By Margaret Allum
Figures released in November by the NSW Department of Corrective Services reveal that the number of Aboriginal people imprisoned in the state has increased dramatically during the last 10 years.
Aboriginal prisoners were 8.5% of the total NSW inmate population in 1987, at the launch of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody. The figure had jumped to 14% by 1997.
In absolute figures, the number of Aboriginal prisoners more than doubled in the decade, from 354 to 912.
In the 12 months to June, the number continued to rise, to 979 (up 15%). According to the report, the proportion of Aboriginal people in periodic detention also jumped, from 15 in 1987 to 103 this year.
Throughout Australia, the average rate of indigenous imprisonment was 1625 per 100,000 adults, more than 12 times the non-indigenous rate of 134.9 per 100,000.
Ian MacDougall from Justice Action in Sydney told 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳ Weekly that more Aborigines in custody means more Aboriginal deaths on custody. He said that stricter sentencing laws, which are becoming key planks in both major parties' election campaigns, exacerbate the problem.
In the three years following the 1989 NSW Sentencing Act, there was a 19% increase in prison time served, according to University of Sydney researcher Chris Cuneen.
Governments throughout Australia believe the "get tough on crime" approach brings votes at election time.
MacDougall said that all state governments had failed to implement the recommendations of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody and as a result failed "to protect the human rights of indigenous people".
Jenny Munro from the Metropolitan Land Council also pointed to the link between the increase in incarceration of Aboriginal people and deaths in custody. She told 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳ Weekly that the recommendations of the royal commission had been forgotten.
Munro said that after the royal commission, money had been set aside for change. This had been used by the bureaucracy to create a "more efficient killing machine".
She said that Aboriginal deaths in custody are a microcosm of what is happening to Aboriginal people today. If Aboriginal lives are being ignored, then how seriously will the questions of land rights and native title be taken, Munro asked.
The report of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody was released in 1991. The commission investigated 99 Aboriginal deaths in custody between 1980 and 1989, and made 339 recommendations to address the appalling statistics.
The commission's main finding was that the high rate of Aboriginal deaths in custody was due to a disproportionately high incarceration rate. The commission found that while Aborigines made up only 1.4% of the Australian population, they were 28.6% of all people imprisoned.
The mean age for Aboriginal prisoners was 26.3 years, compared to 30.7 for other prisoners. Most were imprisoned for minor offences — 57% were locked up for public drunkenness as opposed to 27% for others.
The royal commission found that many Aboriginal people were imprisoned for not paying fines or for offences that in most other cases would not normally attract a prison term.
In 1994, the Australian Institute for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders summarised the royal commission's findings as follows:
"Imprisonment as a last resort and reducing arrest rates were recommended as fundamental principles in dealing with our [indigenous] people and the law. The Commission highlighted attempts by community councils to police our communities.
"The Commission also found that the decriminalisation of public drunkenness and the provision of services, especially by indigenous organisations, to overcome the problems of alcohol use were important factors in reducing arrest rates [This is no longer a crime in any state or territory].
"Overcoming the disadvantage which our people face in all aspects of life, from birth to death, is the main message of the recommendations. Of the more than three hundred recommendations, the most important were aimed at addressing the over-representation of Aboriginal people in custody, the need to redress their disadvantaged position in society and the need for self-determination in Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander affairs."
The royal commission was criticised at the time for not prosecuting any of the police found to have mistreated Aborigines, but even the recommendations that were welcomed have not yet been implemented — as the figures from the Department of Corrective Services show.