A rejection 30 years in the making!

The establishment of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody prompted a number of questions about the incidence of non-Aboriginal as well as Aboriginal deaths in both police custody and prisons. And examination of all such deaths from 1980 to 1988 shows that there were four times as many non-Aboriginal deaths as Aboriginal deaths, but, based on their numbers in the general community, Aborigines were 23 times more likely to die in custody than were non-Aborigines. About two-thirds of the black deaths occurred in police custody and two-thirds of the white deaths occurred in prisons. Suicide or self-inflicted harm was the most common reported cause of death for non-Aborigines, but death by natural causes was more frequently reported among Aborigines. The most serious offence leading either to detention or imprisonment for all the deceased persons revealed only small differences between the Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal groups, but those who died in prison were generally more serious offenders than those who died in police custody. Proportionately more of the Aboriginal deaths occurred in hospitals than was the case for non-Aborigines. A dramatic and unexpectedly high number of custodial deaths occurred in 1987, and the possible explanations for this are explored. It is suggested that the findings of this study relate to the over-representation of Aborigines in custody, the need for improved health programs for Aborigines, and the need for permanent monitoring on a national basis of all deaths in custody.

This paper assesses whether a number of the reported1 Aboriginal suicide deaths in custody currently being investigated by the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody in Australia consti...

The litany of death: a deep futures critique of the Australian Royal Commission into aboriginal deaths in custody

The background to the establishment in 1987 of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody was a belief that the defining risk characteristic of persons dying in custody was their Aboriginality. Australia's long history of violence and injustice towards its Indigenous population underpinned the expectation that continuing racism in custodial situations was the principal driver of high Aboriginal mortality rates. On that basis, analysis and proposed solutions would focus upon the specifics of Aboriginal custodial experience as well as broader issues of criminal justice system administration. This paper suggests that, in the context of prison custody, equal or greater emphasis should have been placed on the nature of prison regimes and prisoner management generally, as they impact upon all prisoners. Rates of prison deaths have remained unacceptably high since the RCIADIC, in contrast to police custodial death rates which have improved markedly. A great deal was generally known about the epidemiology of prison custodial deaths before the work of the RCIADIC. Across-the-board implementation of this prior and subsequently acquired knowledge would arguably have made more effective impact upon Aboriginal as well as non-Aboriginal deaths. The defining risk characteristic of prison mortality was, and still is, the nature of prison custodial regimes.

It is now some three years since Commissioner Elliott Johnson QC handed down his much publicised Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody (RCADC) National Report. There is no doubt that C...

Twenty-five years has passed since the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody (RCIADIC). This paper examines the trends and characteristics of Indigenous deaths in custody since 1991–92, using data obtained through the National Deaths in Custody Program (NDICP). NDICP data show Indigenous prisoners are now less likely than non-Indigenous prisoners to die in prison custody, largely due to a decrease in the death rate of Indigenous prisoners from 1999–2000 to 2005–06. Coinciding with this decrease in the death rate of Indigenous prisoners is a decrease in the hanging death rate of Indigenous prisoners. Monitoring trends and characteristics of both Indigenous and non-Indigenous deaths in custody supports the development of proactive strategies addressing this important issue.

The Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody was established in a climate of deep suspicion about the treatment of Aboriginal detainees in Australian prisons and police lock-ups. Three and a half years of exhaustive enquiry have resulted in a mammoth report which not only deals with the problems in the criminal justice system that contribute to these deaths but also discusses in detail the current state of Aboriginal society in Australia. It is the Commission's view that improvements in the lives of Aboriginal people will only occur if they are given the power to bring about those improvements themselves. The Commission's report inevitably has much to say about health matters. This review concentrates on these health matters as they affect Aboriginal people generally, and more specifically, after they arrive within the criminal justice system. The Commission's views about the medical aspects of the investigations of the deaths once they occurred are also summarised as are some of the issues which are at the root of why Aboriginal people are grossly over-represented in custody.

