Western Australia and the Northern Territory record the highest death rates of First Peoples in police custody. The arrest rates of First Peoples in Western Australia and the Northern Territory are the highest in the nation. The imprisonment rates of First Peoples in Western Australia and the Northern Territory are the highest in the nation – from a racialized lens, these rates are among the highest in the world. A number of police custodial deaths of First Peoples are once again flickering attention to the deplorably disproportionate death in custody rates of First Peoples.
Recently, a 22-year-old woman, Ms Dhu, died needlessly in a police lockup in South Hedland, Western Australia. She had been the victim of a domestic violence incident but instead of being assisted in all ways one would imagine she was instead detained for ‘unpaid fines’. It is also nearly two years since the death of a 44-year-old Kimberley woman, Ms Mandijarra who died in a Broome police cell. But nearly two years later the mandatory report into this death-in-custody has not eventuated. It is fast approaching to ten years since the death of Mulrunji at Palm Island but despite the high profile tragedy there have been next-to-nothing positive changes to custodial protocols. I have argued for the roll-out of the Custody Notification Service (CNS) across the nation. It has been in place in NSW since 1998. Since then then there have been no deaths in a police watch-house of First Peoples. Had the CNS been in place in Queensland at the time of Mulrunji’s arrest he would still be alive. The police would have had to make contact with the CNS as a must-do first port of call after his arrest.
It is an indictment of governments that little has been done to exact vital changes to custodial protocols. It is an indictment that so few lessons are learned after each death in custody.
In fact, police custodial deaths of First Peoples are on the rise. Police officers need some assistance here, they need governments to do their job and implement protocols to assist them. They need governments to not penny-pinch and instead implement for instance the CNS. It costs NSW a paltry half a million dollars per year – peanuts! Every State and Territory can afford this.
Hundreds of millions of dollars were spent on a Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody (1987-1991) and yet governments beat around the bush on the recommendations. They cannot scrub up hundreds of thousands of dollars or several million dollars each year to implement vital life-saving recommendations.
According to the Australian Institute of Criminology’ national deaths in custody monitoring program from 1980 to 2011 there have been 2,319 deaths in custody.
1,393 were prison deaths in custody and 903 were police custody deaths. 18 deaths were in juvenile custody and 5 were in AFP related custodial operations.
81 per cent of the total deaths in custody were of non-Aboriginal Australians – 1,870 deaths. 19 per cent of the total deaths were of First Peoples – 449 deaths. However First Peoples are less than 3 per cent of Australia’s total population. The median age of Australians is 37 years, however of First Peoples it is 20 years of age. Nearly 60 per cent of the population of First Peoples have been born since the end of the Royal of Commission.
29 per cent of the total Australian prison population is comprised of First Peoples. This is a national disgrace and racialized imprisonment. My research argues that 1 in 54 of First Nations adults are in prison, with one in 20-something having experienced prison. What needs to be understood is that despite the Final Report of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody, more than two decades ago, the crude totals of deaths in custody continue. Arrest, detainment and incarceration of First Peoples rise each year – record levels. The arrest rates of First Peoples are highest in Western Australia and in the Northern Territory – from a racialized lens they are among the world’s highest.
Whereas prison custodial deaths have steadied at times over the last 30 years, police custodial deaths nationally have not, with Western Australia and the Northern Territory the brunt. Police custodial deaths for First Peoples, and for all Australians, have gone up since the RCIADC instead of down!
According to the Australian Institute of Criminology, in 2009, First Peoples accounted for 22 per cent of police custodial deaths, 22 per cent again in 2010, 29 per cent in 2011. Head injuries and multiple traumas were significant contributors to some of these deaths.
Of the 903 police custodial deaths from 1980 to 2011, 203 of them have been of First Peoples. This equates to 26 per cent of police custodial deaths comprising of First Peoples, whereas in prison custodial deaths First Peoples account for 19 per cent of the total prison deaths over this period. Therefore it is more likely for a First Nations person to die in police custody than in prison custody. Why?
According to the Australian Institute of Criminology, nationally there was one death in police custody of a First Nations person in 1980. This rose to 15 in 1987, the year the RCIADC was launched. When the Final Report was delivered five years later there had been five deaths of First Peoples in police custody. Were lessons learned? In 2003 there were 11 deaths, in 2004 there were 10, in 2005 there were 11. In these three years all police custodial deaths numbered 42, 41 and 42 respectively.
In the least the Custody Notification Service needs to be rolled out nationally.
