police have the power to detain an intoxicated person for their own protection. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-aboriginal-voices-need-to-be-front-and-centre-in-the-disability-royal-commission-115056">Why Aboriginal voices need to be front and centre in the disability Royal Commission</a>
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<p>Maher died in custody in 2016 within five hours of being held in protective custody for intoxication, and wasn’t given access to the custody notification service.</p>
<p>She was held under part 16 of the Law Enforcement (Powers and Responsibilities) <a href="http://www7.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdb/au/legis/nsw/consol_act/leara2002451/">Act 2002</a> (LEPRA), which allows for the detention of intoxicated people. It means she didn’t receive the benefit of a notification to the Aboriginal Legal Services given to those arrested under part 9 of the same law.</p>
<p>In July 2019, the NSW coroner in the inquest into Maher’s death identified the custody notification service was too narrow in its application. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.coroners.justice.nsw.gov.au/Documents/Findings%20-%20Rebecca%20Maher.pdf">She recommended</a> that an Aboriginal person detained under part 16 of LEPRA is given the same access to the service as an Aboriginal person held under part 9, and that the service should be sufficiently funded to extend to these people. </p>
<p>What’s more, the federal government <a href="http://www.coroners.justice.nsw.gov.au/Documents/Findings%20-%20Rebecca%20Maher.pdf">is working with</a> the NSW government to ensure the custody notification service is funded so it “extends to protective custody”.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/we-need-evidence-based-law-reform-to-reduce-rates-of-indigenous-incarceration-94228">We need evidence-based law reform to reduce rates of Indigenous incarceration</a>
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<p>The custody notification service needs to be rolled out to protective custody across the nation to enable Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in custody to have a direct line to the service. </p>
<p>For this service to effectively stop deaths in police custody, it must be fully-funded, consistently-funded and available to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in custody, not only those arrested.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/121814/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Thalia Anthony receives funding from the Australian Research Council</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alison Whittaker does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Tanya Day, Ms Dhu and Rebecca Maher are among the 400 people who have died in custody more than 25 years since the Royal Commission. How could those deaths have been avoided?Thalia Anthony, Associate Professor in Law, University of Technology SydneyAlison Whittaker, Research Fellow, University of Technology SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/922392018-04-30T13:01:26Z2018-04-30T13:01:26ZCustody visits by members of the public are failing to hold police to account<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/216681/original/file-20180427-135848-1apt43f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption"></span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/home">via shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Custody in police stations is a very locked-down affair. People who have been arrested and are detained spend most of the time isolated in their cells. Custody visitors, the only outsiders who get to see the detainees, are neither respected by the police nor trusted by the detainees.</p>
<p>My recent <a href="https://policypress.co.uk/regulating-police-detention">research</a> has revealed serious problems in the system of monitoring police custody, now known as the Independent Custody Visiting Scheme. This scheme, run locally by Police and Crime Commissioners, enables members of the public to make random, unannounced visits to check on the welfare of the detainees in police custody. There are about 2,000 custody visitors making about 11,000 visits each year in England and Wales. They make the visits in pairs, and each custody block gets a visit about once a week. </p>
<p>But the custody visitors are not independent of the police, and my research has found that the work they do is not effective. The scheme doesn’t meet international human rights obligations under the <a href="http://www.ohchr.org/EN/ProfessionalInterest/Pages/CAT.aspx">UN Convention against Torture</a>, largely because of the visitors’ lack of independence and expertise. And the scheme is probably counterproductive, as it obscures the need for proper effective regulation.</p>
<p>The police have wide discretion in how they operate custody, where the hundreds of thousands of people who have been arrested each year are processed. The police say the primary purpose of detention in custody is to make the suspect “amenable” to investigation. There is little regulation, and what the police do there is largely invisible to the outside world. Those who are detained in custody run the risk of being abused by the police, whatever the extent of the actual abuse, and some 20 detainees lose their lives each year. Perhaps the best-known instance is <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/the-story-behind-sean-riggs-death-in-custody-7999485.html">Sean Rigg, who died</a> following the application of what the coroner’s inquest called “unsuitable” and “unnecessary” force by officers at Brixton police station in August 2008.</p>
<p>A former custody sergeant who I interviewed characterised custody in police stations as “a very locked-down environment, the police’s world, which nobody else except custody visitors really gets a view into”. But the power of the police and official policy prevent custody visitors from making independent and effective scrutiny of what is going on in custody.</p>
<h2>Not independent or effective</h2>
<p>Policy concerning custody visiting has been developed by the police and the Home Office. Yet while the scheme was the brainchild of MP Michael Meacher and the senior judge and peer, Leslie Scarman, in the early 1980s, the official approach to its development has been radically different from the lines they envisaged. The ethos is to promote public confidence in the police, not safeguard detainees – but achieves neither.</p>
<p>Custody visiting is organised in a way that causes the police least trouble: visits take place at predictable times, and never during the night. The authorities have airbrushed out the idea that visits could be a deterrent to police misconduct that might lead to deaths in custody. The Home Office and the police were clearly uncomfortable with the idea from the start, and there is now a deafening silence on the issue in the official literature about the schemes. </p>
<p>Under the <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2002/30/contents">Police Reform Act 2002</a>, custody visitors are required to be independent of the police and the Police and Crime Commissioners. Yet I found that the visitors were not independent. </p>
<p>I interviewed 23 visitors and observed 21 visits in one police area. I also interviewed 17 detainees, whose views about custody visiting have never been heard before, as well as police officers, custody staff and defence lawyers, and the administrator of the local scheme. </p>
<p>The visitors often come from sections of society more favourable to the police, and some were related to police officers or friends with them. I observed that many visitors did not keep their distance from the police during visits. They almost always failed to challenge the police, and those who do cause trouble can be dismissed summarily by the local Police and Crime Commissioner. The training they received was very much from the police’s point of view. And when it came to the most important, defining issue of deaths in custody, almost all of the visitors that I interviewed told me their work had nothing to do with it.</p>
<p>From what I observed, the existence of the visiting scheme, and specific visits and the reports of those visits, made no significant impact on police behaviour. The police could delay admission to the custody block and deny access to some detainees. The custody staff hovered close by the cells while the visitors were meeting those detainees they allowed them to see, making it impossible for the detainees to pass on confidential information. </p>
<p>My research was carried out in just one police area. However, all local custody visiting schemes operate under the same statutory system, and all visitors are subject to the same fundamental power imbalance with the police, which makes a decisive impact on the way the visitors work. </p>
<h2>Make visits count</h2>
<p>For custody visiting to make a more effective contribution to the regulation of police detention, radical reforms are needed. There would need to be a proper regulatory system where visits did not occur at times when the police expected them. Visitors should gain immediate access to the custody blocks and new statutory powers should allow visitors to force the police to take them seriously. Overall, the scheme needs much more independence from the state and more publicity.</p>
<p>My research shows that the visiting scheme lacks legitimacy. When that is appreciated, pressure for these reforms must surely follow. People would see the urgent need for a regulator of police custody to be genuinely independent and rigorously effective.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/92239/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>John Kendall does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A visiting scheme envisaged to deter police misconduct in custody is not fit for purpose.John Kendall, Visiting Scholar, Criminal Justice, University of BirminghamLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/700592016-12-31T20:33:37Z2016-12-31T20:33:37ZCabinet papers 1992-93: Keating government fights for Indigenous rights on multiple fronts<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/151218/original/image-20161221-14208-a2bfgq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Paul Keating recognised the significant opportunities – and political risks – the High Court's Mabo decision presented.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">National Archives of Australia</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Paul Keating’s first term as prime minister is often remembered for divisive debates over Indigenous affairs. He sought to pursue his vision of reconciliation between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians, negotiated passage of the <a href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/cth/consol_act/nta1993147/">Native Title Act</a> and acknowledged the injustices and cruelties of Australia’s colonial history in his famous <a href="https://antar.org.au/sites/default/files/paul_keating_speech_transcript.pdf">Redfern Speech</a>. </p>
