Indigenous justice in Australia

Indigenous deaths in custody

• Introduction
• Statistics
• Resources

Introduction

The Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody (RCIADIC) defined a death in custody as a death, wherever occurring, of a person:

• who in prison custody or police custody or detention as a juvenile,
• whose death is caused or contributed to by traumatic injuries sustained, or by lack of proper care while in custody or detention,
• who is fatally injured in the process of police or prison officers attempting to detain that person, or
• who is fatally injured in the process of that person escaping or attempting to escape from prison custody or police custody or juvenile detention.

The Royal Commission found that, although the rate of Indigenous deaths in custody did not exceed the non-Indigenous rate, the number of Indigenous deaths in custody reflects the over-representation of Indigenous people in custody.

Source: RCIADIC 1991, Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody (RCIADIC)

Statistics

• See Deaths in custody statistics, by Indigenous status

Resources

• Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody
• RCIADIC research register
  Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies
• National Deaths in Custody Program (NDICP)
  Research and publications from the Australian Institute of Criminology monitoring program
• Reducing the numbers of deaths in custody
  Kathy Whimp. In: Final report of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody - summary. Methods of reducing the number of Aboriginal deaths in custody through the utilisation of diversionary schemes and imprisonment as the last resort; legislation regarding imprisonment as the last resort has been enacted in NSW, VIC, QLD, ACT, WA and Commonwealth
• Social justice report 2001: ten years on from the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody
  Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner, 2002. Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission. Addressing the underlying causes of Indigenous over-representation in custodial settings; what has been achieved since the Royal Commission
• Deaths in custody: 10 years on from the Royal Commission
  Paul Williams, 2001
• 10th anniversary of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody
  Indigenous law bulletin special issue, vol. 5, no. 8, May 2001
• Aboriginal deaths in prison 1980 to 1998: national overview
  Vicki Dalton and Robyn Edwards, 1999. See Figures 1 and 4; Tables 2 and 3
• Strategies for managing suicide and self-harm in prisons
  Morag McArthur, Peter Camilleri and Honey Webb, 1999. Strategies for the management, reduction and prevention of suicide and self-harm incidents in prisons
• Aboriginal deaths in custody and Aboriginal incarceration: looking lack and looking forward
  David McDonald, Five years after the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody: implications for the future conference, 6 November 1996