Read more:
In the name of Julieka Dhu the custody notification service should be rolled out nationally
Unpaid fines destroy lives with jail time
22 year old police death in custody should not have occurred
Death in police custody – cusody notification service should be implemented
The Stringer’s Editorial Policy declares its writers are “experts”. I like reading experts and I’ve been lucky enough to read many since 1980. The thing about experts is they’re generally cautious. When they speak with confidence it is rare and you take notice. Frequently dogmatic writers are rarely experts. Gerry’s writing is frequently dogmatic.
He’s been pushing Custody Notification Service – an OK idea to me. He says it’s a 24/7 phone line to the ALS which NSW police have to ring immediately and allow to talk to the detainee. He says “had the CNS been in place in Queensland at the time of Mulrunji’s arrest he would still be alive.” Not “might” – “would.” Skimming the coroner’s report I recollect the fatal crushing blow was in a 10 sec struggle as he was being taken into the police station. Mulrunji was beyond help before a cop could have made it to the phone. He’s also written the tragic Ms Dhu might have been hospitalized with such an advocate. I can imagine a lawyer’s words carrying weight in legal matters. I can see it ensuring detainees get taken to hospital – but the police did that 3 times. I can’t see any lawyer’s words counting to nurses and doctors as they decide if Ms Dhu – or anyone – gets admitted to hospital. That’s a medical decision.
But for being dogmatic and wrong via biased credulity top billing goes to his repeated claim that since that since CNS it was introduced in NSW in 1998 “there have been no deaths in a police watch-house of First Peoples.” There’s a wise saying that if something sounds too good to be true it probably isn’t. And so it turns out.
This error is made clear in the latest report of the Aust. Institute of Criminology’s Deaths in Custody Monitoring Program – the very body and report he refers to. And rightly so: this mob’s work is gold-standard. They’re high powered criminologists who really understand statistics and unlike Gerry have no partisan axe to grind. This links to the most recent 3 year set of data. http://www.aic.gov.au/publications/current%20series/mr/1-20/20.html. If you go to page 81 (table 58) you’ll find (if you can add) that from Jun 1999 to Jun 2011 there were 141 “Category 1” Deaths in Police Custody. These deaths are ‘close’ as in lock ups or raids and not ‘far’ as in car pursuits and sieges. With 141 deaths do people think they’d be NO deaths in our largest state? Really?? Perhaps winning prizes lulls journalists into feeling they no longer need to check sources.
In fact this very report proves this wrong. Table 68 on Page 121 gives a list of deaths by location and in 2008-9 we read that NSW had 1 death in police custody in a ‘cell’. With 1 death in 3 years it’s highly likely there’s been at least one in the previous 9 years when NSW had the CNS. Please note this implausible and 100% wrong claim is not a ‘one off’ or minor illustration. He’s hammered it repeatedly. Indeed in his last piece 22/8/2014 in a personal exchange (15/9) he repeated it and said to me “so go figure eh?”. Well Gerry, perhaps you should.
I wait with interest to see how Gerry & Stringer respond.
Hi Michael, you are wrong. If I was wrong, I’d correct the record as I do. You have rightly quoted me in reference to the Custody Notification Service implemented in NSW hence 1998, “there have been no deaths in a police watch-house of First Peoples.” This is correct. You have misunderstood the data from the Australian Institute of Criminology’s Deaths in Custody Monitoring Program which indeed is correct. You also need to check the validity of above quote by me with the Aboriginal Legal Service NSW/ACT if you want to continue to disagree with it. You can contact the NSW Police Service if you are not satisfied. There have been no deaths in NSW police watch-houses of any First Nations people since 1998. The Australian Institute of Criminology Deaths in Custody Monitoring Program Table 58 that you refer to is an aggregation of national data of all (First Peoples and non-Aboriginal) deaths in police custody and police custody related operations 1979-80 to 2010-11. It was an inappropriate reference to use Michael as it has nothing to do with NSW police watch house data 1998 to the present. Table 63 would have been a more suitable but nevertheless inconclusive reference for you – from 1989-90 to 2010-11, as it at least disaggregates First Peoples and non-Aboriginal deaths in custody, police custodial and police custody related operations but once again the data is not disaggregated by location in reference to jurisdiction. Your reference to Table 68 is misunderstood by you, if not intentionally misrepresented by you which I believe you have just only misunderstood. The Table refers to deaths in police custody and related operations by location and classification for the periods 2008-09, 2009-10, 2010-11. There were no police cell deaths in NSW of anyone in two of those periods but there was a death in custody in a NSW police cell in 2008-09. You are wrong that this was a First Nations person. It was not. The CNS Service is for First Nations people. In that same period there was only one other police lockup death and that was in the Northern Territory. If you scroll down to the end of the Table you will read that there were two police cell deaths during this period nationally, one in the NT, one in NSW, only one of a First Nations person and the other one non-Aboriginal. I know who the First Nations person was who died in a police cell in the NT in that year. I restate what I and of course the ALS NSW/ACT state, that since the implementation of the CNS in NSW, there have been no police watch house deaths of a First Nations person. Do not mix up police related operations with police watch houses.