<p>However, economic priorities often overshadowed these events. Australia was <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/boyerlectures/lecture-4-the-recession-of-1990-and-its-legacy/3353124">emerging from recession</a> with high unemployment and a growing budget deficit.</p>
<p>Cabinet documents from 1992 and 1993, released today by the National Archives of Australia, reveal the extent to which the government was torn between concern for fiscal responsibility and a desire to tackle Indigenous disadvantage and pursue meaningful reconciliation. </p>
<p>This tension was clear in the two major issues the government responded to in this period: the <a href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/other/IndigLRes/rciadic/">Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody</a> report, and the High Court’s <a href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/sinodisp/au/cases/cth/high_ct/175clr1.html?">Mabo decision</a>.</p>
<h2>Deaths in custody</h2>
<p>The response of the minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander affairs, Robert Tickner, to the royal commission unusually ranged across all aspects of Indigenous disadvantage. It recognised the commissioners’ strong argument that incarceration was a symptom of a long history of social, cultural and economic exclusion – one that demanded a more committed policy response. </p>
<p>Tickner had negotiated and co-signed policy measures with counterparts in the portfolios of employment, education and training, health, housing and community services, attorney-general, primary industries and energy, and others.</p>
<p>He proposed an expansion of the Community Development Employment Projects to provide both services and employment, particularly for Indigenous youth and women.</p>
<p>The package also proposed the appointment of an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commissioner in the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission who would <a href="https://www.humanrights.gov.au/our-work/aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander-social-justice/about-aboriginal-and-torres-strait">report annually</a> on social justice and human rights.</p>
<p>The policy package was slashed, however, from A$540 million to A$150 million over five years. This was in response to the demands of Treasury and Finance, which insisted that only the policies most obviously related to criminal justice be funded. The rest were to be reconsidered later if offsets could be found elsewhere.</p>
<p>This short-sighted response to the commission’s 339 recommendations is <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/patrick-dodsons-takedown-of-appalling-demonstration-of-ignorance-by-nigel-scullion-20161021-gs7vzu.html">still criticised today</a>. This is especially the case as Indigenous incarceration rates <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/4517.0">continue to spiral</a> in response to profound and complex disadvantage.</p>
<h2>Mabo and native title</h2>
<p>The government’s response to Mabo was similarly contested. This time the enemies were outside cabinet.</p>
<p>Keating understood the significant opportunity the decision presented. However, it placed the government in an almost impossible position. It was caught between Indigenous expectations, mining industry demands, fiscal constraints and state government recalcitrance – in addition to heightened international scrutiny.</p>
<p>The Mabo decision was complex. The media and most MPs understood the issues poorly. It was also clear that legislative recognition of native title was more likely to lose the government electoral support than win it more votes. As Keating’s speechwriter, Don Watson, <a href="https://www.australianbookreview.com.au/about/61-november-2011/618-don-watson-recollections-of-a-bleeding-heart-second-edition">noted</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Designing a legislative response to Mabo was a moral imperative and a political death trap … [with] all the elements of political horror.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Cabinet nominated a Mabo committee, which consisted of Keating and Tickner along with the attorney-general, Michael Duffy. At its meeting on October 27, 1992, cabinet noted the dangers of “uncertainty” for the mining industry and observed:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>… the importance of the threshold across which the High Court has taken the nation and the ultimate need for government decision.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>At the same time, cabinet prepared itself for potential political disaster. It was aware it could not satisfy all the competing interests, and that there was little chance of support from the Liberal opposition. </p>
<p>Negotiations extended through 1993, following the federal election in March. </p>
<p>Cabinet adopted Keating’s “principles for a response” to the Mabo decision on June 1, 1993, in anticipation of a <a href="http://webarchive.nla.gov.au/gov/20040709211354/http://www.coag.gov.au/meetings/080693/index.htm">very tense Council of Australian Governments meeting</a>. State premiers were keen to demonstrate their objections to Commonwealth intervention in their management of land and Indigenous affairs. </p>
<p>The states would test the Commonwealth’s patience throughout 1993. Queensland demanded the Commonwealth pay compensation for any invalidated mining leases. Western Australia passed its own pre-emptive legislation attempting to extinguish native title altogether.</p>
<p>When Keating presented a draft native title bill on September 1, the cabinet minutes hinted at nervousness about the potential political fallout. Ministers were encouraged to “be ready to discuss the proposals with interest groups”. Keating was exhorted to “take whatever action was necessary to advance and protect the Commonwealth’s interests”. </p>
<p>Cabinet saw fit to afford Keating “latitude” in his negotiations. This prime ministerial prerogative would prove critical to the legislation’s ultimate success. Its passage was based on delicate compromises made with state premiers, Greens and Democrats senators, the National Farmers Federation and Aboriginal leaders.</p>
<h2>ATSIC’s role</h2>
<p>Throughout the year, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC) repeatedly insisted in cabinet submissions that alternative forms of redress be provided for the majority of Indigenous people who no longer enjoyed an unbroken connection with traditional lands. </p>
<p>The government prepared a “social justice and economic development package” within the constraints of the ever-present “fiscal realities” the government faced. Both ATSIC and the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation requested more time for consultation. The package was thus delayed and disconnected from the Native Title Act, which received royal assent on December 24, 1993.</p>
<p>One notable feature of this period is the role of ATSIC, which the Hawke government created in 1990 as a practical expression of self-determination. As an elected body with administrative responsibility for much of the portfolio of Aboriginal affairs, ATSIC fulfilled both <a href="http://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/Parliamentary_Library/Publications_Archive/CIB/Current_Issues_Briefs_2004_-_2005/05cib04">representative and executive functions</a>. </p>
<p>Cabinet documents reveal ATSIC was assertive in advising its junior minister. It commented on all relevant cabinet submissions and made additional submissions on key issues. This ensured the senior ministry took Aboriginal perspectives into account. </p>
<p>The Howard government abolished ATSIC in 2004, amid controversy. The bureaucrats were folded into mainstream departments, and the government abandoned the representative function entirely.</p>
<h2>How much has changed?</h2>
<p>Cabinet records from this period reveal some constants in Indigenous politics. Indigenous interests confront many powerful adversaries – including state and territory governments, and industries with interests in Aboriginal land. </p>
<p>Proposed expenditure tackling Indigenous social and economic disadvantage remains subject to the hard-headed decision-makers inside cabinet representing Finance and Treasury. </p>
<p>Finally, the task of tackling Indigenous priorities is even more challenging today, given the absence of ATSIC or some other representative body engaging in cabinet-level co-ordination and negotiation.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/70059/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Diana Perche does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Cabinet papers reveal the extent to which the Keating government was torn between concern for fiscal responsibility and a desire to tackle Indigenous disadvantage and pursue meaningful reconciliation.Diana Perche, Lecturer in Politics and Public Policy, Macquarie UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/703152016-12-13T16:08:59Z2016-12-13T16:08:59ZThe criminal justice system is failing to prevent suicides among people released from custody<p>Getting released from prison or police custody can be a huge shock to those who have been incarcerated. Our <a href="https://www.equalityhumanrights.com/en/publication-download/research-report-106-non-natural-deaths-following-prison-and-police-custody">new research</a> gives an indication of just how vulnerable these people can be. We found that over a seven-year period, 400 people died of a suspected suicide within 48 hours of leaving police detention. </p>
<p>The number of people dying in <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/jul/28/suicides-and-assaults-in-prisons-in-england-and-wales-at-all-time-high">prisons</a> and in <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/jul/23/deaths-in-custody-highest-level-five-years-independent-review">police custody</a> has been increasing for several years. There is, rightly, a statutory obligation for every death that occurs within a state institution to be investigated by an independent body. So each death in a prison is investigated by the <a href="http://www.ppo.gov.uk/">Prisons and Probation Ombudsman</a> (PPO), while the equivalent in police stations are investigated by the <a href="https://www.ipcc.gov.uk/">Independent Police Complaints Commission</a> (IPCC). </p>
