Research tracks spike in deaths in custody

Researchers have found a pronounced spike in the number and rate of deaths in prisons, in part because of an increase in the prison population in 2018-19.

Researchers have found a pronounced spike in the number and rate of deaths in prisons, in part because of an increase in the prison population in 2018-19.

The Australian Institute of Criminology published data on Wednesday showing 89 people died in prison in Australia in 2018-19.

It is the highest number of prison deaths since the institute’s National Deaths in Custody Program began collecting data in 1992. The death rate also increased in 2018-19 to 0.21 per 100 prisoners, according to the report of the program.

This was a jump from 0.17 per cent per 100 prisoners the year before and higher than the average for the previous decade.

The data collection program began as a result of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody that ran from 1987 to 1991.

 

Since the royal commission’s final report, there have been 455 Indigenous deaths in custody in Australia including in police watch houses.

The royal commission concluded 29 years ago that Indigenous people were no more likely to die in custody than non-Indigenous people, but they were significantly more likely to be arrested and imprisoned.

The same remains true today, according to the latest report of the National Deaths in Custody Program, which catalogues the extent and nature of deaths occurring in prison, police custody and youth detention since 1980.

The death rate of Indigenous prisoners was lower than the death rate of non-Indigenous prisoners nationally in 2018-19 — for Indigenous people it was 0.13 per 100 prisoners and for non-Indigenous people it was 0.23 per 100 prisoners.

Death rates of Indigenous prisoners have been consistently lower than the death rates of non-Indigenous prisoners since 2003–04, according to the report published Wednesday.

But the gross over-representation of Indigenous Australians in custody has meant disproportionate numbers of the overall Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population die in prisons or while under arrest.

The most recent Australian census found that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people comprised 3 per cent of the Australian population but Indigenous prisoners made up 28 per cent of the prisoner population in June last year. Further, the report found, the Indigenous imprisonment rate was 12 times the rate for non-Indigenous prisoners last year and had increased by 35 per cent since 2009, compared with an increase of 26 per cent for non-Indigenous prisoners.

The latest data was published as 15 families whose loved ones died in custody called on Scott Morrison to meet them on the 30th anniversary of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody next year.