Yesterday, ten years ago Mulrunji Doomadgee was bashed to death in a Palm Island police cell. His death is one of many deaths in custody which occurred in either murderous or in the least – dubious circumstances. Despite the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody (RCIADC), deaths in custody continue at inexcusable rates. But the tragedy of deaths in custody is borne by the spiralling imprisonment rates of First Peoples, which are among the world’s highest jailing rates.
Mulrunji was the 147th Aboriginal death in custody since the final report of the RCIADC in 1992. Only months ago, a 22 year old Yamatji woman became thereabouts the 340th Aboriginal death in custody since that 1992 final report. There were 100 thereabouts Aboriginal deaths in custody over a ten year period to 1992, nearly 150 deaths over the next 12 years and nearly 200 deaths in the ten years since Mulrunji’s death.
Amid the rogue bashing deaths of detainees such as of Mulrunji, there are the unnatural death rates – of suicides and of premature deaths from health-related issues compounded by neglect. There is a school of thought that argues that deaths in custody are decreasing but is this really the case? According to the Australian Institute of Criminology’s researchers Matthew Lyneham and Andy Chan there is concern that the actual number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander custodial deaths are rising. The death toll compares and in some years surpasses the annual death toll preceding and just following the RCIADC.
But some argue that the death rate per 100 prisoners has remained relatively stagnant for a long period of time. In no year during the last several decades has the death in custody toll surpassed 0.30 deaths in custody per 100 prisoners, whether Aboriginal or non-Aboriginal. In fact on average the Aboriginal death in custody rate is just under 0.20 per 100 while the non-Aboriginal death in custody rate is just higher than 0.20 per 100 prisoners. But is the Aboriginal death in custody rate lost in the spiralling Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander prison population?
In 1991, Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islanders comprised 14 per cent of the total national prison population. But the Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander prison population proportion has doubled to 28 per cent. Aboriginal and/Torres Strait Islander women comprise 33 per cent of the total women’s prison population. According to the Overcoming Indigenous Disadvantage Report 2014, between 2001 to 2010 the Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander imprisonment rate increased by 57 per cent.
Despite distractive squabbling over whether deaths in custody have increased or decreased or whether there are more White deaths in custody than Black deaths in custody, there are a large number of deaths in custody which are classified in various categories of unnatural deaths. There are youth dying in custody who we should have worked with restoratively rather than punitively. More than 80 per cent of prison custodial deaths are of non-Aboriginal inmates, but non-Aboriginal inmates on average are dying in jail at higher median ages than Aboriginal inmates. If you are less than 25 years of age and you are Aboriginal you are more likely to die in custody than a non-Aboriginal inmate aged less than 25 years. If you are older than 50 years of age and are a non-Aboriginal inmate you are more likely to die in prison than an Aboriginal inmate. It is more likely that someone dying at an age over 50 years will die of natural causes as opposed to the likelihood that someone who died at an age less than 25 years that it shall have been of unnatural causes.
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics the prison population “has been steadily ageing.” The Australian Institute of Criminology stated, “The ageing of Australia’s prisoner population was the focus of a paper produced by Baldawi (2011), where it is observed that over the decade from 2000 to 2010, the number of prisoners aged over 50 years had increased by 37 per cent, with those over 65 years increasing by 142 per cent (Baldawi et al. 2011).”
It is my view that deaths in custody for Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islanders have not decreased but are being lost in statistics, in the deplorable tragedy of the spiralling imprisonment rate. Some of the recommendations from the RCIADC have been implemented – some, but not the majority. Hanging points have been reduced but in the end unless the penal estate takes on a restorative justice methodology – one of healing and of the ways forward for the majority of its inmates then not only will there be a high incidence of suicides pre- and post-release but reoffending will continue to be high. It is my view that in general people come out of prison worse than they went in. The real focus needs to be on the reducing of the will to suicide rather than focusing more on removing an apparent means. The real focus needs to be on restoring people, in assisting them to reclaim a sense of hope and to believe that they can participate in society. We have to drop this preposterous policy that people must be pilloried with punishment. It is a many generations old failed policy. Jails have become factories and warehouses of sickness. The punitive penal estate has failed. Brutalising people, criminalising people only serves to damage them, to remove them from the society best intentions. People should not be so broken that the only remaining identity they see for themselves is one of a life-long criminal.
The Australian Institute of Criminology states, “There is a growing body of evidence that suggests that mental illness, both diagnosed and undiagnosed, is more prevalent in the criminal justice system than in the general community (Australian Institute of Health Welfare 2011, Beyond Bars 2007).”
A 2003, NSW Department of Corrective Services conducted an inmate health survey found, “54 per cent of women and 39 per cent of men in prison have at some point in their lives been diagnosed by a medical doctor as having a ‘psychiatric problem’”.
Restorative justice academic and prison reform advocate, Dr Brian Steels rightly states, “We are going round in circles.”
“We are just talking about the same things over and over again. We need to help heal and educate young kids as well as the adults.”
“No society can operate without social cohesion. Our courts and policing have to change and we have to ask what will help bring about compliance to fair rules.”
