Indigenous deaths in custody

 were a news item on our SBS news service last night. For those of you who do not live in Downunder I need to explain that SBS is a slightly different news service. It has a greater focus on international, multicultural and indigenous affairs. It partners with NITV - the National Indigenous Television network - and such news items are quite frequent.

This particular news item however bothered me. Any news item about deaths in custody bother me but I sensed something wrong with this one. I was right.

The item gave the very strong impression that indigenous deaths in custody far exceeded the rate of other deaths in custody.  There were the usual interviews with people who told us how wrong this was and how there needed to be more support services, especially mental health services, for indigenous people in custody. How the laws needed to be changed to prevent incarceration was also mentioned.

What was not mentioned was the fact that indigenous people are actually less likely to die in custody than non-indigenous people. Yes, the rate of death is too high because any preventable death in custody is too high. The rate of indigenous people in custody is too high too. 

I spoke to my friend M... He dealt with indigenous offending for most of his working life. Although now retired he keeps himself informed. Yes, he had heard the news item and, like me, did not like the impression it conveyed. He had also seen the latest statistics from the Institute of Criminology and sent them over to me.

Indigenous people make up almost forty percent of the prison population. They make up about thirty percent of deaths in custody. There were one hundred and thirteen deaths in custody last financial year. Of those thirty-three were indigenous deaths in custody. 

The number of people who identify as "indigenous" has been rising quite rapidly. Yes, there are advantages to identifying as indigenous. Yes, there are people who are abusing that. People who identify as indigenous or "aboriginal" or "islander" make up around four percent of the population. They should make up about that proportion of the prison population too but they are heavily over represented in it. The reason they are heavily over represented is because of the rate of offending. The rate of incarceration is high despite the fact that, by identifying as indigenous, people have access to special legal representation. There are different guidelines involved in their sentencing. There is even their own court system for many offences where "cultural" and other issues can be taken into account.  

With all that the rates of offending and incarceration are still higher. Activists keep telling us this is a "national crisis"  because of our colonial past and a lack of support services, including mental health services.  That an increasing number of repeat offenders are now being held on domestic violence and other violent crimes is, we are told, due to external failures and not a result of the actions of those in custody. We are being told they are victims too.

The news item gave this impression. It gave the impression that there are many more indigenous deaths in custody and that all these deaths might have been preventable. It again suggested there was a need for special consideration of this group of offenders and that more funding was needed to deal with the issues. 

Nowhere was it suggested that the behaviour of some of these offenders might be the issue. Nobody mentioned the harm some of them have done, harm not against the "white" community they claim is responsible but the harm done to their own community particularly their partners. 

All this makes it so much harder for indigenous youth who are trying to be law abiding and make something of themselves. I know one young indigenous man who has spent the past year working very hard. He will shortly get his Year 12 results and I hope he does well. He is not "brilliant" but he is intelligent. It has been a tough year for him. He has had to live away from his family to finish school. There has been a lot of pressure on him to "succeed". His immediate family are law abiding citizens but he knows this will not bring about personal success. 

We talked about the offending issues earlier this year. He was troubled by them and acknowledged some of the issues but he also told me, "It is up to us though. It doesn't have to be like that."