Deaths in custody in Australia 1990-2004

The National Deaths in Custody Program contains a dataset spanning 25 years with details of every death occurring in prison custody, police custody and custody-related operations, and in juvenile detention facilities across Australia. This report summarises the trends in these deaths between 1990 and 2004. Compared with the period 1980-1989 in which the majority of deaths in custody occurred in police custody, prison custody deaths have accounted for the overall majority of such deaths since 1990. Deaths in police custody have generally decreased during this time while the number of deaths in police operations has increased. An increase in the number of deaths of non-Indigenous persons accounted for the bulk of the increase in the number of deaths in police operations. The NDICP is a valuable program which enables continued monitoring of all deaths in custody across Australia and identification of changing trends. Toni Makkai Director Background The National Deaths in Custody Program (NDICP) was established at the Australian Institute of Criminology (AIC) in 1992 in response to a recommendation of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody (RCIADIC) that an ongoing program monitor all deaths in custody in Australia. The RCIADIC outlined the types of deaths that would require notification to the NDICP as deaths of persons in prison custody, police custody or juvenile detention; deaths due to lack of proper care, or injuries sustained whilst in such custody; deaths of persons who the or are fatally injured in the process of being detained by police or prison officers; and deaths of persons attempting to escape custody (RCIADIC, 1991: 190). The NDICP gathers information on these types of deaths from all state and territory police departments and correctional services with a dataset dating back to 1980. Williams (2001) examined Australian deaths in custody between 1980 and 1989 and compared them with those between 1990 and 1999. This paper examines the general trends in deaths in custody over the 15 year period following the RCIADIC, from 1990 to 2004. The main findings are presented in three sections: deaths in prison custody; deaths in police custody (Category 1) and deaths in police custody-related operations (Category 2). Further statistical information on the findings presented here can be found in the NDICP annual report (Joudo & Veld 2005). It is widely recognised that Indigenous people are over-represented across the criminal justice system and this trend is also present in the deaths in custody statistics. Various underlying issues have been raised in recent government reports as contributing to Indigenous disadvantage generally and in increasing the likelihood of contact with the criminal justice system. Behaviours such as substance and solvent abuse and harmful alcohol use are among the health issues that have been identified as contributing to poorer health and shorter life expectancies among Indigenous persons than the wider Australian population (SCRGSP 2005). It has been suggested that these behaviours may cause long-term health problems and increase the need and opportunity for some Indigenous persons to commit offences due to 'enforced idleness and poverty' (Hunter 2001: 3). In an AIC study of the impact of substance abuse on offending by Indigenous males it was found that 69 percent of Indigenous adult male prisoners had used alcohol at the time of arrest or commission of the offence, whereas only 27 percent of non-Indigenous prisoners reported alcohol use at either arrest or commission of offence (Putt, Payne & Milner 2005). Indigenous prisoners were also more likely than non-Indigenous prisoners to attribute their most recent serious offence to drugs. Prison custody, 1990-2004 The deaths reported in this section refer only to deaths in adult correctional facilities, including those occurring during transfers and in medical facilities (see Box 1). …