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Articles on Indigenous deaths in custody

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Indigenous community members outside the Victorian coroners court ahead of the release of a report into the death of Veronica Nelson. Tamati Smith/Getty Images

‘Discriminatory impact on First Nations people’: coroner calls for urgent bail reform in Veronica Nelson inquest

Arrested on suspicion of shoplifting and denied bail, Veronica Nelson died alone in a cell. A Victorian coroner has called for urgent reform of the state’s tough bail laws.
Here, where the Black Lives Matter movement has brought focus to First Nations people dying in custody, media attention has been episodic and too often absent. Provided by author

Australia’s news media play an important role reminding the country that Black lives still matter

George Floyd’s death and the US Black Lives Matter movement sparked extensive media attention. Why aren’t Australian Indigenous deaths in custody getting the same amount of media coverage?
Protestors in Perth call for an independent investigation into Ms Dhu’s death. AAP/Jesse Roberts

Why we should honour the humanity of every person who dies in custody

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.
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. Rae Allen/Flickr

Scales of justice still tipped towards police who harm people in their custody

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.
A harsh criminal justice system – in particular, more prisons and people behind bars – has apparently become a hallmark of good government. AAP/Dave Hunt

How ‘tough on crime’ politics flouts death-in-custody recommendations

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.
The Northern Territory’s ‘paperless arrest’ powers are at odds with recommendations by the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody. Shutterstock/Igor Golovniov

Paperless arrests are a sure-fire trigger for more deaths in custody

Northern Territory police powers to make ‘paperless arrests’ are completely contrary to recommendations by the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody, and now the inevitable has happened.

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