Deaths in Custody

June 2016 marked 35 years since the death of Eddie Murray in police custody. Eddie’s passing still causes reverberations today – it was in part the efforts of his father, Arthur Murray, which led to the establishment of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody. EMMA PURDY* reports.

Mr Scott's death was one of the 99 cases examined by the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody in 1989. Mrs Scott were shown photographs of Mr Scott hanging in his cell by two lawyers assisting the Commission in the Northern Territory. Mrs Scott said the photographs showed him suspended inches from a grate in the nine-foot-high ceiling with his feet dangling two to three feet from the floor, the noose around his neck made from a plain and tightly twisted sheet that was neatly tied in multiple knots which were tight and close together. She did not believe her husband made the noose. [node:read-more:link]

DEREK'S friends got him into stealing in his mid-teens. He was thrown in juvenile detention twice, cut off from his family and missing school, instead surrounded by endless opportunities for further crime. "It's not easy, you got no family to talk to," he said. "They said, as soon as you hit 18, you'll be heading to the big prison, the man's prison." Derek was one of the lucky ones. While on parole, his uncle organised for him to do community service and later to work at a tourism organisation on his traditional Aboriginal country in the Kimberley. [node:read-more:link]

Ray was stolen from his Aboriginal mother after his white father died serving Australia in WW2

On April 23, an Aboriginal man who dedicated his life to fighting against the deaths of his people in Australian police and prison cells succumbed quietly to his own death in his small flat in Waterloo. Ray Jackson, a Wiradjuri warrior for human rights, was one of Australia's most vocal and knowledgeable deaths-in-custody campaigners. A fighter for Koori justice – or "fkj", as he always signed his weekly emails – Jackson spent nearly 30 years holding our police, prison and court systems to account every time a "blackfella" died in custody. [node:read-more:link]

The West Australian Government's decision to scrap funding for an interpreting service is certain to deny justice to some Aboriginal people in the Kimberley. The Kimberley Interpreting Service helps Aboriginal people navigate the technical English of police interviews and the courts."I think Mr Barnett needs to take heed of what the Chief Justice is saying and understand that to reduce the number of Aboriginal people going to prison, it's not just about pushing them out of jail, it's keeping them out of jail," Ben Wyatt said. [node:read-more:link]

The deaths of Indigenous people in custody in Australia has worsened, Not for Profit representatives, including disability advocates, have told the United Nation's Committee Against Torture. The hearing was told that there are many concerns for indigenous peoples in relation to Australia's compliance with the Treaty including the rate of incarceration of Indigenous people and secondly, the continuation of deaths of Indigenous people in custody. [node:read-more:link]

A new report says Mental health services for Aboriginal Australians are "both inadequate and inappropriate", and immediate changes are needed to address growing rates of suicide, depression and other mental health issues among Indigenous youth. The report also highlighted several shortcomings in efforts to improve mental health among Indigenous Australians and cited "dramatic" increases in recent years in Indigenous rates of youth suicide, anxiety and depression and other related illnesses. [node:read-more:link]

As protesters rallied in Perth, South Hedland and Geraldton to demand answers over the death of a 22-year-old Aboriginal woman in police custody in August.
Charmaine Green, who attended the rally in Geraldton announced that a 31-year-old Aboriginal man has died in a Perth prison. An internal police investigation is underway into Ms Dhu's death but their are calls for an independent inquiry as well as strategies to help avoid deaths in custody. [node:read-more:link]