<p>But for people who die shortly after release from police or prison custody, their deaths are not subject to statutory investigation and are too often invisible. </p>
<h2>A dangerous transition</h2>
<p>Our research, published by the <a href="https://www.equalityhumanrights.com/en">Equality and Human Rights Commission</a>, looked into non-natural deaths of people who have been released from police detention or prison custody. We found that the data on these deaths is contingent upon the relevant institutions (prisons, police or probation) finding out about the death in the first place – and this can be difficult. </p>
<p>We examined two sets of data: <a href="https://www.ipcc.gov.uk/sites/default/files/Documents/research_stats/Deaths_Report_1516.pdf">IPCC</a> data on suspected suicides that occurred within 48 hours of release from police detention and data from the National Offender Management Service on deaths of people under probation supervision, which includes those released from prison. We also conducted interviews with 15 custody sergeants – police officers who are responsible for the welfare of a detainee while in a police station – prison officers and others such as representatives of police and crime commissioners (PCCs) and Public Health England.</p>
<p>The IPCC data suggest that 400 people died between 2009 and 2016 of a suspected suicide within 48 hours of release, although this number declined between the years 2014-15 and 2015-16, as the graph below shows. People who had been detained on suspicion of sex offences accounted for 32% of the 400 total suspected suicides.</p>
<iframe id="datawrapper-chart-fOWBt" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/fOWBt/2/" frameborder="0" allowtransparency="true" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" webkitallowfullscreen="webkitallowfullscreen" mozallowfullscreen="mozallowfullscreen" oallowfullscreen="oallowfullscreen" msallowfullscreen="msallowfullscreen" width="100%" height="350"></iframe>
<p>We also examined a selection of 41 investigations and summaries of investigations into apparent post-release suicides that were provided to us by the IPCC. Half of these people had pre-existing mental health conditions. These referrals also pointed to inadequate risk assessment, record keeping and onward referral to relevant community-based care providers such as mental health or drug treatment providers.</p>
<p>We then looked at deaths that had occurred within 28 days of release from prison. Despite some issues with the accuracy and completeness of the data, we identified 66 people between 2010 and 2015 who had died from non-natural causes within 28 days of leaving prison. The numbers are small and so it is difficult to draw wider conclusions, but we found that 44 of those 66 died from a drug-related death. Of the 66, 35 had served a sentence for an acquisitive offence such as theft, shoplifting or robbery, offences which are commonly associated with drug use.</p>
<p>We also analysed investigations conducted between 2010 and 2015 by the PPO into deaths that occurred in approved premises, also known as bail hostels, within 28 days of release from custody. These investigations seek to understand what, if anything, could have been done to prevent the death. This highlighted problems with supporting drug-using offenders, a lack of confidence among staff and a failure to create a smooth transition from prison into the community. </p>
<h2>Staff under strain</h2>
<p>These analyses only tell part of the story. Our discussions with custody officers painted a complex picture. They argued that they were getting better at identifying people in custody with mental health conditions but that their ability to deal with them effectively was restricted by factors beyond their control such as a lack of appropriate treatment for people after leaving their care and an inadequate number of beds in mental health hospitals. They told us that the risk assessment tool they use for identifying such people was not fit for purpose because it did not go into enough detail and that they would benefit from additional mental health training. They were also strongly in favour of the responsibility for healthcare commissioning in police stations being handed to the NHS, rather than PCCs, a <a href="https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/portal/files/51103217/bmj.i1994.full.pdf">proposal which was dropped</a> in December 2015.</p>
<p>The story from prison staff was similar, but they also talked about the use of <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-the-government-is-right-to-blanket-ban-new-psychoactive-substances-42647">new psychoactive substances</a> and the <a href="http://www.ppo.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/PPO-self-inflicted-deaths-publication-press-release.pdf">negative effects</a> these substances are having on mental health and safety in the prison.</p>
<p>Problems also exist when it comes to the provision of community-based care after people are released. These include cuts to community mental health services and drug services, as well as <a href="https://theconversation.com/fears-for-offender-rehabilitation-as-britain-embraces-us-style-probation-42726">recent changes to the probation service</a>, which have seen 70% of the service outsourced to the private sector. Such reforms have made communication between prisons and probation providers more difficult. These budget cuts and public sector reforms are having a serious impact on the ability of criminal justice agencies to deal with these issues and prevent any future deaths.</p>
<p>There needs to be an improvement in the way in which data on non-natural deaths is collected. Deaths post-detention should also be subject to similar levels of investigation as those that occur in police custody and prison. It would be naive to suggest that all deaths of people leaving state detention can be investigated, but there is scope for more oversight from both the IPCC and PPO, at least while they are adjusting to life back in the community. At the same time, the government must maintain investment in mental health and drug services to help prevent those most vulnerable when they are released from detention from taking their own life.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/70315/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jake Phillips received funding from the Equality and Human Rights Commission for this research. In the past he has received funding from the Economic and Social Research Council. He subscribes to the Howard League for Penal Reform.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Loraine Gelsthorpe currently eceives funding from PACT, Parents and Children Together, The Community Chaplains Association, and the University of Cambridge Vice-Chancellor's Endowment Fund.
She is a trustee of Pembroke House, Walworth, and of Women's Breakout (a national network of community-based centres for women offenders and women at risk). She subscribes to the Howard League for Penal Reform and the Prison Reform Trust. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nicola Padfield subscribes to the Howard League for Penal Reform.</span></em></p>New research suggests 400 people have died from suspected suicide within 48 hours of leaving police detention in the last seven years.Jake Phillips, Senior Lecturer in Criminology, Sheffield Hallam UniversityLoraine Gelsthorpe, Professor of Criminology & Criminal Justice, Deputy Director, Institute of Criminology, University of CambridgeNicola Padfield, Reader in Criminal and Penal Justice; Master, Fitzwilliam College, University of CambridgeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/572722016-04-14T20:06:22Z2016-04-14T20:06:22ZWhy we should honour the humanity of every person who dies in custody<p>It’s now 25 years since the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody <a href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/other/IndigLRes/rciadic/">tabled its final report</a>. The anniversary will undoubtedly be marked by analysis and commentary, as well as reflections on statistics, key trends and issues relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander incarceration and death.</p>
<p>But in the midst of all this, we mustn’t lose sight of the human dimensions of this important social justice issue. </p>
<p>Sometimes the language of statistics and level of analysis used to discuss deaths in custody make us lose sight of something more fundamental. We are talking about people – people with families and friends, people who loved and were loved, people who may have died prematurely or in brutal circumstances.</p>
<p>To start redressing this oversight, let me share with you the story of a beautiful 22-year-old Yamatji girl arrested for overdue fines two years ago, who died in police custody soon afterwards. She is just one of many hundreds, each of whom deserves our attention. </p>
<h2>Remembering Ms Dhu</h2>
<p>Ms Dhu was born in Geraldton, Western Australia, in 1991. Her family describe her as “happy-go-lucky” and “always with a smile on her face”. She was caring, full of love and cheer, with a fierce sense of loyalty to friends and family. In her spare time, she liked to paint and make artwork. She dreamed of travelling one day. </p>
<p>She is dearly missed by her parents, Della Roe and Robert Dhu, by her grandmother Aunty Carol Roe, by her uncle, Shaun Harris, her brothers, sisters and extended family.</p>
<p>Ms Dhu died on August 4, 2014, at 1.39pm of septicaemia and pneumonia while in police custody for outstanding fines of A$3,622. Under Western Australian law, <a href="http://search.informit.com.au/documentSummary;dn=992196902668096;res=IELIND">fine defaulters can be jailed</a> and “pay down” their fines at a rate of A$250 per day in custody. </p>
<p>Ms Dhu died because she was unable to convince those around her – largely officers of the law and medical staff – that she was in a state of medical emergency. She died not surrounded by loved ones but by people who, until her last breaths, didn’t believe her cries of pain were real. </p>
<p>You may have read about her death, but you probably haven’t read much about what kind of person she was in life. </p>
<p>When a non-Indigenous person dies, we might read something in the mainstream media about what this person was like – that she had an <a href="http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/georgina-bartter-deadly-ecstasy-pill-takes-a-beautiful-girls-life/news-story/a7553b11783761ff898a59ea6f4d6725">infectious sense of humour</a>, for instance. But this honouring of the deceased is <a href="https://andrewjakubowicz.com/publications/race-media-and-identity-in-australia/">rarely afforded to someone who dies in custody</a>, especially <a href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/journals/CICrimJust/2015/2.html">when they happen to be Indigenous</a>. </p>