In this article, the authors examine the systemic nature of state violence and racial terror in the context of the Australian settler state and Indigenous deaths in custody. Drawing on Steve Martinot and Jared Sexton’s (2003) concept of a “double economy of terror,” the authors contend that police violence and Aboriginal deaths in custody must be read in terms of the standard operating procedures of a double economy of terror that ensures the institutional reproduction of the Australian settler colonial state. Death in police custody, Perera and Pugliese argue, is coextensive with the larger governmental and administrative apparatuses of the colonial state. In the face of the settler state’s systemic ignorability of the ongoing racialized violence against Indigenous peoples, the authors conclude their paper opposing such a state with an Indigenous voice that refuses tacit acquiescence and that howls with rage at the mounting Aboriginal deaths in custody and rates of Indigenous imprisonment.

Introduction Darkness is often characterised as something that warrants heightened caution and scrutiny – signifying increased danger and risk. Within settler-colonial settings such as Australia, cautionary and negative connotations of darkness are projected upon Black people and their bodies, forming part of continuing colonial regimes of power (Moreton-Robinson). Negative stereotypes of “dark” continues to racialise all Indigenous peoples. In Australia, Indigenous peoples are both Indigenous and Black regardless of skin colour, and this plays out in a range of ways, some of which will be highlighted within this article. This article demonstrates that for Indigenous peoples, associations of fear and danger are built into the structural mechanisms that shape and maintain colonial understandings of Indigenous peoples and their bodies. It is this embodied form of darkness, and its negative connotations, and responses that we explore further. Figure 1: Megan Cope’s ‘I’m not afraid of the Dark’ t-shirt (Fredericks and Heemsbergen 2021) Responding to the anxieties and fears of settlers that often surround Indigenous peoples, Quandamooka artist and member of the art collective ProppaNow, Megan Cope, has produced a range of t-shirts, one of which declares “I’m not afraid of the Dark” (fig. 1). The wording ‘reflects White Australia’s fear of blackness’ (Dark + Dangerous). Exploring race relations through the theme of “darkness”, we begin by discussing how negative connotations of darkness are represented through everyday lexicons and how efforts to shift prejudicial and racist language are often met with defensiveness and resistance. We then consider how fears towards the dark translate into everyday practices, reinforced by media representations. The article considers how stereotype, conjecture, and prejudice is inflicted upon Indigenous people and reflects white settler fears and anxieties, rooting colonialism in everyday language, action, and norms. The Language of Fear Indigenous people and others with dark skin tones are often presented as having a proclivity towards threatening, aggressive, deceitful, and negative behaviours. This works to inform how Indigenous peoples are “known” and responded to by hegemonic (predominantly white) populations. Negative connotations of Indigenous people are a means of reinforcing and legitimising the falsity that European knowledge systems, norms, and social structures are superior whilst denying the contextual colonial circumstances that have led to white dominance. In Australia, such denial corresponds to the refusal to engage with the unceded sovereignty of Aboriginal peoples or acknowledge Indigenous resistance. Language is integral to the ways in which dominant populations come to “know” and present the so-called “Other”. Such language is reflected in digital media, which both produce and maintain white anxieties towards race and ethnicity. When part of mainstream vernacular, racialised language – and the value judgments associated with it – often remains in what Moreton-Robinson describes as “invisible regimes of power” (75). Everyday social structures, actions, and habits of thought veil oppressive and discriminatory attitudes that exist under the guise of “normality”. Colonisation and the dominance of Eurocentric ways of knowing, being, and doing has fixated itself on creating a normality that associates Indigeneity and darkness with negative and threatening connotations. In doing so, it reinforces power balances that presents an image of white superiority built on the invalidation of Indigeneity and Blackness. White fears and anxieties towards race made explicit through social and digital media are also manifest via subtle but equally pervasive everyday action (Carlson and Frazer; Matamoros-Fernández). Confronting and negotiating such fears becomes a daily reality for many Indigenous people. During the height of the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests in the United States, which extended to Australia and were linked to deaths in custody and police violence, African American poet Saul Williams reminded his followers of the power of language in constructing racialised fears (saulwilliams). In an Instagram post, Williams draws back the veil of an uncontested normality to ask that we take personal responsibility over the words we use. He writes: here’s a tip: Take the words DARK or BLACK in connection to bad, evil, ominous or scary events out of your vocabulary. We