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This Annual Report is the third report on the implementation of recommendations from the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody [1]. The Report specifically deals with those recommendations which are the responsibility of the Commonwealth. The report follows the established format of stating the recommendations, providing the Commonwealth's response to the recommendations and updating where appropriate further action that has been undertaken in 1994-1995.
As with the previous Annual Report (1993-1994) entitled Three Years On, the most recent report also contains a chapter which discusses trends in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander deaths in custody and imprisonment rates. The Minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs, Senator John Herron notes in the Foreword to the Report that 'deaths in custody continue to occur in unacceptable numbers. Rates of incarceration of Aboriginal people and Torres Strait Islanders have, if anything, increased since the Royal Commission handed down its report in 1991. The over-representation of Australia's indigenous people in the criminal justice system continues at levels which should not be tolerated in this day and age ...' (p .xv).
The Executive Summary of Chapter One, 'Trends in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Deaths in Custody and Incarceration', which discusses imprisonment and deaths in custody, is reproduced below.
This chapter has been prepared by the Australian Institute Of Criminology. It implements the Commonwealth's responses to the Royal Commission's Recommendations 41 and 47, under which the Institute is responsible for producing an annual report covering two specific areas, namely trends in Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal deaths in custody and trends in the extent of incarceration of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people in prison, juvenile correctional institutions and police lockups.
This executive summary presents information, much of it new, on deaths in custody and the levels of over-representation of Australia's indigenous people in prison and police and juvenile corrections custody. It focuses on the most recent data and, where new information is available, updates that provided in the 1993û1994 Annual Report.
During the year ended 30 June 1995, 76 deaths in custody were reported to have occurred throughout Australia. Twenty-one of these occurred in police custody (as defined by the Royal Commission), and 55 in prison custody. There were no deaths of juveniles in the custody of juvenile justice/juvenile welfare agencies. Thirty-nine per cent (30) of the deaths occurred in New South Wales, 21 percent (15) in Queensland, 14 per cent (12) in Victoria and much lower proportions occurred in the other jurisdictions. With the exception of the Australian Capital Territory, at least one custodial death was reported from each of the other States and the Northern Territory during the year. One death was also reported in Western Australia in the custody of the Australian Federal Police.
Custodial authority Aboriginal Other Total
Police 3 18 21
Prison 10 45 55
Juvenile detention - - -
Total 13 63 76
Of the 21 people who died in police custody or in custody-related police operations during the year, seven died in police lock-ups, police vehicles or in hospitals following transfer to or from such settings. Most of the remaining deaths occurred while police officers were in the process of attempting to detain the person, eg. in a siege or pursuit, and a number of these deaths were self-inflicted.
During 1994û1995, of the 76 deaths in custody in Australia, 13 were Aboriginal people and 63 non-Aboriginal. No Torres Strait Islander deaths in custody were reported during the year. Ten of the Aboriginal deaths occurred in prison custody and 3 occurred in police custody. The number of deaths of Aboriginal detainees in police custody (3) declined slightly this year, compared with the previous year (4 deaths). Of the police custody deaths, one occurred in institutional custody and the other two occurred in the process of police officers seeking to detain the person. Significantly, no Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander people were reported to have died in a police lock-up during the year. However, one Aboriginal man died in hospital after transfer from a police lock-up.
Two categories are used in this report for deaths in police custody. These categories are 'deaths in institutional custody' and 'deaths in custody-related police operations'.
This year, the number of Aboriginal deaths in prison custody (10) has also fallen slightly, after three years of steady increase.
The State with the highest number of Aboriginal deaths in custody (5 deaths) was New South Wales. South Australia had the next highest number of Aboriginal deaths in custody (3 deaths). Two Aboriginal deaths occurred in Queensland and one in the Northern Territory, all in prison custody. Victoria and Western Australia recorded one death in custody each, both occurring in police custody. No Aboriginal deaths occurred in police custody in Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania and the Northern Territory. Western Australia, Victoria and Tasmania had no Aboriginal deaths in prison custody.
The pattern for causes of death differs from last year (in which 10 of the 14 Aboriginal deaths were due to natural causes). This year more Aboriginal deaths were self-inflicted (6 deaths from hanging) than from natural causes (5 deaths). The cause of death in the remaining two cases was gunshot (1) and injuries (1).
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people make up only 1.2 per cent of the national adult population, but made up 17 per cent of the year's custodial deaths. Although indigenous and non-indigenous people who are in custody have similar death rates, the fact that indigenous people are grossly over-represented in all forms of custody means that, relative to the general population, they experience much higher levels of custodial death than do non-indigenous people.
Turning to trends in custodial deaths the number of such deaths during the year (76) is substantially lower than that reported for the previous financial year (87). Taking a longer view, since 31 May 1989, the cut-off date for the deaths investigated by the Royal Commission, 75 Aboriginal and 373 non-Aboriginal custodial deaths were reported to have occurred throughout Australia. With regard to Aboriginal people, this is an average of 12.3 deaths annually, compared with an average of 10.5 deaths annually during the period covered by the Royal Commission's investigations. The Royal Commission's final National Report was tabled in the Commonwealth Parliament on 9 May 1991. An average of 12.1 Aboriginal deaths in custody have occurred each year since that date.
Figures for the number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in prison custody derive from the annual National Prison Census. The latest for which data is available was conducted in 1993.
Between the 1992 and 1993 National Prison Censuses, the number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in prison increased by 8.7 per cent. The proportion of Aboriginal prisoners to the total number of prisoners held increased from 14.3 per cent in 1992 to 15.2 per cent in 1993. The proportion of indigenous people in prison was almost nine times their proportion in the total population in 1993.