<h2>Changing the record, challenging the narrative</h2>
<p>You may have read about the circumstances of Ms Dhu’s death because it was recently the subject of a high-profile coronial inquest. </p>
<p>You may have read how the nurse on duty described her behaviour and symptoms as “unremarkable” and gave her a triage score of four, the second lowest. And how <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-11-26/medical-staff-did-not-check-ms-dhu-vital-signs-properly-inquest/6977712">the medical notes tendered in the inquest</a> describe a patient who had presented for “behavioural gain”.</p>
<p>You may have read about how the doctor on duty described her physical symptoms, which included being hunched over and limping, as “<a href="http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2015/nov/26/ms-dhu-inquest-family-lose-battle-to-show-cctv-to-disprove-aggression-claims">a little bit attention-seeking</a>”. Or about how officers on duty thought Ms Dhu was “<a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-03-21/ms-dhu-inquest-no-compassion-for-dying-aboriginal-woman-custody/7265066">pretending to faint to get quicker medical treatment</a>”. </p>
<p>These are harsh indictments of how trained professionals perceived and reacted to a woman dying of what are largely preventable and certainly treatable illnesses. But, again, they tell us very little about Ms Dhu herself; they speak only of how others perceived her.</p>
<p>Such details are haunting not only because of the stark nature of their content, but for what they represent: a complete denial of human compassion and dignity, and a national failure.</p>
<p>They speak of a failure to learn from past mistakes, including a failure to implement the 339 recommendations of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody. That <a href="https://newmatilda.com/2014/11/07/barnetts-petty-law-and-order-policy-encourages-deaths-custody">could have prevented Ms Dhu’s death</a> (recommendation 120 explicitly called for an amnesty on warrants for unpaid fines) since these were based on the much longer history of Aboriginal deaths, <a href="http://connection.ebscohost.com/c/articles/11081781/deaths-custody-australia-untold-story-aboriginal-torres-strait-islander-women">each as tragic and as preventable</a>.</p>
<p>Indeed, reading through the reports of the 99 deaths investigated by the royal commission gives a damning sense of deja vu.</p>
<p>Consider the story of the <a href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/other/IndigLRes/rciadic/individual/brm_nb/">41-year-old mother of five</a> who was distressed, hysterical and crying before her death, unable to convince authorities that she needed medical attention. </p>
<p>The story of the <a href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/other/IndigLRes/rciadic/individual/brm_mgcb">38-year old mother of two</a> who died in a watch-house from pneumonia after being arrested for unpaid fines, for failing to lodge an income tax return ten years earlier. </p>
<p>The story of <a href="http://netk.net.au/Aboriginal/Aboriginal24.asp">a woman from Ceduna</a> who died while in police custody, arrested for outstanding fines. </p>
<p>The story of a <a href="http://trove.nla.gov.au/work/16415407?selectedversion=NBD6393205">22-year-old</a> found hanged in a single cell at Midland Police Station in Perth, shortly after being arrested on a warrant for outstanding fines. </p>
<p>The royal commission heard 95 other such stories. And then there are the dead whose stories we will never know, as well as <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-04-09/near-deaths-in-australian-prisons-going-largely-uninvestigated/7310608">the many “near misses”</a>.</p>
<h2>Fighting for justice</h2>
<p>To <a href="https://changetherecord.org.au/">change the record</a> on Indigenous deaths in custody, we must first change the narrative. This starts with honouring the lives of those who died in custody.</p>
<p>Ms Dhu was arrested for unpaid fines. Was this crime worth her life?</p>
<p>We need to think about this so-called crime in light of the broader social context. We should remember not just how she was treated by medical staff who showed no compassion and by the state police who failed to follow procedure.
We need to ask what kind of society believes jailing fine defaulters is a humane policy. </p>
<p>We also need to consider why our fellow citizens continue to see Aboriginality not in terms of an identity of proud and diverse peoples, but in terms of criminality and <a href="http://ncis.anu.edu.au/research/representation_identity.php">deficiency</a>.</p>
<p>Most importantly, we should think about the families waking up every day, adjusting to life without their daughters, sons, brothers and sisters; without their granddaughters and grandsons; without their nieces and nephews. We must think not only of the grief and anger they feel, but of their strength in fighting this battle on the ground.</p>
<p>“<a href="http://www.army.gov.au/our-work/speeches-and-transcripts/message-from-the-chief-of-army">The standard you walk past is the standard you accept</a>.” A lot of people walked past Ms Dhu – and all the others who have died dreadful deaths while under the “care” of the state. And so on this day we must ask ourselves: what standard are we willing to accept?</p>
<p><em>This article is part of <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/royal-commission-special-report">a special report</a> marking the 25th anniversary of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody. <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/royal-commission-special-report">Check out the rest of the package</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/57272/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Amanda Porter conducts research with the Aboriginal Legal Service of Western Australia. </span></em></p>The statistics used to discuss deaths in custody can make us lose sight of the fact that it’s people we’re talking about. People with families and friends, who died prematurely – and often brutally.Amanda Porter, Postdoctoral Fellow, Jumbunna Indigenous House of Learning, University of Technology SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/571252016-04-14T20:05:45Z2016-04-14T20:05:45ZScales of justice still tipped towards police who harm people in their custody<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/118660/original/image-20160414-4694-1crzph1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The royal commission was highly critical of police investigating other police officers, but police remain responsible for investigating deaths in custody in most Australian jurisdictions.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/raeallen/4442238548/">Rae Allen/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Accountability for the deaths of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people at the hands of the state remains absent 25 years after the <a href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/other/IndigLRes/rciadic/">Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody tabled its report</a>. </p>
<p>Between January 1, 1980, and June 30, 2011, <a href="http://aic.gov.au/media_library/publications/mr/mr20/mr20.pdf">203 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians died</a> in police custody or custody-related operations. But the state has only twice sought to bring criminal prosecutions against police officers linked to such deaths. </p>
<h2>Failed prosecutions</h2>
<p>The first attempt was in 1984, for the death of 16-year-old John Pat. He had been arrested after a fight between several Aboriginal youths and some off-duty police officers and a police aide. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/other/IndigLRes/rciadic/individual/brm_jpp/2.html">According to witnesses</a>, Pat was knocked to the ground and then thrown into a police van. Once he arrived at the police watch house, he and at least two other of the five arrested men were again assaulted by police. </p>
<p>Pat died from an internal head injury. He suffered a fractured skull, broken ribs, a torn aorta and severe bruising across much of his body. Following a coronial inquest, the police officers and aide were charged with manslaughter. All five were acquitted.</p>
<p>In June 2007, Senior Sergeant <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/palm-island-officer-not-guilty/2007/06/20/1182019160877.html">Christopher Hurley was tried and acquitted</a> in Townsville for manslaughter and assault after the death of Mulrunji Doomadgee in Palm Island on November 19, 2004. </p>
<p>And it’s not just criminal prosecution that’s inadequate. Over a year after the death of Miss Dhu in Western Australia in 2014, no officer involved in her – lack of – care has “<a href="http://www.watoday.com.au/wa-news/wa-death-in-custody-inquest-no-cops-sacked-after-ms-dhus-death-20151203-glevpo.html">suffered losses to their rank or salary</a>”. </p>
<p>The primary obstacle to effective criminal prosecution in these cases – as well as others where charges have never been laid – is that evidence is lost or corrupted during the investigation process.</p>
<p>Effective investigation requires rapid collection of evidence by professionals who prioritise the state’s obligation to investigate and prosecute crime. Whether police officers can impartially investigate one of their own is questionable.</p>
<p>This issue was raised – 25 years ago – by the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody in its final report. The commission was highly critical of police investigating other police officers. Its report <a href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/other/IndigLRes/rciadic/national/vol1/">made a number of recommendations</a> relating to “thorough, competent and impartial” investigations.</p>
<p>But, in most Australian jurisdictions, <a href="https://changetherecord.org.au/resources/files/Chapter%2003_%20Post-Death%20Investigations.pdf">police remain responsible for the investigation of deaths</a> in custody.</p>
<h2>Flawed investigations</h2>
<p>Shortcomings of the practice are demonstrated starkly by the case of 36-year-old Mulrunji Doomadgee. Arrested for being drunk in public and swearing, Doomadgee was killed in an altercation with Senior Sergeant Christopher Hurley, as a result of massive internal injuries, including a liver almost “cleaved in two”, four fractured ribs and a ruptured portal vein. </p>