It is long overdue that we need to move to highlighting the ways that will lead us all forwards, otherwise where we are now at 340 Black deaths in custody, we will soon be at many more. We need to help everyone who finishes up or may finish up in prison, it does not matter whether they are Black or White. But there are pronounced issues related to identity and extreme poverty that many First Peoples face that non-Aboriginal cultures do not face. On trends alone, we are heading to 600 Black deaths in custody by 2025. And for those who believe that imprisonment rates alone underwrite the high number of Black deaths in custody, well then on current trends we will be at nearly half the national prison population comprising Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islanders by 2025.
Pat Dudgeon http://nirs.org.au/NEWS/Dudgeon-hopes-report-sparks-action-on-mental-health
The brother of Mulrunji on the conscience of men and women http://nirs.org.au/NEWS/Palm-Island-death-in-custody-10-years-on-Alec-Doomadgee-calls-on-police-to-reflect
Tragic when you can predict the future with such detail. It is an indictment on all of us.
WGAR News: Productivity Commission statistics highlight continuing Stolen Generation: Grandmothers Against Removals (GMAR)
https://indymedia.org.au/2014/11/26/wgar-news-productivity-commission-statistics-highlight-continuing-stolen-generation
Newsletter date: 27 November 2014
Contents: …
* Analysis / Opinion: Gerry Georgatos, The Stringer: 600 Black deaths in custody by 2025 & jail numbers to soar
* News: Amy McQuire, New Matilda: Family Of Man Shot By Police Protest Ongoing Practice Of Cops Probing Cops
* Analysis / Opinion: Gerry Georgatos, The Stringer: Police shot man dead who had no firearm
* Audio: Mark Colvin, ABC PM: Campaign to stop jailing mentally ill without conviction grows
* Audio Interviews: Cassandra Tim, National Indigenous Radio’s ‘Weekly News-in-Review’ …
WGAR News: Sisters on the Inside, Babies on the Outside: The Wire [Featuring Debbie Kilroy, Dr Jennifer James & Kat Armstrong]
https://indymedia.org.au/2014/12/09/wgar-news-sisters-on-the-inside-babies-on-the-outside-the-wire-featuring-debbie-kilroy-dr
Contents:
* Audio: Laura Corrigan, The Wire: Sisters on the Inside, Babies on the Outside [Featuring Debbie Kilroy, Dr Jennifer James & Kat Armstrong]
* Media Release: Greens Senator Rachel Siewert: Prime Minister lacks commitment to reducing incarceration of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people
* Audio: Daria Norman, The Wire: Indigenous incarceration rates continue to rise [Featuring Sarah Hopkins & Mick Gooda]
* Background to Justice Reinvestment, Aboriginal imprisonment and Aboriginal Deaths in Custody
* Audio: NIRS: Mentally-impaired men imprisoned without conviction for ‘exceptional’ periods of time
* Audio: NIRS: Mentally-impaired man didn’t receive appropriate care in prison: Guardian
* Audio: NIRS: Mentally-impaired people in jails ‘trapped in legal no man’s land’
* Media Release: Greens Senator Rachel Siewert: Attorney General fails to address human rights issues over detention of four Aboriginal men with cognitive impairment
* Video: Greens Senator Rachel Siewert: Human Rights report into imprisonment of people with a cognitive impairment
* Background: WGAR News on Continuing Stolen Generation, Aboriginal deaths in custody, and Aboriginal suicide
WGAR Background: Justice Reinvestment, Aboriginal imprisonment and Aboriginal deaths in custody
https://indymedia.org.au/2014/12/24/wgar-background-justice-reinvestment-aboriginal-imprisonment-and-aboriginal-deaths-in
WGAR News: …
https://indymedia.org.au/2015/02/01/wgar-news-grandmothers-against-removals-call-for-support
Contents: …
* News: SNAICC: We must look to our humanity to solve the crisis of Indigenous incarceration
* Analysis / Opinion: Gerry Georgatos, The Stringer: More than 15 % in jail for unpaid fines
* WGAR Background: Justice Reinvestment, Aboriginal imprisonment and Aboriginal deaths in custody
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
In March 1990, the Ghana Police Service informed my family about the death of my beloved uncle, a Ghanaian immigrant by name Fritz Kwame Nyamekye whose demise occurred in Sydney Australia. Fritz is hailed from Odumase near Sunyani in the Brong Ahafo Region of Ghana.
Fritz, the deceased is my uncle. One afternoon in 1990 when l had returned from school l saw mother and grandmother weeping uncontrollably. They are all dead now. Upon inquiry, l was told that my uncle had committed suicide at the police cell with a blanket at Sydney Police cells.
Could you please inform me about the actual cause of his death? There are different accounts in Ghana about the death of my uncle. Could you please confirm whether he committed suicide in the cell? After 25 years, the death of Fritz is still fresh in my mind. I have never stopped dreaming about him and anytime l see him in my dream, l weep. This has occurred for several years.
It is my wish to visit his burial place one day soon in Sydney Australia since no family member knows where he was buried. Could the Sydney Police assist me to trace where he was buried. l am currently writing from Ghana in West Africa.
I would be extremely if you could write back. Please, I just want a clarification.
Thank you for your co-operation.
Yours faithfully,
Frank Kwadwo Boateng
frankboat99@yahoo.com
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 …