I do not agree with your arguments about Ms Dhu and her detainment. In my view she should not have been detained and I do believe that a stout CNS advocate would have ensured that she would not have been detained on unpaid fines. Ms Dhu should have been provided with crisis care, medical care, various support. More will unfold. Many police have told me that they would like to have a CNS (especially West Australian and Northern Territory police) to relieve them of various judgment calls and that it would be holistically an improved protocol. Furthermore I disagree with your view of how Mulrunji came to sadly pass. However I will limit my response to correcting only your misinterpretations from The Tables you referred to.
Much respect, kindly, Gerry
Hi Gerry. RE THE REPORT How embarrassing! I gave you the wrong table! It should be table 68 not 58. Table 68 does give the death in custody in a cell in NSW in 2008-9, though I now see it doesn’t give ethnic status. I concede his table doesn’t refute your statement.
Nevertheless an impartial look at the most recent Deaths in Custody report suggests you didn’t read it carefully or chose rather too carefully. For starters, it shows you can’t use Deaths Police Custody going back to 1980 because in 1990 they expanded the definition (page 79). It also shows Death’s in Police Custody are inferior to Prison Deaths because they’re only crude numbers, rather than statistically corrected death rates. (page xv) This means you can’t really do the sort of analysis in your 2nd last paragraph. Nevertheless non-statistically minded readers of your “Therefore it is more likely for a First Nations person to die in police custody than in prison custody” may be surprised to know in the latest 3 year data set there were 23 indigenous deaths in Police Custody and 32 in prisons. (Table 1 p xi)
This however is what the Executive Summary say on Police Deaths in Custody (page xix). After reporting the death rate in Indigenous prisoners at near all time lows it says. “Deaths in police custody and custody-related operations exhibit a different trend to that seen in prison custody deaths. Following a spike in Indigenous deaths between 2002–03 and 2004–05, annual totals have returned to levels seen in the late1990s and early 2000s”
A person reading your piece would not possibly get this message. You in fact say things are going up and use an explanation mark.
The next part of the paragraphs is also telling. “Since 1989–90, analysis of the data showed that Indigenous persons were more likely to die in a custody-related operation such as a motor vehicle pursuit or siege, rather than die in an institutional setting such as a police cell or watch house.”.
In fact in the 3 most recent years given only 6/21of Indigenous deaths in police custody died in close proximity to the police (9 died in car pursuits). While I think the Custodial Notification System is worth trying it would surely be irrelevant in 15/21 (71%) of these deaths. This change also reveals some lessons have been learned. The report shows ‘close deaths’ have been steadily declining and suggest it shows reduced hanging points (hangings are down) and better assessment of at risk inmates. supervision . That’s what the report suggested (page 138).
Finally when are you going to tell the audience the less reported finding of the Royal Commission? Indigenous prisoners don’t die at higher rates – the numbers only reflect the high numbers in prison in the first place. This truth is not known to most pro-indigenous activists.
Michael, the CNS is about police watch houses or lockups. It is about those arrested and their immediate rights. It is not about other police custodial related operations. About the likelihood of where someone may be at risk is relative to time and vulnerability. In reference to statistics they are measured over the period of a year, however the general stay of anyone in a police watch house is days at most whereas prison is months and years. If someone dies in a police lock up it is therefore generally within 48 hours following arrest or detainment. An unnatural death, a suicide, a suspicious death is more likely therefore in a police cell than in a prison cell or prison where there are significant proportion of natural deaths. Yes, the CNS is worthwhile. In reference to your last comment that most people do not understand that First Peoples do not die at higher rates than non-Aboriginal inmates this is a little more complex than meets the eye. I have often published the statistics – that thereabouts 81 per cent of prison deaths are of non-Aboriginal inmates, 19 per cent are First Peoples. Of course this fluctuates year by year but it is thereabouts 5:1 however First Peoples are as proportion of the total Australian population First Peoples are 33:1. But if 72 per cent of the prison population is non-Aboriginal but the death rate is 81 per cent of the total prison population then it appears that non-Aboriginal people die at higher rates. My Masters and PhD research were Australian Deaths in Custody, I care about everyone. However 60 per cent of the First Peoples population is less than 21 years of age, whereas the non-Aboriginal age median is 37 years of age. Similarly the prison population has an age divide between First Peoples and non-Aboriginal and therefore it would more likely that non-Aboriginal inmates would have a greater likelihood of death in prison. So in reference to the young ages of First Peoples dying in prison, categorically that is arguably a higher trend than for non-Aboriginal prisoners. A huge majority of the First Peoples prison population are in for relative short sentences. Research is needed to compare length of sentences to death rates, and age groupings to death rates, and other data to be disaggregated but rest assured, and I assume you will check, First Peoples die at younger ages in prison than do non-Aboriginal inmates. My friend, prison is not a rehabilitative experience, this is evidenced by the post-release suicides and drug-related deaths and deaths by misadventure, and by the high reoffending rates. Prison is not restorative or humane, it is punitive, and to paraphrase Dostoevsky, if you want to know the heart and soul of a nation then visit its prisons and you will now the heart and soul of the nation. Do you want to keep on filling prisoners with people we can help and with broken lives that need repair and not more heartache?
