Category Archives: Indigenous incarceration

Advocates call for national ban on spit hoods after NSW becomes second state to outlaw their use

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Legislation banning the use of the devices, which have been linked to deaths in custody, passes in NSW with cross-party support

Advocates are calling for a nationwide ban on spit hoods – which have been linked to deaths in custody – after New South Wales became the second state to outlaw the use of the restraint devices.

The Ban Spit Hoods Coalition, which works to end the use of the fabric device which is placed over people’s heads in custodial settings, said spit hoods were an unacceptable threat to human life and dignity and that all states and territories should follow the lead of NSW and South Australia, with the latter state the first to ban its use in 2021.

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Australia news live: devastation revealed in Queensland bushfire aftermath

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There is ‘a lot of anxiety’ in the Western Downs where at least 16 houses have been destroyed, the mayor says. Follow the day’s news live

Civilians in the blockaded Gaza Strip will receive an extra $15m in humanitarian aid from the Australian government.

Prime minister Anthony Albanese made the announcement at a joint press conference with US president Joe Biden.

The plaintiff served years in prison that he otherwise would not have. At no stage did Victoria Police take positive steps to remedy its wrongdoing by expeditiously informing the plaintiff of Gobbo’s conduct in order to quash his conviction. Victoria Police has not apologised to the plaintiff.

Starting this court case is a significant moment for me. I am anxious about the future but also cautiously optimistic about finally holding police to account for what they did to me.

In the pursuit of justice, vindication came first, and now I see compensation as a measure of accountability.

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NT ordered to pay $1m in damages to youths teargassed in 2014 Don Dale disturbance

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Justice rules use of gas was unlawful and says there was ‘high-handedness or disparaging comments’ by officers towards Indigenous detainees

The Northern Territory government has been ordered to pay almost $1m in damages to four former detainees who were unlawfully teargassed during an incident at the notorious Don Dale youth detention centre.

According to a supreme court judgment delivered last week, Keiran Webster, Leroy O’Shea, Ethan Austral and Josiah Binsaris were entitled to exemplary damages after officers in the centre deployed CS gas, a form of teargas, to “incapacitate” another boy during a “serious disturbance” in 2014.

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Veronica Nelson’s family urges Victorian government to hear ‘cries for help’ and go further with bail reforms

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Exclusive: MPs urged to implement Poccum’s law, named in honour of First Nations woman who died in a cell while on remand

The family of First Nations woman Veronica Nelson has urged the Victorian government to “listen to [her] cries for help” and go further with its proposed changes to bail laws, which will be debated in parliament this week.

Nelson died alone in a Melbourne prison cell while on remand in January 2020 after her calls for help went unanswered. The 37-year-old Gunditjmara, Dja Dja Wurrung, Wiradjuri and Yorta Yorta woman had been arrested for shoplifting and refused bail before her death.

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Lawyer claims she wasn’t told for months that Aboriginal teen tried to take her life in youth detention

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Incident at South Australia’s Kurlana Tapa centre was downplayed, lawyer claims, but government says safety and wellbeing of children is ‘highest priority’

A lawyer representing children detained at South Australia’s only juvenile justice centre claims she was not informed for almost two months when an Aboriginal teenager attempted to take her own life in custody.

The Aboriginal Legal Rights Movement (ALRM) lawyer who represents the girl in her early teens said the seriousness of the incident in early 2023 at Kurlana Tapa Youth Justice Centre was not conveyed until eight weeks later.

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Indigenous advocates and families say tallying Australian deaths in custody does not address fundamental causes

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‘I want to see the day when deaths in custody stop,’ says nephew of David Dungay Jr, who died in police custody in 2015

Indigenous deaths in custody must stop rather than just be counted, families and advocates say as the government announced a real-time database to collect all custodial deaths as they happen.

The federal government revealed the new deaths in custody reporting system on Wednesday, with states and territories agreeing to provide more up-to-date figures on people dying in state and territory watch-houses, police stations, prisons and detention centres.

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Real-time reporting to monitor Aboriginal deaths in custody

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New data dashboard to provide up-to-date information supplied by states and territories

Governments will be held more accountable for their criminal justice systems with the launch of a new source of information on Indigenous deaths in custody.

Since the royal commission into Aboriginal deaths in custody released its report in 1991 there have been more than 540 First Nations deaths in custody.

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Almost every Victorian Indigenous prisoner has enrolled to vote for body negotiating treaty

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First Peoples’ Assembly will begin negotiations with Andrews government later this year

Almost every Victorian Indigenous prisoner has enrolled to vote for the body that will negotiate the state’s nation-first treaty negotiations.

The second iteration of the First Peoples’ Assembly will begin negotiating a landmark statewide treaty with the Andrews government later this year, once its election results are announced in the coming days.

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Indigenous deaths in custody at record high and public perception of police worst in 10 years, report finds

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Productivity Commission report on government services says 26% of Australia’s state-owned Indigenous housing is overcrowded

Indigenous deaths in custody are at their highest in the 15 years that records have been kept while public perceptions of the honesty and fairness of police officers has reached a 10-year low, according to new data from the federal Productivity Commission.

The Report on Government Services also found overcrowding in public housing is on the rise, while the number of public housing properties of an acceptable standard has sharply dropped.

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Six officers injured in ‘major disturbance’ involving juvenile detainees at WA’s Casuarina adult prison

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Authorities allege two youths assaulted a guard with a makeshift weapon and freed another 11 from their cells

Juvenile detainees being held in a maximum-security adult prison in Western Australia allegedly broke out of their cells and assaulted a guard overnight.

The state government has faced widespread criticism for moving juveniles from the Banksia Hill juvenile detention centre, some as young as 14, to the adult jail at Casuarina.