There was an increase in the number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander prisoners in most Australian jurisdictions between 1988 and 1993, with a one-third increase for the whole of Australia over the period. The largest increase occurred in New South Wales, in which the total number of Aboriginal prisoners increased by 90 per cent.
Levels of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Over-Representation in
Prison,
by Jurisdiction, 30 June 1993
Jurisdiction NSW Vic Qld WA SA Tas NT ACT Aust
Level 10.7 15.2 13.5 21.7 20.3 3.5 10.8 - 14.1
Over-representation ratios i.e. the ratio of the rate of imprisonment of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to the rate of imprisonment for non-indigenous people, continue to be unacceptably high, with a overall over-representation ratio of 14.1, as shown in the table above. When considered by age, the groups with the highest over-representation ratio are 17 and 18 year olds.
For Australia as a whole, one in 69 Aboriginal people aged 17 and above was in prison at the time of the 30 June 1993 Prison Census. Of great concern is the fact that one in 20 Aboriginal 19-24 year old males was in prison in 1993. The State with by far the highest imprisonment rate for Aboriginal people was Western Australia. There, approximately one in 40 Aboriginal people of 17 years of age and over were in prison at the time of the June Census, compared with one in 875 non-Aboriginal People in that State. For Australia as a whole, one in 1,052 non-indigenous people aged 17 years and over were in prison at that time.
Canada and New Zealand also have substantial indigenous populations, and high over-representation ratios. Australia's, however, are substantially higher - 8.9 compared with Canada (4.3) and New Zealand (3.0).
For juveniles held in custody, rates of detention per 100,000 youth population are far higher for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander youth than for non-indigenous youth. Australia-wide, 478.4 indigenous youth per 100,000 youth population were held in juvenile correctional institutions as at March 1994, compared with 25.7 per 100,000 youth population for non-indigenous youth, The State with by far the highest rate of indigenous juvenile detention was Western Australia, with 912.4 per 100,000 youth population.
The over-representation ratio for indigenous juveniles (i.e. the ratio of the rate of indigenous youth per 100,000 youth population over the corresponding rate for non-indigenous youth) stands at 18.6 Australia-wide. Western Australia had a much higher ratio than any other State at 32.4, compared with the lowest figure of 1.9 in the Northern Territory.
No State or Territory regularly publishes information on the number of people it takes into police custody. For this reason, the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody recommended, and all jurisdictions agreed, that the Australian Institute of Criminology (in conjunction with the police services) regularly conduct national surveys of people in police cells The first such survey, the National Police Custody Survey, was conducted, by the Australian Institute of Criminology in August 1988 under the auspices of the Royal Commission, and the second was conducted by the Australian Institute of Criminology in August 1992. Excellent cooperation between the Institute and the eight police services has led to the success of this survey program. The third Survey will be conducted in the month of August 1995.
Now that this Survey has been conducted twice, it is possible to point to changes in the use of police custody over time. Perhaps the most significant conclusion to be drawn from the 1988-1992 comparison is that nationally, the total number of incidents of police custody decreased by 10.2 per cent, Although nationally the custody rate fell by 17 per cent (from 183 per 100,000 to 152 per 100,000), the reduction was not spread evenly among the States and Territories. The only State in which an increase occurred was New South Wales, and that was only 35 cases. (Furthermore, NSW has a relatively low rate of police custody.) Nationally, the custody rate for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people fell by 21 percent over the four years, from 3,539 per 100,000 in 1988 to 2,801 per 100,000 in 1992 - a most noteworthy finding.
Although there was an overall fall in the number of occasions of custody and in the custody rate, the proportion of the total who were Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander people did not fall; indeed, it rose by 0.7 per cent nationally. This national figure conceals important State-by-State differences. The proportion who were Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander fell in Queensland, South Australia and Victoria. (Large percentage reductions also occurred in the Australian Capital Territory and in Tasmania, but the actual numbers involved there were small.) The proportion rose in New South Wales, Western Australia and the Northern Territory.
The most recent national data on police custody has come from the August 1992 National Police Custody Survey. It revealed that, during the survey month, a total of 25,654 occasions of custody (i.e. occasions upon which. people were taken into custody and actually lodged in the police cells) occurred throughout Australia. This included 7,058 Aboriginal custody incidents and 151 of Torres Strait Islander people. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people comprised almost 29 per cent of these incidents, although, as stated above, they comprise only 1.2 per cent of the national adult population.
The level of over-representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in police custody was by a factor of 26 nationally, In other words, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people were held in the cells at a rate 26 times that of non-indigenous people. In Western Australia, the jurisdiction with the highest level of over-representation, indigenous people were taken into custody at a rate 52 times that of non-indigenous people.
The level of over-representation, on a State-by-State basis, are set out in the following table:
Levels of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Over-Representation in
Police Custody,
by Jurisdiction, August 1992
Jurisdiction NSW Vic Qld WA SA Tas NT ACT Aust
Level 15.8 10.2 13.3 51.9 20.9 3.0 14.3 4.4 26.2
While most (88 per cent) of the incidents were the custody of males, Aboriginal women were especially heavily over-represented, comprising more than 44 per cent of the female cases but only 1.2 per cent of the national female population aged 15 years and above.
Approximately 23 per cent of all cases were in custody simply for public drunkenness; the proportion was 42 per cent in the cases of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
Footnotes
[1] 1. Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody, National Report, AGPS, Canberra, 1991.
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