The Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody (RCIADIC) arose in response to public concern that deaths in custody of Aboriginal people were too frequent, and too poorly explained.
Over four years, it investigated 99 individual deaths across Australia and the systematic issues that contributed. The Commission’s final report was handed down in April 1991, providing 339 recommendations to assist with lowering the number of Aboriginal deaths in custody1.
Key findings of the inquiry included Indigenous people were 16.5 times more likely than non-Indigenous people to die in custody between 1990 and 1995. This rate reflects the strong overrepresentation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in custody, where Indigenous people in 1995 were 14.7 times more likely to be imprisoned than non-Indigenous people2.
Since the RCIADIC, there have been 588 Indigenous deaths in custody, and an alarming 27 Indigenous deaths in custody occurring in 2024 alone. This continues to reflect overrepresentation of Indigenous prisoners, with Indigenous Australians making up 3.8 per cent of the Australian population, yet 32 per cent of the total prison population3.
In 2017, an independent review by Deloitte Access Economics found that 78 per cent of recommendations from the RCIADIC had been fully or mostly implemented4. However, an independent review by Aboriginal scholars found this number is much lower, due to many recommendations being implemented and subsequently reversed, or implemented on paper without any effective outcomes5. This reveals a poor effort on the Government’s behalf to implement the RCIADIC recommendations, which have in many cases gone backwards.
In 2018 Queensland Law Society (QLS) made a submission to the Council of Australian Governments about the next phase of the Closing the Gap initiative. QLS noted that strategies and policy to reduce incarceration rates are at the mercy of state and territory government control.
To achieve change, public and specific program outcomes need to be implemented and regularly monitored for authoritative and evidential effectiveness. This should include establishing robust and measurable targets, such as justice targets, including one for the reduction in Aboriginal deaths in custody and an overall reduction of occasions of excessive forced being used by police toward Indigenous Australians. These suggestions largely stem from the RCIADIC report.6
This is further supported in the QLS 2024 State Call to Parties Statement, suggesting numerous initiatives and reforms to assist with reducing incarceration rates:
- Establish an independent body to investigate and make prosecutorial recommendations with respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander deaths in custody;
- Greater resourcing of existing and new projects, processes and programs to address the overrepresentation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in the criminal justice system;
- Reduce rates of remand by investigating bail assistance programs for young people and adults, with specific reference to the incarceration rates of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people;
- Implement community-led Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Elder visitor and other culturally appropriate programs in Queensland correctional facilities with a view to reducing incarceration and recidivism rates.7
Given the continued highly disproportionate rate of First Nations incarcerations, targeting the root social, economic and cultural inequities remain critical to reducing Indigenous deaths in custody.
QLS remains dedicated to collaborating with First Nations and Government stakeholders in advocating for impactful change regarding policies and laws affecting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
Footnotes
1 Community fact sheet: Ending Aboriginal Deaths in Custodyp1.
2 Australian Human Rights Commission, Indigenous Deaths in Custody: Report Summary .
3 Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, The health and wellbeing of First Nations people in Australia’s prisons 2022.
4 National Indigenous Australians Agency, Review of the implementation of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody.
5 Community fact sheet: Ending Aboriginal Deaths in Custodyp1.
6 Queensland Law Society Submission, Closing the Gap Refresh: The Next Phase Public Discussion Paper.
7 Queensland Law Society, 2024 Queensland State Election Call to Parties.
Share this article