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AMA calls for governments to implement royal commission recommendations on Aboriginal deaths in custody

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Exclusive: Medical experts also reiterate calls to raise age of criminal responsibility, saying detention facilities have ‘deeply adverse’ affects on children

The Australian Medical Association is calling on governments to divert people away from incarceration and implement the recommendations of the 1991 Aboriginal deaths in custody royal commission.

The AMA has also reiterated its call for states and territories to raise the age of criminal responsibility from 10 to 14, particularly due to the disproportionate impact on Indigenous people.

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Brisbane watch house officer tells inquest she did not check if Aunty Sherry Tilberoo was breathing

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Debra Haigh tells hearing she now understands she should have stood in front of cell for longer and used a torch to look for movement

A Brisbane watch house officer who was suspended after the death of First Nations woman Shiralee Tilberoo has admitted during an inquest that she did not check whether she was breathing or shine a torch into the darkened cell on nine occasions.

The Birri Gubba woman – also known as Aunty Sherry – died of a brain aneurysm in Brisbane City watch house in the early hours of the morning on 10 September 2020.

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Victorian government must overhaul bail laws to create ‘meaningful’ change, legal groups say

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Advocates concerned after Daniel Andrews suggested looking at offence types rather than scrapping controversial 2018 changes

Changes to Victoria’s bail laws would be nothing more than cosmetic if the government does not scrap the “reverse onus” bail provisions that have led to a near doubling of Aboriginal women in custody, legal groups have warned.

The Victorian government has committed to reforming the Bail Act after a damning coroner’s report into the death in custody of Veronica Nelson found it was “incompatible” with the state’s charter of human rights and discriminatory towards First Nations people.

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Unsentenced prisoners make up a third of Australia’s prison population as bail refusals boom

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Advocates urge overhaul of strict bail laws in Victoria and elsewhere to ensure people aren’t needlessly funnelled into jail

The number of unsentenced people in Australian jails has risen more than 120% over 10 years, to account for more than a third of the total prison population, as human rights advocates urge reforms to ensure people aren’t needlessly funnelled into the criminal justice system.

More than 15,000 prisoners, or about 35% of the nation’s prison population, were unsentenced – awaiting trial, sentencing or deportation – in 2021. In 2011, when there were 6,723 unsentenced prisoners, that cohort accounted for less than 25% of the prison population.

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‘Complete, unmitigated disaster’: inquest into Veronica Nelson’s death urges overhaul of ‘discriminatory’ Victorian bail laws

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Coroner refers prison health contractor to Director of Public Prosecutions over death in custody

A Victorian coroner has declared the state’s controversial bail laws discriminatory and a “complete, unmitigated disaster”, using landmark findings into the 2020 death in custody of First Nations woman Veronica Nelson to recommend urgent reforms.

Coroner Simon McGregor on Monday handed down the highly anticipated findings into the death of Nelson, a 37-year-old Gunditjmara, Dja Dja Wurrung, Wiradjuri and Yorta Yorta woman who was in prison after being arrested for shoplifting and refused bail.

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Veronica Nelson’s partner launches lawsuit against Victorian government over death in custody

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Percy Lovett alleges a breach of human rights in a civil claim filed in state’s supreme court

Veronica Nelson’s long-term partner has launched a wrongful death lawsuit against the state of Victoria and four others, alleging her death in custody breached human rights.

The Indigenous woman, 37, was found dead in her cell at Dame Phyllis Frost Centre in January 2020 after making repeated calls for help, an inquest has heard.

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Advocates call for urgent action after two ‘incredibly tragic’ Aboriginal deaths in custody

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Linda Burney says rates of Indigenous incarceration and deaths in custody 30 years after royal commission are a ‘national shame’

Advocates say the “heartbreaking” deaths of two Aboriginal people in custody within days of each other in Western Australia over Christmas should jolt state and federal governments into urgent action.

A 41-year-old First Nations woman died in a Perth hospital on Christmas Eve after suffering a “medical episode” in Wandoo rehabilitation prison 13 days earlier.

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Zachary Rolfe ‘humiliated’ Indigenous teen in violent arrest before Walker shooting, inquest told

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Video from Rolfe’s body-worn camera shows him approach wheelie bin with 14-year-old hiding inside before slamming lid and pulling bin to ground

The Northern Territory police officer who shot and killed Kumanjayi Walker was involved in an earlier arrest of another Indigenous youth that was allegedly violent and humiliating, an inquest has been told.

The inquiry into the death of 19-year-old Walker – who was shot during a bungled arrest in Yuendumu in 2019 – was played a video on Tuesday of Const Zachary Rolfe detaining a 14-year-old boy in 2018.

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Uncle Jack Charles: First Nations elder and storyteller farewelled at state funeral in Melbourne

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Film-maker Amiel Courtin-Wilson says Uncle Jack ‘gave people space to be themselves … in a way that afforded them unique dignity’

A crowd waving Aboriginal flags has lined St Kilda Road in Melbourne to send off Indigenous elder and storyteller Uncle Jack Charles after his state funeral.

The actor, musician, activist and member of the stolen generations died at Royal Melbourne hospital on 13 September after suffering a stroke. He was 79.

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Northern Territory moves to raise age of criminal responsibility from 10 to 12

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Government says authorities will refer children under 12 and their families to parenting and behavioural change programs to break the cycle of offending

The Northern Territory government is seeking to raise the age of criminal responsibility from 10 years old to 12 years old.

The Labor government introduced the legislation to parliament on Thursday, saying authorities would now refer children under the age of 12 and their families to intensive parenting and behavioural change programs to break the cycle of offending.

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