https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/feb/20/indigenous-incarceration-turning-the-tide-on-colonisations-cruel-third-act
In a new Guardian series, we explore what can and is being done to change the statistics that shame Australia
The grim statistics are read out in the Australian parliament every February.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are 14 times more likely to be in custody than non-Indigenous people. A teenage boy who identifies as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander is more likely to go to jail than go to university and, because of the high incarceration rate, is more likely to die in custody than any non-Indigenous person they pass on the street.
It’s colonisation’s cruel third act; both a product and cause of ongoing intergenerational disadvantage. And it starts in childhood.
In the wake of the Don Dale scandal and the death in custody of Aboriginal woman Ms Dhu, the issue of the over-incarceration of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders has once again brought into sharp contrast more than 25 years after the landmark royal commission into Aboriginal death in custody.
These twin events prompted both national outrage and a reconsideration of what could be done to prevent Indigenous people, especially children and young people, from ending up in the criminal justice system in the first place. Guardian Australia in a series of articles will look at what can and is being done to change the shameful statistics – from cooperation between health and youth workers in Ceduna in South Australia to cultural programs in the Northern Territory and Western Australia, and justice reinvestment in Cowra in New South Wales.
The problem of Indigenous over-incarceration in Australia is at its most severe among children. The age of criminal responsibility in Australia is 10 years old, two years younger than recommended by the UN convention on the rights of the child.
