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Deaths in Custody

NSW Bar Association calls for a new approach to Aboriginal imprisonment

ABORIGINAL INCARCERATION

The Bar Association of NSW's submission to a Law Reform Commission inquiry into First Nations incarceration calls for a new approach to sentencing which takes into account the deprivation and disadvantage inherent in an individual's Aboriginal background. The association also calls for an end to mandatory sentences, which make it impossible for courts to make any allowance for such disadvantage in their decisions. The rate at which Aboriginal people end up in jail is appalling and in NSW last year Aboriginal people were 3 per cent of the population, but 24 per cent of the prison population. [node:read-more:link]

Elijah Doughty and Trayvon Martin: Victims of Modern Vigilantism

In 2012, a self-appointed neighborhood watch member, chased a 17yo African American boy in Florida, and shot him. Last week, a 55-year-old man chased a 14yo Elijah Doughty ran him down with his truck. In USA the court failed to hold the perpetrator accountable, giving rise to the #BlackLivesMatter movement. In each case, a vigilante suspected a young person of colour of wrongdoing and killed him. In each case, the killer executed summary justice. [node:read-more:link]

Jail rate for First Nations children is soaring at an alarming rate

Aboriginal youth repeat offender

Figures show that the number of First Nations children being jailed is rising enormously, as the tide of social dysfunction in urban and regional centres has never been properly addressed.

More than 250 indigenous youth in northwestern New South Wales have been sentenced to juvenile prison terms during the past five years compared with only 12 non-Aboriginal children, The Australian newspaper reported.

Figures from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare show the national rate of Aboriginal juvenile incarceration has risen to 31 times the non-indigenous rate and rising.

Treating the cause of crime more effective than only addressing the crime itself

WA Imprisonment rates

With WA Corrective Services spending more than $900 million last financial year and 39 per cent of imprisoned offenders returning to jail within a two year period, Associate Professor Sarah Murray from UWA's Law School said new approaches were needed using local knowledge and bringing the community into the picture. Researchers from The University of Western Australia's Law School have been studying the feasibility model and propose a one stop shop that includes a court, crime prevention team and key support services in partnership with the local community [node:read-more:link]

The invisibility of young peoples voices in the Don Dale royal commission’s interim report

Mick Gooda and Margaret White - Northern Territory Youth Detention Royal CommissionersNorthern Territory Youth Detention Royal Commissioners Mick Gooda and Margaret White
(The Australian)

Young people’s voices are all but invisible in the Don Dale royal commission’s interim report
By Thalia Anthony
Associate Professor in Law, University of Technology Sydney
6 April 2017 [node:read-more:link]

'Lab Rats' - Medical experiments on Aboriginal children in care

Medical experiaments on children in Australia

There is one group in society so powerless, that its voice has not been heard. The abuses its members experienced should make all of those arguing about rights, morality, power, and the separation of Church and State, in the debate on stem cell research, sit up and take notice. Its members are the victims of the lack of church and state separation in past medical experimentation in this country. They are the children who lived in child welfare institutions and were used as real life “lab rats” in the pursuit of medical breakthroughs. [node:read-more:link]

More proof: The criminal justice system is biased against First Nation People

The NSW 'Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research' tells us that the rise in Indigenous imprisonment in NSW is due to a combination of higher rates of arrest resulting in conviction, a greater likelihood of imprisonment given conviction and a higher rate of bail refusal.
 
We already know this, it's not rocket science, so why do the politicians refuse to do anything about it?

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