I commend the Correctional Investigator for drawing attention to these issues. In comparing global data, it is the highest rate of racialised incarceration in the world. They are stitched-up big time by our governments and by government-funded institutions. More than 500,000 Australians still living have been to prison. ... but 10 years later Aboriginal boys made up 47 per cent and Aboriginal … Although Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander adults make up around 2% of the national population, they constitute 27% of the national prison population. The further west we journey across this continent, the worse the statistical narratives, the worse the hits on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, the higher the homeless rates, the more acute the poverty, the worse the destructive behaviours, the sense of hopelessness, the depressions and clinical disorders, the higher the premature and unnatural death and suicide rates. 300,000 First Nations descendants live below the poverty, with a significant proportion living in extreme poverty. Acting Chief Commissioner of the Canadian Human Rights Commission, This Vaccine Calculator Predicts When Canadians Can Expect Their Shot, Entire World Goes All In On 'Rational' Stock, House Price Bubble, Dozens Of Protesters Ticketed For Violating Quebec's COVID-19 Curfew, Here's Why Politicians In Atlantic Canada Avoided COVID Travel Scandals, Online School Forcing Single Parents To Choose Between Jobs And Kids, How To Help Older Kids Make Sense Of Scary News Stories, Quebec Imposes Province-Wide 8 P.M. Gerry Georgatos explores the reasons behind Australia's devastatingly high Indigenous imprisonment rate.. AS A PREDOMINATELY experiential researcher and journeyer to homeland communities, and having worked for more than two decades alongside the incarcerated, homeless and suicide affected, I have looked at the national prison population numbers during the last two decades, … Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander prisoners accounted for just over a quarter (28%) of the total Australian prisoner population. IA punches above its weight. This crisis is especially profound in the youth context. The choice has been made to remove children at devastating rates rather than to invest everything possible into lifting their families out of poverty. Privacy Policy. They are ten times more likely than anyone else to end up in jail. While the Youth Criminal Justice Act (YCJA) has reduced Canada’s overall youth incarceration rate in recent years, the relative proportion of detained Aboriginal youth has actually increased. Reasons for high Indigenous imprisonment rates Introduction. ... with child protection and the devastating rates of family violence against Aboriginal women help pave the pathway to prison. There’s all this chatter of reintegration and reformation, but it is piecemeal, minimal stuff, pat on the shoulder stuff, helping with documents (Centrelink, drivers licences and the like) instead of training to employment, instead of education pathways, instead of intense and relentless psychosocial support, instead of outreach to the critically vulnerable. The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner June Oscar AO has described the imprisonment rates of Indigenous women as a national disgrace. There is an agenda of attrition by a thousand cuts to kill off these communities — it is obvious, or how else the neglect and ongoing degradation of the majority of these communities? The great bulk of Aboriginal offenders are thus statistically doomed to a life of ongoing contact with the criminal justice system and the prison system because of the root causes of offending. In the June 2017 quarter 91% of young Indigenous young people were in detention compared with 76% for non-Indigenous youth. Gerry Georgatos is a suicide prevention researcher and restorative justice and prison reform expert with the Institute of Social Justice and Human Rights. Sentenced prisoners increased by 2% from 276 to 281, and unsentenced prisoners decreased by 13% (24) to 166. Imagine the devastating psychosocial impacts on families and communities not just presently but for generations unborn. The transformation of Canadian society did not come about by accident. There are three related reasons: over-policing; under-policing; and the general absence of a community policing model in Indigenous communities. With more than 700,000 Australians identifying as Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander, more than one in seven have been to prison. The number of Aboriginal women in prison is a major public health issue accounting for 33% of the female prison population, but only 3% of the Australian female population. The Canada I know and love. Aboriginal women are 34 times more likely to be hospitalised as a result of family violence than non-Aboriginal women. Nearly 150,000 are children, with 18,000 having been taken away. Support independent journalism Subscribe to IA. In 2016, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people constituted just 2% of the Australian adult population but comprised more than one quarter (27%) of the national adult prison population. Contractor’s ‘Hope Stoves’ Help Homeless People Cook, Stay Warm, Winners And Losers: What A Biden Presidency Means For Canada’s Economy, How To Open A Stubborn Produce Bag, The Pandemic-Safe Way, Saskatoon Man Uses The Cold To Show How Effective Face Masks Can Be, One Of These Great Canadians Will Be The Face Of The New $5 Bill. From a racialised lens this is the world’s highest gaoling rate. [1] In 2016, around 20 in every 1,000 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people were incarcerated. This creates barriers to access to rehabilitation programs. Female offenders are the most vulnerable in the prison population. © Copyright 2021 Independent Australia - All rights reserved. The high rate of incarceration for Aboriginal peoples has been linked to systemic discrimination and attitudes based on racial or cultural prejudice, as well as economic and social disadvantage, substance abuse and intergenerational loss, violence and trauma. Nearly 100% of First Nations people who are incarcerated are from the 300,000. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander incarceration report sets stark challenge Wednesday, 28 March 2018. One in five Western Australian and Northern Territorian Aboriginal peoples have been to prison. The condition of female Aboriginal inmates with mental illness is of particular concern. It estimates the costs of Indigenous incarceration and the These 3 say that can be changed The old Canada, he writes, was "a benighted, closed, xenophobic society in which minorities were barred from almost every sector of Canadian life." Indigenous incarceration in Australia has been the subject of many thorough and well evidenced reports and reviews over the past three decades including the landmark Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody. Aboriginal prisoners. These are women scarred by generations of neglect, abuse, and systemic discrimination. Our report contributes new economic modelling to the evidence base. Among these are poor social conditions, including lack of literacy and English language skills, health problems, poverty and unemployment. Independent Australia is a progressive journal focusing on politics, democracy, the environment, Australian history and Australian identity. Incarceration of youth generally across Canada has declined slightly each year since 2012. Our report contributes new economic modelling to the evidence base. Commissioner Oscar delivered the Grace Vaughan Memorial Lecture at the University of Western Australia last night and raised concerns about the over-representation of Indigenous women in prisons around the country. Overall, the authentic pathway to significantly reduce offending and the prison population are to lift people out of poverty, to improve life circumstances. 16. The Canada the world admires. The rates of incarceration tell of gruesome disparity: First Nations people being gaoled at 16 times the rate of the rest of the nation’s peoples. The total Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population in Australia aged 18 years and over in 2018 was approximately 2% (based on Australian Demographic Statistics (cat. Presently, one in 12 of Western Australia’s Aboriginal adult males are in prison and, from a racialised lens, this is the world’s highest gaoling rate. The rate has increased 25 per cent for non-Aboriginal people. To reduce soaring Aboriginal prison rates it is essential to invest in psycho-social healing, counselling, empowerment, education and rehabilitation.. As with many programs designed to 'cure' Aboriginal issues, there is no one-size-fits-all solution. Suicides of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander persons who lived above the poverty line are few and less than non-Indigenous suicides of people who lived above the poverty line. They are denied the equivalency of infrastructure, services and opportunity the rest of Australia enjoys, including remote non-Aboriginal towns. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are at particularly increased risk of death from alcohol-related causes after release from prison.15 17. Get the top stories emailed every day. He said the following: Aboriginal people are both over- and under-policed. Another reason for the spike in Aboriginal incarceration is the harsh mandatory-minimum sentencing laws passed by Stephen Harper’s conservative government over the past decade which increased sentences for a wide variety of crimes while limiting parole opportunities. 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