<p>The police officers who conducted the investigation into his death included Detective Sergeant Darren Robinson, who was known to the local community as Hurley’s friend. On the evening the investigative team arrived on Palm Island to conduct the investigation, they enjoyed a social dinner and beer with Hurley, their chief suspect. </p>
<p>Their work was criticised many times. </p>
<p>Delivering the findings of the first of two coronial inquiries into Doomadgee’s death in September 2006, <a href="http://www.courts.qld.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0008/86642/cif-doomadgee-mulrunji-20060927.pdf">Coroner Christine Clements called the investigation “compromised”</a>.</p>
<p>Hurley successfully appealed to the district court to challenge her findings. During the resulting second inquest, <a href="http://www.courts.qld.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0008/86858/cif-doomadgee-mulrunji-20100514.pdf">Coroner Brian Hines identified evidence of police collusion</a> aimed at protecting Hurley.</p>
<p>And a 2010 review of the circumstances surrounding Doomadgee’s death and the subsequent police investigation by the Queensland oversight body, the Crime and Misconduct Commission, found the investigation to be “<a href="http://www.ccc.qld.gov.au/research-and-publications/publications/police/cmc-review-of-the-queensland-police-service2019s-palm-island-review">seriously flawed, its integrity gravely compromised</a>.” </p>
<p><a href="http://www.lrc.justice.wa.gov.au/_files/P100-DP.pdf">Similar concerns were raised in Western Australia</a> in 2010 when the state coroner, noting that police tend to question other police differently, said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>it is difficult to imagine a system which would favour police officers concerned more than the current one.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>But while oversight by integrity bodies may reveal flawed investigations, the absence of evidence remains a problem. Because without evidence, prosecutors have no way of putting anyone on trial. And the families and friends of those who die in police custody can expect no accountability.</p>
<h2>A clear solution</h2>
<p>The solution is to establish <a href="http://www.communitylaw.org.au/flemingtonkensington/cb_pages/files/VLF%20REPORT%20-Effective%20Investigation.pdf">an independent, nationwide police monitoring body</a> responsible for investigation of Aboriginal deaths in custody. Independence, in this context, means nothing less than genuine practical, political and organisational independence.</p>
<p>In particular, it needs:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>investigators who are trained civilians and neither active, seconded, nor ex-police to play any role as investigators;</p></li>
<li><p>where investigators and police are investigating related events (a suspected crime and an allegation of police violence during the arrest for that crime, for instance), the most severe allegation should take precedence. And the agency with responsibility for investigating that offence should collect the evidence;</p></li>
<li><p>investigators to use their own medical and forensic experts;</p></li>
<li><p>investigators to not uncritically rely on police versions of the event; and</p></li>
<li><p>real powers to investigate and adjudicate. Failures by police to co-operate with the body would become grounds for immediate dismissal.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Until those investigating these Aboriginal deaths can do so without conflict, we can expect the rule of law to fall short for families seeking justice for the death of their loved ones while in custody.</p>
<p><em>This article is part of <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/royal-commission-special-report">a special report</a> marking the 25th anniversary of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody. <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/royal-commission-special-report">Check out the rest of the package</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/57125/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Craig Longman acted as the solicitor in Lex Wotton's defence team. Wotton was charged with rioting
arising from events following Domadgee's death in custody. </span></em></p>Accountability for the deaths of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people at the hands of the state remains absent 25 years after the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody’s report.Craig Longman, Senior Researcher, Jumbunna Indigenous House of Learning, University of Technology SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/578212016-04-14T20:04:54Z2016-04-14T20:04:54ZIndigenous incarceration in Australia at a glance<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/119027/original/image-20160418-11188-10rq29y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/119027/original/image-20160418-11188-10rq29y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=3794&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/119027/original/image-20160418-11188-10rq29y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=3794&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/119027/original/image-20160418-11188-10rq29y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=3794&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/119027/original/image-20160418-11188-10rq29y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=4768&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/119027/original/image-20160418-11188-10rq29y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=4768&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/119027/original/image-20160418-11188-10rq29y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=4768&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><em><strong>CORRECTION:</strong> This graphic has been changed to show that Indigenous Australians make up 3% of the national population. The previous incorrect figure was 2.5%.</em></p>
<p><em>This graphic is part of <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/royal-commission-special-report">a special report</a> marking the 25th anniversary of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody. <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/royal-commission-special-report">Check out the rest of the package</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/57821/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
In the 25 years since the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody, we’ve gone backwards.Reema Rattan, Global Commissioning EditorWes Mountain, Social Media + Visual Storytelling EditorLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/574912016-04-13T20:15:47Z2016-04-13T20:15:47ZHow ‘tough on crime’ politics flouts death-in-custody recommendations<p>Whatever might be said about its successes and failures, it’s clear that 25 years after the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody <a href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/other/IndigLRes/rciadic/">tabled its final report</a>, Australia has become much less compassionate, more punitive and more ready to blame individuals for their alleged failings. </p>
<p>Nowhere is this more clear than in our desire for punishment. A harsh criminal justice system – in particular, more prisons and people behind bars – has apparently become a hallmark of good government.</p>
<p>This wasn’t always the case. But it just so happened that the royal commission handed down its findings at a time when the politics of law and order was rapidly changing. </p>
<h2>Reform to intolerance</h2>
<p>The 1970s through to the late 1980s was a period of criminal justice reform. Decriminalisation of certain types of summary offences, such as public drunkenness and prostitution; a commitment to reducing prison numbers through the introduction of community service orders and other non-custodial sentencing options; the development of mental health services for offenders; specific programs for women prisoners; and improved conditions for prisoners more generally: these were <a href="http://researchonline.jcu.edu.au/24468/">key parts of the political agenda</a>. </p>
<p>But, by the late 1980s and early 1990s, changing political conditions were <a href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/journals/AUIndigLawRw/2011/2.html">no longer conducive to effective reform</a> of the criminal justice system.</p>
<p>By the 1990s, state and territory governments no longer spoke of reducing prison numbers, but rather of <a href="http://researchonline.jcu.edu.au/24468/">the need to lock more people away</a>. </p>
<p>This move toward “law and order” responses manifested in:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>increased police powers, particularly in relation to public order;</p></li>
<li><p>“zero tolerance”-style laws that <a href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/journals/UWALawRw/1999/10.pdf">increased the use of arrest or detention</a> for minor offences;</p></li>
<li><p><a href="http://www.aic.gov.au/media_library/publications/tandi_pdf/tandi138.pdf">mandatory prison sentences</a> for various offences (particularly in the Northern Territory and Western Australia);</p></li>
<li><p>controls over judicial discretion through the introduction of mandatory minimum terms of imprisonment; </p></li>
<li><p>a growing use of remand and <a href="https://theconversation.com/not-for-punishment-we-need-to-understand-bail-not-review-it-28651">restrictions on bail eligibility</a>; </p></li>
<li><p>longer terms of imprisonment for a range of offences, most recently <a href="https://www.crimejusticejournal.com/article/view/145">New South Wales’ so-called “one-punch laws”</a>; </p></li>
<li><p>more people <a href="http://researchonline.jcu.edu.au/24468/">sentenced to prison than non-custodial options</a>; and </p></li>
<li><p><a href="http://researchonline.jcu.edu.au/24468/">changes to parole and post-release surveillance</a>, which have made parole more difficult to obtain and easier to revoke.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>There was <a href="http://researchonline.jcu.edu.au/24468/">both a judicial and political perception</a> of the need for “tougher” penalties, often based on political expedience and media-fuelled public alarm over particular crimes. </p>
<p>While these administrative, legal and technical changes contributed to increasing prison numbers, they also reflected a less tolerant and more punitive approach to crime and punishment. </p>
<p>Put bluntly, the last 25 years have seen a spectacle of punishment most graphically illustrated in climbing imprisonment rates. And these changes were directly in opposition to the fundamental findings of the royal commission, which advocated a reduction in Indigenous imprisonment rates. </p>
