Our Indigenous Prison Population !

The rate at which we imprison Indigenous people has been branded both a national disgrace and an international embarrassment in the Australian Law Reform  Commission's "Pathway to Justice "report, which remains inactioned in the Federal parliament.

Indigenous people make up just two percent of the Australian population, and yet they occupy twenty-seven percent of those locked away behind bars.  This ALRC report contains thirty-five recommendations, including repealing mandatory sentencing laws which have a disproportionate impact on Indigenous Australians.

The ALRC report also noted that the situation was even worse when the imprisonment of Indigenous women was taken into account.   They represent thirty-four percent of the female prison population and a glaring  eighty percent are mothers.   It followed that terms of imprisonment have a direct bearing on the removal of Indigenous children from their homes and is responsible for all the anguish that causes.   The report called for the abolition of imprisonment for unpaid fines, which disproportionally  affects Indigenous women.

The report contains more than five hundred pages and suggests many law changes in both the Federal and state sphere and directs funding to community led, place-based initiatives that address the drivers of crime and incarceration.  The Federal government promised over a year ago that it would respond to these recommendations "in due course ".

Of course this is an issue which will be highlighted in the "blame game "of apportioning Indigenous imprisonment to a mix of Federal and state laws.   Imprisonment was supposed to be the action of last resort but in too many courtrooms it has become the automatic sentence for what are termed minor crimes committed by Indigenous people.

A spokesperson for the Federal government said the Commonwealth was already responding to the report by providing about $245 million in 2018-19 through its "Indigenous advancement strategy "to improve community safety and address the drivers of Indigenous incarceration.

It seems that what is badly needed is an attitudinal change.  At present, when an Indigenous person faces a court the likelihood of him or her leaving court in handcuffs and being transported to a prison is much higher than for any other Australian.   The outcome for exactly the same crime can be vastly different if your identity is termed  "Indigenous ".

This ALRC report is valuable because it identifies what needs to change to deliver the level of justice that applies equally to all Australians.