WGAR News: Justice for Julieka Campaign: Deaths In Custody Watch Committee WA
https://indymedia.org.au/2015/02/06/wgar-news-justice-for-julieka-campaign-deaths-in-custody-watch-committee-wa
Contents:
* Bulletin: January edition of the Deaths In Custody Watch Committee WA Inc ‘iNSiDE Out’ E-Bulletin
* Campaign: Deaths In Custody Watch Committee WA: Justice for Julieka Campaign
* Petition: Deaths In Custody Watch Committee WA: Petition in relation to the Death in Police Custody of 22 year old Ms Dhu
* News: Amy McQuire, New Matilda: Julieka Dhu’s Family Slams Barnett Govt Over Death In Custody And Town Closures
* News: Human Rights Law Centre: Still no answers for the family of Julieka Dhu
* News: Caitlyn Gribbin, ABC News: Ms Dhu’s family call for urgent inquest into Aboriginal woman’s death in police custody
* Audio: Warren Barnsley and ABC News, NIRS: Calls for answers on Ms Dhu’s death continue six months later [Featuring Ms Dhu’s grandmother, Carol Roe]
* Analysis / Opinion: Gerry Georgatos, The Stringer: Family of Ms Dhu still waiting for answers
* Analysis / Opinion: Nancy Jeffrey, The Daily Telegraph: Statistics that tell us things have to change
* Analysis / Opinion: Chris Sarra, The Guardian: We must look to our humanity to solve the crisis of Indigenous incarceration
* Audio: Jordan Curtis, The Wire: Campaign to lower young indigenous incarceration [Featuring Sarah Hopkins, Chairperson of Just Reinvest & Mick Gooda]
* Analysis / Opinion: Jason Thomas, SBS News: How much does it cost to keep people in Australian jails?
* Analysis / Opinion: PS News: Call for justice on legal aid cuts
* News: Land Rights News – Northern Edition: APONT raises concerns over youth in detention
* Analysis / Opinion: John B. Lawrence SC, Land Rights News – Northern Edition: Lock-up mania: NT leads the world
* Analysis / Opinion: Gerry Georgatos, The Stringer: 11 years on, the protests remain large but no justice for TJ Hickey family
* WGAR Background: Justice Reinvestment, Aboriginal imprisonment and Aboriginal deaths in custody
Aboriginal imprisonment and Aboriginal Deaths in Custody
WGAR News: Land Grab In The Outback: Australia Unites Against Genocide of First Peoples with Gerry Georgatos and Elders: Global Freedom Movement Media
https://indymedia.org.au/2015/04/16/wgar-news-land-grab-in-the-outback-australia-unites-against-genocide-of-first-peoples
Contents:
* Extended Insightful Audio/Video Interview: Aimee Devlin & Brendan D. Murphy, Global Freedom Movement Media:
Land Grab In The Outback: Australia Unites Against Genocide of First Peoples with Gerry Georgatos and Elders [Featuring Bella & Herbert Bropho] …
* News Analysis: NACCHO Health & Justice News: Aboriginal Deaths in Custody 24th anniversary but still in crisis
* News Analysis: NACCHO Prison Health News: Prisons are a poor substitute for primary and mental health care
* News Analysis: Melissa Sweet, Croakey – the Crikey health blog: Change the narrative to stop Aboriginal incarceration
* News Analysis: Gerry Georgatos, The Stringer: We are about to stop jailing fine defaulters – to the critics, do not naively criticise this away …
* WGAR Background: Justice Reinvestment, Aboriginal imprisonment and Aboriginal deaths in custody …