learn the stock market crashed on Black Monday, we read headlines that purport “Dark Days Ahead”. There’s “dark” or “black” humour which implies an undertone of evil, and then there are people like me who grow up with dark skin having to make sense of the English/American lexicon and its history of “fair complexions” – where “fair” can mean “light; blond.” OR “in accordance with rules or standards; legitimate.” We may not be fully responsible for the duplicitous evolution of language and subtle morphing of inherited beliefs into description yet we are in full command of the words we choose even as they reveal the questions we’ve left unasked. Like the work of Moreton-Robinson and other scholars, Williams implores his followers to take a reflexive position to consider the questions often left unasked. In doing so, he calls for the transcendence of anonymity and engagement with the realities of colonisation – no matter how ugly, confronting, and complicit one may be in its continuation. In the Australian context this means confronting how terms such as “dark”, “darkie”, or “darky” were historically used as derogatory and offensive slurs for Aboriginal peoples. Such language continues to be used today and can be found in the comment sections of social media, online news platforms, and other online forums (Carlson “Love and Hate”). Taking the move to execute personal accountability can be difficult. It can destabilise and reframe the ways in which we understand and interact with the world (Rose 22). For some, however, exposing racism and seemingly mundane aspects of society is taken as a personal attack which is often met with reactionary responses where one remains closed to new insights (Whittaker). This feeds into fears and anxieties pertaining to the perceived loss of power. These fears and anxieties continue to surface through conversations and calls for action on issues such as changing the date of Australia Day, the racialised reporting of news (McQuire), removing of plaques and statues known to be racist, and requests to change placenames and the names of products. For example, in 2020, Australian cheese producer Saputo Dairy Australia changed the name of it is popular brand “Coon” to “Cheer Tasty”. The decision followed a lengthy campaign led by Dr Stephen Hagan who called for the rebranding based on the Coon brand having racist connotations (ABC). The term has its racist origins in the United States and has long been used as a slur against people with dark skin, liking them to racoons and their tendency to steal and deceive. The term “Coon” is used in Australia by settlers as a racist term for referring to Aboriginal peoples. Claims that the name change is example of political correctness gone astray fail to acknowledge and empathise with the lived experience of being treated as if one is dirty, lazy, deceitful, or untrustworthy. Other brand names have also historically utilised racist wording along with imagery in their advertising (Conor). Pear’s soap for example is well-known for its historical use of racist words and imagery to legitimise white rule over Indigenous colonies, including in Australia (Jackson). Like most racial epithets, the power of language lies in how the words reflect and translate into actions that dehumanise others. The words we use matter. The everyday “ordinary” world, including online, is deeply politicised (Carlson and Frazer “They Got Filters”) and comes to reflect attitudes and power imbalances that encourage white people to internalise the falsity that they are superior and should have control over Black people (Conor). Decisions to make social change, such as that made by Saputo Dairy Australia, can manifest into further white anxieties via their ability to force the confrontation of the circumstances that continue to contribute to one’s own prosperity. In other words, to unveil the realities of colonialism and ask the questions that are too often left in the dark. Lived Experiences of Darkness Colonial anxieties and fears are driven by the fact that Black populations in many areas of the world are often characterised as criminals, perpetrators, threats, or nuisances, but are rarely seen as victims. In Australia, the repeated lack of police response and receptivity to concerns of Indigenous peoples expressed during the Black Lives Matter campaign saw tens of thousands of people take to the streets to protest. Protestors at the same time called for the end of police brutality towards Indigenous peoples and for an end to Indigenous deaths in custody. The protests were backed by a heavy online presence that sought to mobilise people in hope of lifting the veil that shrouds issues relating to systemic racism. There have been over 450 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to die in custody since the end of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody in 1991 (The Guardian). The tragedy of the Indigenous experience gains little attention internationally. The negative implications of being the object of white fear and anxiety are felt by Indigenous and other Black communities daily. The “safety signals” (Daniella Emanuel) adopted by white peoples in response to often irrational perceptions of threat signify how Indigenous and other Black peoples and communities are seen and valued by the hegemony. Memes played out in social media depicting “Karens” – a term that corresponds to caricaturised white women (but equally applicable to men) who exhibit behaviour