<h2>Self-fulfilling practices</h2>
<p>The Australian prison estate <a href="http://www.pc.gov.au/research/ongoing/report-on-government-services">now costs well over A$3 billion a year</a> to operate. And building a prison <a href="http://researchonline.jcu.edu.au/24468/">can cost between $500 million and $1 billion</a>, depending on its location, security level and size. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/118520/original/image-20160413-23623-r623yj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/118520/original/image-20160413-23623-r623yj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=365&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/118520/original/image-20160413-23623-r623yj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=365&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/118520/original/image-20160413-23623-r623yj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=365&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/118520/original/image-20160413-23623-r623yj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=459&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/118520/original/image-20160413-23623-r623yj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=459&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/118520/original/image-20160413-23623-r623yj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=459&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Imprisonment rates in Australia are not the result of increased levels of crime, since increases in imprisonment rates have continued while crime rates have levelled or fallen in many categories of crime from 2000.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/710928003/1254166079/">♪ ~/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Such is the financial cost of our commitment to <a href="http://netk.net.au/Prisons/Prisons2.pdf">a system that’s widely ineffective</a> in reducing re-offending, and significantly contributes to the further marginalisation of those who are incarcerated.</p>
<p>These increases in imprisonment in Australia have been paralleled in other countries such as the United Kingdom, the United States, New Zealand and, more recently, Canada. It is <a href="http://researchonline.jcu.edu.au/24468/">arguably their embrace of the neoliberal agenda</a> that has led these countries down the path of a harsher approach to crime and punishment. </p>
<p>In contrast, European jurisdictions that have more social democratic and corporatist forms of government have <a href="http://www.cambridge.org/au/academic/subjects/law/criminal-law/prisoners-dilemma-political-economy-and-punishment-contemporary-democracies?format=PB&isbn=9780521728294">sustained more moderate criminal justice policies</a> and have relied less on exclusionary and punitive approaches to punishment.</p>
<p>But states that experienced a decline in principles and policies reflecting the welfare state and embraced neoliberal notions had a realignment of values and approaches that emphasised “deeds over needs”. </p>
<p>Their focus shifted from rehabilitative goals to an emphasis on deterrence and retribution. Individual responsibility and accountability increasingly became the core of the way justice systems responded to offenders. </p>
<p>Privatisation of institutions and services; widening social and economic inequality; and new or renewed insecurities around fear of crime, terrorism, “illegal” immigrants and racial, religious and ethnic minorities have all impacted the way their criminal justice systems operate. </p>
<p>Completing the cycle, these changes, in turn, <a href="http://oro.open.ac.uk/4385/2/The_globalisation_of_crime_control.pdf">fuelled social demands for authoritarian law-and-order strategies</a>.</p>
<h2>Human warehouses</h2>
<p>In understanding the use of imprisonment, one of the most important points to grasp is that a rising imprisonment rate is not directly or simply related to an increase in crime. </p>
<p>The use of prison is a function of government choices; it reflects government policy and legislation, as well as judicial decision-making. </p>
<p>Imprisonment rates in Australia are <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/Lookup/4530.0Main+Features12013-14?OpenDocument">not the result of increased levels of crime</a>, since increases in imprisonment rates have continued while crime rates have levelled or fallen in many categories of crime from 2000. Similar patterns are <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Spirit_Level:_Why_More_Equal_Societies_Almost_Always_Do_Better">seen internationally</a>. </p>
<p>The growth of the law-and-order agenda has also resulted in far weaker ideological differentiation between major political parties on criminal justice policy. The most politically expedient response to crime is the promotion and implementation of the “toughest” approach. </p>
<p>While conservative political parties may have traditionally appeared to be “tougher” on crime and punishment, many Australian states and territories, such as New South Wales and <a href="http://www.app.unsw.edu.au/section-5-political-timeline-5">the Northern Territory</a>, have <a href="http://www.app.unsw.edu.au/nt-indigenous-imprisonment-rate-compared-australian-imprisonment-rate">sustained and large increases in imprisonment rates</a> under Labor governments.</p>
<p>In the process, prisons have become human warehouses for marginalised peoples, and most particularly Indigenous people. This point is graphically illustrated by the fact that Indigenous men are now <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-12-03/fact-check-aboriginal-men-in-jail-and-university/6907540">more likely to be siting in a prison cell</a> than in a university classroom.</p>
<p><em>This article is part of <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/royal-commission-special-report">a special report</a> marking the 25th anniversary of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody. <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/royal-commission-special-report">Check out the rest of the package</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/57491/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Chris Cunneen receives funding from the Australian Research Council competitive research grants scheme. </span></em></p>Australia has become less compassionate, more punitive and more ready to blame individuals for their alleged failings since the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody.Chris Cunneen, Professor of Criminology, UNSW SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/571092016-04-13T06:36:14Z2016-04-13T06:36:14ZDeaths in custody: 25 years after the royal commission, we’ve gone backwards<p>This week marks 25 years since the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody <a href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/other/IndigLRes/rciadic/">tabled its national report</a>.</p>
<p>With five volumes of research, investigative accounts of 99 deaths in custody, and 339 recommendations, the report was meant to be a blueprint for reducing the disproportionate incarceration of Indigenous Australians and deaths in custody. </p>
<p>But a quarter of a century later, the situation is actually worse.</p>
<h2>The impetus</h2>
<p>In March 1987, the now-defunct <a href="http://archivescollection.anu.edu.au/index.php/aborigines-committee-to-defend-black-rights">Committee to Defend Black Rights</a> began counting Aboriginal deaths in custody as part of a national campaign. It found one Indigenous person died while incarcerated every 11 days. </p>
<p>The 16th person to die from that date – also the last death before the royal commission was announced – was Lloyd James Boney, a 28-year-old man from Brewarrina in northwest New South Wales. The circumstances of Boney’s death and its aftermath were consistent with the pattern of Aboriginal deaths in custody. </p>
<p>On August 6, 1987, Boney was violently arrested by three police officers for breach of bail. He was found dead 90 minutes later, hanging by a football sock in a police cell. </p>
<p>The Police Internal Affairs Branch conducted the investigation into Boney’s death. No attempt was made to separate Boney’s arresting officers between interviews, providing them opportunities for “<a href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/other/IndigLRes/rciadic/individual/brm_ljb/62.html">collusion and reconstruction</a>”.</p>
<p>The local Aboriginal community was suspicious of the police for their role in the death. They believed it to be physically impossible for Boney to have killed himself the way he died due to his intoxicated state. </p>
<p>But the coroner found Boney had committed suicide with “no suggestion at all of foul play”. This led to widespread protests by the community in Brewarrina, as well as Aboriginal organisations nationally. </p>
<p>Four days later, the prime minister, Bob Hawke, announced a royal commission into the deaths of Aboriginal people in custody. The commission began its work in 1989 (after debates <a href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/other/IndigLRes/rciadic/national/vol5/6.html">defining its terms of reference</a>, including what constituted custody). </p>
<h2>The remit</h2>
<p>The commission was asked to examine 99 deaths between 1980 and 1989. It had to consider how and why each person died, including underlying social factors. </p>
<p>The total included 63 people who had died in police custody and 33 in prison, including three in juvenile detention; 88 males and 11 females; and an age range of 14 to 62 years. Half of these people had been removed in childhood from their families by child protection agencies. </p>
<p>The commission investigated each life and the circumstances of each death. It described previous police and coronial inquiries into the deaths as “perfunctory” and “narrow” in focus.</p>
<p>Its final report, tabled on April 15, 1991, found Indigenous people were more likely <em>to die</em> in custody because they were <a href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/other/IndigLRes/rciadic/national/vol1/5.html">more likely <em>to be</em> in custody</a>. Their over-representation in police and prison custody was described as “grossly disproportionate”.</p>
<p>The commission saw the issue as twofold: problems in the criminal justice system; and the reasons for Indigenous people coming into contact with that system. But its dichotomy is false.</p>
