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.
Russell Marks’ Black Lives, White Law is not about solutions; it’s about identifying the problems with Australia’s criminal legal system, and the injustice it does to First Nations people.
There has been a global shift to declare racism a public health crisis. But we need to drill deeper to understand racism, rethink health data and listen to lived experience.
It’s tempting to see the sentencing of Derek Chauvin for the murder of George Floyd as an American phenomenon. But that is to ignore past and present injustice much closer to home.
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?
Despite the disproportionate numbers of Aboriginal people in prisons, there are near to no cultural protocols in place, and chronic illness is often not addressed.
We have a long tradition of royal commissions in Australia — dating back to before federation. But we know from bitter experience they can fail to generate change.
The Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody made recommendations to ensure ethical reporting of these deaths. Despite this, harmful and inaccurate reporting still abounds.
Investigations and inquests that follow a death in custody can offer insight into what happened. But much work is still needed to make these processes transparent and effective.
The 1991 Royal Commission into deaths in custody was preceded by an 1850 inquiry, which recommended that Aboriginal people be released should their health deteriorate in gaol.
Cape York Partnership founder Noel Pearson told Q&A that Indigenous Australians were ‘the most incarcerated people on the planet Earth’. Is that right?
The NT youth justice royal commission’s interim report did not deliver any findings or make any recommendations. Nor did it reflect young people’s personal stories.
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.
The official data show incarceration rates of Indigenous people have doubled since the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody 25 years ago. But the problem may be even worse than that.
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.