Cowdery, Edwina --- "Book Review - Australian Deaths in Custody and Custody - Related Police Operations 1996" [1998] IndigLawB 12; (1998) 4(8) Indigenous Law Bulletin 23

Book Review -



Australian Deaths in Custody and

Custody-Related Police Operations 1996

by Vicki Dalton

Australian Institute of Criminology,

Research and Public Policy Series No. 10

Canberra, 1997

Reviewed by Edwina Cowdery[1]

The present report is the most recent addition to the Australian Institute of Criminology's series on Deaths in Custody, which began in 1990. While the report gives the statistical details of all deaths which occurred in custody and custody-related police operations, one of its primary focuses is on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander deaths.

And the news is not good. The statistics show that in the period from January 1996 until December 1996, 15 Aboriginal people and 2 Torres Strait Islanders died whilst in custody or during police operations. Overall 80 people were reported to have died during this period, which means that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people represent just over 21% of all deaths, while constituting approximately 2% of the total Australian population. This number of deaths is the second highest since 1980 (1995 was the highest with 21).

Queensland reported the highest number of deaths for the reporting period: three Aboriginal people died in prison and one in custody-related police operations. The two Torres Strait Islander deaths also occurred in Queensland prisons, and are the first reported Torres Strait Islander deaths in custody since 1980. The one woman who died in custody in the reporting period was an Aboriginal woman in Townsville Correctional Centre, who died from heart-related disease. Four Aboriginal teenagers, all male, died in three separate car accidents in Western Australia, the Northern Territory, and Queensland, following police pursuits.

The last statistic is a reminder that the definition of a 'death in custody' which is used in the present report was that recommended by the Royal Commission Into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody ('the RCIADIC'). This definition includes deaths which occur in prison custody, in police custody, in a juvenile detention centre, as a result of attempting to escape from custody or detention, or which occur in the process of a police attempt to detain a person. The last category is divided into two subcategories: deaths in police institutions and other forms of close custody; and deaths in other custody-related police operations, where police have little opportunity to control the person's behaviour (including police pursuits).

The report also documents trends in death rates since 1980. While the total number of deaths in the reporting period is lower than the past three years, the number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander deaths is the second highest since 1980. In addition, while the total number of deaths in police custody, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander deaths, has fallen, the report notes an increase in the numbers dying in community settings, when police are in the process of detaining or pursuing a person (as happened with the four Aboriginal teenagers).

This increase in indigenous deaths in custody is occurring despite Commonwealth, State and Territory governments pledging support for many of the RCIADIC recommendations (support which was renewed at a Ministerial summit held in Canberra on 4 July of this year). The present report appears at a time when concerns about the failure to implement the RCIADIC's recommendations have been voiced (see for example Keeping Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People Out of Custody by Chris Cunneen and David McDonald, ATSIC, Canberra, 1997). Amnesty International has also recently released a report entitled 'Australian Deaths in Custody: how many more?', which serves as a useful adjunct to the Institute's volume. Among other things, the Amnesty report interrogates the notion of a prisoner dying of 'natural causes', and suggests that other contributing factors, such as alleged ill-treatment during arrest or lack of proper care in custody, are often ignored or dismissed in such cases.

There are many people working to divert Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people from custody or to ensure that they receive the treatment in custody they need. The Institute's and Amnesty's reports suggest that we still need to do much more.

[1] The views expressed in this article are the author’s alone and do not purport to represent the views of the NSW Department of Aboriginal Affairs or the NSW Government.