<p>The reason many Indigenous people <a href="http://www.naaja.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/IMPRISON-ME-NT-by-Jonathon-Hunyor.pdf">come into contact</a> with the criminal justice system – as identified by the commission itself – is due to how that system defines crime, polices Indigenous people and seeks to “protect” them by placing them in custody (for intoxication, as an example).</p>
<p>Nonetheless, the commission sought to explain Indigenous contact in terms of disadvantage and disempowerment. And many of its recommendations sought to promote Indigenous self-determination in order to strengthen communities and provide services more appropriate to the needs of Indigenous people.</p>
<h2>Prejudice and a lack of care</h2>
<p>In its first task, the commission examined each stage of the criminal justice system. It found Indigenous disadvantage arose from:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>prejudicial policing, especially for minor crimes relating to public order; </p></li>
<li><p>the police tendency to caution, charge and arrest Indigenous people, rather than issue warnings or court attendance notices;</p></li>
<li><p>police and courts not granting bail to Indigenous people; and </p></li>
<li><p>courts sentencing Indigenous people to prison rather than handing down non-prison sentences. </p></li>
</ul>
<p>Accordingly, a series of the commission’s recommendations sought to decriminalise minor offences, uphold the right to bail and ensure arrest and imprisonment were sanctions of last resort.</p>
<p>The commission also found incidents of a lack of care of Indigenous people in custody, as well as police mistreatment and abuse. </p>
<p>Commissioners found sufficient evidence to instigate disciplinary or prosecutorial processes against officers for eight of the investigated deaths. They recommended these cases for referral to the police commissioner to determine appropriate action. No prosecutions ensued. </p>
<p>The first prosecution of a police officer was for the 147th death in custody following the royal commission. In 2007, Sergeant Chris Hurley was charged with causing the death of Mulrunji Doomadgee on Palm Island. He was <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2007/s1957282.htm">controversially acquitted</a>. </p>
<h2>Changing the paradigm</h2>
<p>Indigenous incarceration and police custody rates have actually increased since the royal commission tabled its report. </p>
<p>In 1991, Indigenous people constituted 14% of the prison population (1,100 for every 100,000 Indigeous people in the national population). Today they make up 27% (2,300 for every 100,000). There has been an equivalent increase in unsentenced Indigenous prisoners in remand.</p>
<p>Despite the <a href="http://www.childrenscourt.justice.nsw.gov.au/Documents/chcs16meeting14weatherburn.pdf">misconception among some criminologists</a> that the commission’s recommendations were implemented and failed, its suggestions regarding decriminalisation of minor offences and self-determination were never realised. </p>
<p>Minor public order offences, such as offensive language, continue to be punished. Police powers in relation to public drunkenness and arrest have been extended. The right to bail has been undermined with increasing exceptions (for property offences as an example). Maximum prison penalties and mandatory prison sentences have escalated. </p>
<p>In relation to self-determination, the tendency of the federal government since the mid-1990s has been to: <a href="http://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/Parliamentary_Library/Publications_Archive/CIB/Current_Issues_Briefs_2004_-_2005/05cib04">increasingly mainstream services for Indigenous people</a>; defund <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2016/mar/19/indigenous-organisations-have-been-disadvantaged-by-grants-program?CMP=share_btn_link">Indigenous-run organisations</a> that have expertise in Indigenous safety and well-being; impose top-down policies; and penalise vulnerable Indigenous people (by removing children from their families, criminalising youth and women victims of family violence, and locking up the mentally ill). </p>
<p>The commission’s lessons are more pertinent today than they were in 1991 because the majority of its recommendations remain unimplemented. Its report called for a holistic and systemic approach, but there have only been ad-hoc and provisional piecemeal changes. Unsurprisingly, they’ve had negligible overall effect on reducing deaths in custody. </p>
<p>The 25th anniversary of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody reminds us that nothing less than a paradigm shift will ensure that we won’t be marking another anniversary with even more Aboriginal deaths in custody, as we do this one.</p>
<p><em>This article is part of <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/royal-commission-special-report">a special report</a> marking the 25th anniversary of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody. <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/royal-commission-special-report">Check out the rest of the package</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/57109/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Thalia Anthony receives and has received funding from the Australian Research Council, the Criminology Research Council and the Australasian Institute of Judicial Administration.</span></em></p>The Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody’s report was meant to be a blueprint for reducing the disproportionate incarceration of Indigenous Australians and deaths in custody.Thalia Anthony, Associate Professor in Law, University of Technology SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/428112015-06-10T03:49:45Z2015-06-10T03:49:45ZNSW ditches another protection for Indigenous people in custody<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/84304/original/image-20150609-8711-1r1fa8t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">For a modest amount, the Custody Notification Service provides NSW with one of the most effective strategies in curbing Indigenous deaths in police custody.`</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The federal government is <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-06-03/aboriginal-custody-phone-line-under-threat/6518184">poised</a> to abolish the Custody Notification Service in New South Wales through a funding cut on July 1 – for the sake of saving A$526,000 a year. For that modest amount, the service provides NSW with one of the most effective strategies in curbing Indigenous deaths in police custody.</p>
<p>The service is a telephone hotline that provides Indigenous prisoners in police custody with personal and legal advice. It also ensures that they receive adequate health care while monitoring their treatment by police. </p>
<p>NSW Aboriginal Legal Services CEO Kane Ellis has told me that the service is a “transparency measure” that “increases the professionalism of police”. It provides Indigenous people with assistance that is often:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>… as simple as getting a person essential medication that can save a life. </p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Why the service is essential</h2>
<p>At <a href="http://www.aic.gov.au/publications/current%20series/mr/1-20/20.html">last count in 2013</a>, Indigenous deaths in custody had spiked to all-time highs in other states and territories where the service has not been implemented, as well as among Indigenous prison populations. </p>
<p>However, since the service was implemented in NSW in 2007, the state has had <a href="http://www.aic.gov.au/media_library/publications/mr/20/mr20.pdf">no Indigenous deaths</a> in its police cells, watch-houses and during transport procedures. In that time, other states and territories have recorded 11 Indigenous deaths in police custody.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/other/IndigLRes/rciadic/">Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody</a> in 1991 recommended the establishment of the Custody Notification Service. The reasons why the service must continue reflect the commission’s major findings. These are reasons that state and federal governments have mostly ignored since 1991.</p>
<p>The royal commission found that Indigenous people die in custody at much higher rates than non-Indigenous people. This is primarily because they are taken into custody at much higher rates than non-Indigenous people.</p>
<p>In NSW, <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Lookup/by%20Subject/4517.0%7E2014%7EMain%20Features%7ENew%20South%20Wales%7E10015">rates of Indigenous imprisonment</a> are currently 24%. However, Indigenous people make up less than 2.9% of the <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/3238.0.55.001">population</a>. This is a higher per capita rate than in the <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Lookup/by%20Subject/4517.0%7E2014%7EMain%20Features%7ENorthern%20Territory%7E10021">Northern Territory</a>, where 86% of inmates are Indigenous. Indigenous people comprise 29.8% of the <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/3238.0.55.001">population</a>. </p>
<p>Put differently, in NSW, Indigenous people are more than eight times more likely to be imprisoned than non-Indigenous people. In the Northern Territory, they are less than three times as likely to be imprisoned.</p>
<p>The Custody Notification Service helps prevent Indigenous deaths in both police and prison custody by addressing the problem of over-representation of Indigenous offenders in prison through the provision of legal advice. Such advice usually informs an Indigenous person in custody of their right to silence. This prevents false confessions and unreliable evidence, thereby reducing unfair and unsafe convictions.</p>
<p>The right to silence for Indigenous people remains intact despite recent legislative amendments in NSW <a href="https://theconversation.com/when-you-say-nothing-at-all-nsw-and-the-right-to-silence-12962">restricting the use</a> of this legal right.</p>
<h2>Background to its abolition</h2>
<p>The Carr government implemented the Custody Notification Service as a compulsory custody right in NSW across a range of criminal legislation. Section 33 of the <a href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/nsw/consol_reg/learr2005542/">Law Enforcement (Powers and Responsibilities) Regulation</a> provides that when an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander person is detained in police custody, a custody manager must immediately notify a representative of the Aboriginal Legal Service and inform the prisoner accordingly. </p>
