The National Congress of Australia’s First Peoples (NCAFP) has been pushing for Justice Reinvestment to get its opportunity in the face of a rising prison population and rising incarceration rates for Aboriginal peoples.
There is a whole of nation movement among human rights organisations and groups for the implementation of Justice Reinvestment. The cultural wave for such change has been building for quite some time while the horror incarceration rates Australia’s Aboriginal peoples endure have not been reduced in the last two decades, in fact many statistics have gotten worse.
It has got to a point that something has to give in face of the obvious failures of the penal estate. Increasing numbers of parliamentarians have been jumping on the bandwagon for the long over due shot that Justice Reinvestment has been begging for. Federal Senator Penny Wright is chairing a National Inquiry on Justice Reinvestment.
The NCAFP stated that all of Australia’s jurisdictions must commit to Justice Reinvestment. Last week the NCAFP’s Tammy Solonec appeared before a Senate Inquiry and said that Governments needed to commit to Justice Reinvestment if there is to be any hope for reduction in the over-representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in this nation’s prisons.
Tammy Solonec
Ms Solonec told the Senate Inquiry that Justice Reinvestment has a localised approach which hence can fit the needs and situation unique to each community.
“Justice Reinvestment presents a unique opportunity to have Aboriginal communities involved at every step of the way in identifying and implementing solutions to deal with over-representation within our own communities,” said NCAFP co-chair Jody Broun. “The local approach of Justice Reinvestment would be strengthened by the national implementation of Closing the Gap justice targets that Congress has previously called for. To halve the rates of incarceration for our peoples and to halve the rate at which our peoples report having experienced physical or threatened violence within the past 12 months.”
NCAFP co-chair Les Malezer said their submission to the Senate Inquiry details how Justice Reinvestment addresses both the cause and effect of Aboriginal peoples interaction with the justice system.
“It does not mean reduced police intervention and protection for victims of crime but using resources in a more efficient manner, which is crucial when it comes to dealing with violence against Aboriginal women and children.”
“Top down approaches have never been successful or been owned by communities, solutions that make the most of the strengths and knowledge within our communities have a much greater chance of success,” said Mr Malezer.
NCAFP director and the convenor of their Justice Working Group, Tammy Solonec presented the submission to the Inquiry while it was in Perth.
Ms Solonec said the four key points of the NCAFP’s submission are backed by Congress members and the Justice Working Group.
“The Congress submission calls for a commitment to Justice Reinvestment by the Federal and all State and Territory Government (for) the establishment of a national approach to data collection on justice indicators, and for funding and operational support for analysis and implementation of community-led Justice Reinvestment programs in targeted communities,” said Ms Solonec.
The Australian prison population has doubled from 15,000 in 1993 to 31,000 in 2013. More than a quarter of the Australian prison population are Aboriginal peoples despite only being less than 3 per cent of the total Australian population. Australia incarcerates its Aboriginal peoples at rates higher than anywhere else in the world.
The current reality of indigenous incarceration and the horrific numbers of our young men in prisons stem from the ongoing practices of institionalisation/colonisation, that stemed from the Native Welfare Act, which gave rights to forcibly remove Aboriginal children from their parents into State run christian missions.
The political strategy and agenda for this inhumane practice was to allow white Australian interests to remove any Aboriginal occupancy on land that challenged the industrial stealing of the minerals that creates the wealth and affluency of the white Australian lifestyle that is now second only to Norway.
Aboriginal impoverishment is listed as 127th in the worlds scale of economies, the disparity between this difference obviously reflects the reason why so many of our people are in prisons.
We believe the incarceration of Aboriginal people is a direct capitalised exploitation of an economical gain, as when one black man is jailed ten white men get rich.
This includes the Attorney Generals department, Judges, Lawyers, service provision companies, through to counsellors, and countless others.
This is indicative of where currently as oppposed to the needed and vital resources to counter the epidemics of mental health repucussions, such as self injury and what is now reported to be the worlds leading statistcs of suicide being experienced by our people.
The Government has prioritised the building of a new prison in Derby where predominatley resides the vast majority of Aboriginal people who will make up the inmate populations.
Whilst recently visiting inmates at the Acacia prison, Hakeia, Bandiyup Women’s prison including the maximum security units it was bought to the attention of Dumbartung that many Aboriginal prisoners DID NOT EVEN KNOW WHY THEY WERE IN PRISON OR ON REMAND AND WHAT THE CHARGES ARE.
Dumbartung cordinated a comprehensive community meeting and Rally called the Djidar Boodja Rally it was expressed at that gathering by Nyoongah people that the way forward to alleviate the impoverishment and incarceration of our people is to reach an agreement as part of the Native Tile deal an ongoing perpetual 5% of the Gross Domestic Product of the South West, we also believe that the mandatory laws of the state including the three stikes and your in for twelve months be abolished from state legisliation laws.
The rally clearly indicated the need of our Human Rights to be at the forefront of change whilst this deal is negotiated (WHERE WAS CONGRESS OR THEIR SO CALLED COMMUNTY CONSULTATION PROCESS DURING THIS GATHERING OR MARTAGARUP?).
As these issues related directly to cultural protection and the presevation of our Sacred land and water ways.
There needs to be a Human Rights Act including an intoxicated peoples Act.
This we believe would lead to lesser incarceration rates amongst our people.
We believe that reinvesting in proper Aboriginal cultural and spiritual initiatives such as traditional healing centres that creates the opportunity for ongoing traditional cultural practices this will allow our people to again become the Fathers and the Mothers they were born to be.
The so called closing the gap initiatives inclusive of the mental health area has only resulted in mainstream agencies capatalising and benefiting from the financial exploiation of Aboriginal funding no resources of the closing the gap initiatives have reached the grass roots level where Aboriignial people are able to implement programs that serve our right to self detremination.
This is partculary evident in where in excess of $655.2 million in 2012-2013 was budgeted to offset issues relating to menatl health and drug and alcohol programs.
”THIS UNPRECEDENTED LEVEL OF FUNDING IS THE LARGEST INVESTMENT IN MENTAL HEALTH AND DRUG AND ALCOHOL, SERVICES IN WA’s HISTORY.”
Today our community is experiencing it’s darkest history where the incarceration rates of Nyoongah men from the South west of Australia are the highest incarcerated male population per head per capita of any race of peoples on the planet.
Our rates of suicide are the highest in the world so the question begs to be answered why is the initiative of this so called closing the gap funding not working and what is it that continously betrays our People?
Dumbartung Aboriginal Corporation
MAY OUR CAMPFIRES BURN FOREVER