Delivered by the Australian Institute of Criminology (AIC), the National Deaths in Custody Program (NDICP) is responsible for monitoring the extent and nature of deaths occurring in prison, police custody and youth detention in Australia since 1980. In the 25th year since the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody (RCIADIC), this report contains detailed information on deaths in both prison and police custody and custody-related operations in 2015–16, and compares these findings to longer term trends. No deaths occurred in youth detention in 2015–16.

The National Deaths in Custody Program (NDICP) is responsible for monitoring the extent and nature of deaths occurring in prison, police custody and youth detention in Australia since 1980. The Australian Institute of Criminology (AIC) has coordinated the NDICP since its establishment in 1992, the result of a recommendation made by the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody (RCIADIC) the previous year. This report contains detailed information on deaths in both prison and police custody and custody-related operations in 2016–17, and compares these findings to longer term trends. No deaths occurred in youth detention in 2016–17.

The AIC has operated the National Deaths in Custody Program since 1991, following a recommendation by the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody. This study updates and extends an earlier AIC study, which examined the important issue of self-inflicted deaths in prison custody using deaths in custody data for the period 1999–2013. Regrettably, suicide remains a common cause of death in prison; however, it is no longer the most common cause of death. While self-inflicted deaths constituted half of all prison deaths between 1980 and 1998, they have declined to the point that between 2004 and 2013—the most recent decade for which data are available—they represented around a quarter of prison deaths. This decrease reflects the considerable progress made by corrective services administrators in developing policies and practices, and implementing cell designs, that address suicide risk factors. Nonetheless, these data and coronial findings suggest there is still room for improvement, particularly in responding to prisoners with psychiatric needs and in the management of unsentenced prisoners.

The National Deaths in Custody Program (NDICP) is responsible for monitoring the extent and nature of deaths occurring in prison, police custody and youth detention in Australia since 1980. The Australian Institute of Criminology has coordinated the NDICP since its establishment in 1992, the result of a recommendation made by the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody the previous year. This report contains detailed information on deaths in both prison and police custody and custody-related operations in 2017–18, and compares these findings to longer term trends. No deaths occurred in youth detention in 2017–18.

The Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody has brought the issue of inmate death, especially suicide, to public attention. This paper examines theoretical accounts and existing research on suicide during imprisonment. Current international findings on the characteristics of inmate suicide are discussed and compared with the findings from the first Australian study of death in prison. It is argued that the extant research on suicide presents a fragmented and incomplete account of the phenomenon. Further, the theoretical construction of suicide within international and local research and the methodological approach to its measurement contribute to the obfuscation of specific aspects of the phenomenon. In particular, attention is deflected from the policies and procedures within the institution. Suggested remedies for reducing the incidence of inmate suicide are thus constrained by the initial construction of the issue. The paper concludes with a discussion of the challenges posed for the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody. This is contrasted with the need for comprehensive accounts of death in custody which apply to all inmates.

The paper assesses the outcomes of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody in the ten years since its finalisation. Despite specific recommendations designed to reduce the over-representation of Indigenous people in the criminal justice system, the situation has not improved in relation to custodial levels or deaths in custody, particularly in prison. However, it is argued that the Royal Commission also had a broader impact on Australian social and political life which has led to substantial changes.