<p>In one <a href="https://www.caselaw.nsw.gov.au/decision/549fe7ad3004262463c33f26">case</a>, Justice Hidden of the NSW Supreme Court found confessional evidence from four Indigenous men was inadmissible as evidence in court because police failed to comply with the Custody Notification Service requirements under the legislation. </p>
<p>In 2013, former NSW attorney-general Greg Smith announced the O’Farrell government’s commitment to these laws. Accordingly, if the service is abolished in practice by funding cuts but remains on the statute books – as it almost certainly will – the NSW government will be faced with the absurd but very real proposition that most confessional evidence from Indigenous people in custody will be rendered inadmissible because police cannot contact an Aboriginal Legal Service representative. </p>
<p>The federal government has regularly contested funding to the Custody Notification Service since 2012. In that year, funding to the service was cut and Aboriginal Legal Service staff were forced to perform unpaid work. They continued to operate the service on a voluntary basis. In 2013, funding to the phone line resumed. </p>
<p>However, requiring the service to operate through the charitable goodwill of its already overworked skeleton staff is an unreasonable and untenable demand.</p>
<p>Rather than abolishing this successful program, governments both state and federal should be implementing and funding more like it nationwide. Without the Custody Notification Service in NSW, deaths of Indigenous people in police custody will almost certainly increase, along with their over-representation in prison.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/42811/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Eugene Schofield-Georgeson has worked as a Solicitor-Advocate for the North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency (NAAJA) and is affiliated with the New South Wales Council for Civil Liberties (NSWCCL).</span></em></p>Without the Custody Notification Service in NSW, deaths of Indigenous people in police custody will almost certainly increase, along with the over-representation of Indigenous people in prison.Eugene Schofield-Georgeson, PhD Candidate, Macquarie Law School, Macquarie UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/252882014-04-23T05:17:57Z2014-04-23T05:17:57ZViolence in Britain: getting away with murder?<p>Over the past ten years, <a href="http://www.inquest.org.uk/statistics/deaths-in-police-custody">519 people have died after contact with the police</a>, either in custody (the great majority) or during a pursuit or another road traffic incident. Some 23 people have been shot by police during the same period.</p>
<p>Rarely are those deaths regarded as a part and parcel of the normal business of policing; they tend to be understood as rare and perhaps as an unfortunate but necessary aspect of police work.</p>
<h2>Strong arm of the law</h2>
<p>In an <a href="http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/polisci/ethos/Weber-vocation.pdf">essay published in 1919</a>, the German sociologist Max Weber showed clearly the centrality of violence to the <em>modus operandi</em> of the modern state. According to Weber, the modern state is defined by its ability to resort to physical force. The power of the state, for Weber, was defined by its monopoly of the legitimate use of force.</p>
<p>The legitimate use of violence by the British state goes largely unchallenged. In all of the recent public discussions about police violence, we have not questioned the principle of the police to decide whether to use force in every situation deemed necessary. No British police officer has ever been sent to jail for killing a member of the public. Custodial sentences for police found guilty of any form of violence are <a href="http://www.opendemocracy.net/opensecurity/deaths-in-british-police-custody-no-convicted-officers-since-1969">very rare</a>. </p>
<p>Even in the most highly publicised cases where extreme police brutality has been filmed, officers are generally not given custodial sentences. In the very recently reported case of <a href="http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/video-grandad-who-sued-merseyside-6853794">Frank Fearon</a> and <a href="http://www.channel4.com/news/policeman-gets-community-service-for-assault-on-woman-video-james-kiddie-video">Sarah Reed</a>, a member of the public could not have escaped prison for such brutality without a major outcry. A string of failures in the Independent Police Complaints Commission and other police accountability mechanisms in the past couple of years have <a href="http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201213/cmselect/cmhaff/494/49411.htm">grossly undermined their credibility</a>. </p>
<h2>Military-industrial complex</h2>
<p>The same goes for the deployment of state violence abroad. A report by <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/ng-interactive/2014/feb/11/britain-100-years-of-conflict">The Guardian</a> recently noted that Britain has been involved in active military combat somewhere in the world in every calendar year since 1914.</p>
<p>Like those faced with police violence, anyone who has faced violence at the hand of the military knows what this means, if you survive to make a complaint. The chances of military tribunal for soldiers in conflict are low, and again only occur in the most extreme cases where there is indisputable evidence, such as in the case of <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-25266206">Alexander Blackman</a>.</p>
<p>Of course, for any law enforcement or military structure to work, there needs to be some recourse to violence. The authority retained by state institutions and other powerful institutions to deploy violence is hugely destructive. In criminology, it is now accepted as an article of faith that governments, state institutions and private corporations together kill more people, maim more people and steal from more people – many times over – than individuals. </p>
<p>The UN Office on Drugs and Crime estimated the total number of homicides as around <a href="http://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/data-and-analysis/statistics/crime/global-study-on-homicide-2011.html">half a million a year</a>; <a href="http://www.ilo.org/public/english/region/eurpro/moscow/areas/safety/statistic.htm">International Labour Organisation</a> data shows that five times as many people are killed by working; and the <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2014/03/25/health/who-air-pollution-deaths/">World Health Organisation</a> estimates that more than 14 times as many people are killed by illnesses caused by pollution than are killed by homicides.</p>
<h2>Corporate violence</h2>
<p>The immediate causes of most deaths caused by working are wholly avoidable (as are many of those caused by air pollution), but result directly from decisions taken by managements in corporations and state institutions. Weber, writing in the earlier 20th century, could not have foreseen the mass expansion of the private profit-making corporation as a key institution in modern societies. Yet, it is clear that corporations, under licence granted by states, are major authors of violence. Indeed, corporations are <a href="http://oro.open.ac.uk/36503/">responsible for the bulk of deaths</a> caused by working, and caused by pollution.</p>
<p>Take, for example, two recent examples of mass killings in the <a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/news/asia/2014/02/bangladesh-factory-owners-face-fire-charges-2014299423721780.html">Bangladeshi</a> and <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/13/world/asia/hundreds-die-in-factory-fires-in-pakistan.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0">Pakistani</a> garment industries respectively. In each of those cases, imminent dangers to workers were known about by managers and by some of the European retail outlets being supplied the garments, and yet managements and the clothing retailers exhibited wilful blindness in the general aim of maintaining high profits. </p>
<p>No company director sets out in the morning to intentionally kill workers. Yet directors do very often set out in the morning to make decisions that cut margins, intensify production conditions or cut back on working conditions. A more routine and premeditated form of violence than you get from cases of inter-personal violence. But the victims suffer deaths that are every bit as violent and painful.</p>
<p>When we begin to explore deadly consequences of corporate activities we find violence writ large. Of course, some of the beneficiaries of the appalling conditions endured by third-world workers in the garment industry are <a href="http://www.itv.com/news/story/2013-10-09/9-dead-in-bangladesh-factory-fire/">first-world high street brands</a>. British oil companies are regularly accused of the destruction of local habitats and the poisoning of communities in <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/08/05/us-nigeria-oilpollution-idUSBRE87408Q20120805">West Africa</a> and of benefiting from paramilitary violence in <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/bp-pays-out-millions-to-colombian-farmers-408816.html">Latin America</a>; British agibusiness <a href="http://www.globalwitness.org/Liberia/EPO">abuses human rights in Africa</a>; British mining companies rely upon the <a href="http://www.waronwant.org/campaigns/corporations-and-conflict/mining-conflict-and-abuse/inform/14777-anglo-american-the-alternative-report">brutal suppression of local people in order to flourish</a>. </p>
<p>And so on, and on.</p>
<p>In the business of war, Britain is proud of its leading role. It has one of the largest arms manufacturing industries in the world and the second biggest private military sector; almost a third of all registered private military companies are <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/promoting-high-standards-in-the-uk-pmsc-industry">headquartered in the UK</a>. Violence is indeed big business in Britain.</p>
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<p><em>A conference in Liverpool on May 16 – <a href="http://www.crimeandjustice.org.uk/civicrm/event/info?id=35">How Violent is Britain?</a> – will examine this issue in detail. This is the first in a series of articles on this theme on The Conversation.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/25288/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Whyte does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Over the past ten years, 519 people have died after contact with the police, either in custody (the great majority) or during a pursuit or another road traffic incident. Some 23 people have been shot by…David Whyte, Reader in Sociology, University of LiverpoolLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.