Aboriginal Deaths In Custody
Statistics On Australia's Record Of Aboriginal Deaths In Custody, Human Rights Abuses Condemned By The United Nations
Aboriginal Deaths in Custody In Australia are higher than those of South Africa at the peak of Apartheid.
These figures speak for themselves.
In 2002,
- there were 4,494 Indigenous prisoners in Australia (20% of the Australian prisoner population, while Indigenous people make up less than 2% of the civilian population)
- the national rate of imprisonment for Indigenous persons was 1,800 per 100,000 of the adult Indigenous population
- Western Australia had approximately 2,400 Indigenous prisoners per 100,000 of the adult Indigenous population
- New South Wales had approximately 2,100 prisoners per 100,000 Aboriginal adults)
- Nationally, the Indigenous rate of imprisonment was approximately 15 times that of the non-Indigenous population
From 1990-2002,
- the majority of Aboriginal prisoner deaths (65%) occurred in prison custody, while 34% were in police custody
- 18% of all deaths in prison custody were of Indigenous prisoners
- During this period, the proportion of the prison population that was Indigenous rose from 14% to 20%
- In 1995 the crude death rate of Indigenous prisoners (5.7%) was more than twice that of non-Indigenous prisoners (2.4%)
During 2002, 69 people died in all forms of custody in Australia, 14 of whom were Indigenous persons. More recent figures are currently unavailable.
When I was a lad I remember the world imposing trade sanctions on South Africa for human rights crimes like these. The Australian Government has repeatedly ignored the UN's condemnationof these genocidal inequities. When will the world place sanctions on Australia?
The copyright of the article Aboriginal Deaths In Custody in Australian Indigenous Peoples is owned by Tyson Yunkaporta. Permission to republish Aboriginal Deaths In Custody must be granted by the author in writing.
