Anniversary highlights Aboriginal deaths in Australian custody crisis

Thirty years after sweeping reforms were recommended to end the injustice of Indigenous deaths in Australian custody, a spate of recent fatalities and soaring rates of Aboriginal incarceration have highlighted failures to act.

According to Press TV, jailing children as young as 10, persistent racist attitudes and tough law-and-order policies all contribute to what has been called a "national shame" by Aboriginal leaders.

More than 450 Indigenous fatalities have been recorded since the landmark Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody was published in 1991, including five since early March.

There is now soaring anger over the mounting toll — and the fact that no police or prison officials have ever been convicted over the deaths.

Nioka Chatfield is still reeling from the loss of her 22-year-old son Tane, who was dragged unresponsive from his prison cell while on remand and later died in hospital.

"It is a painful, painful, tragic experience that us Aboriginal people here in Australia have to endure," she told AFP.

The 1991 inquiry found Indigenous people were more likely to die in custody because of their "grossly disproportionate" over-representation in detention.

At the time, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders made up just over 14 percent of adult prisoners.

That has now doubled to roughly 29 percent — despite Indigenous Australians comprising just three percent of the total population, official statistics show.

The situation is even worse for Indigenous children, who make up about 65 percent of the very youngest in detention.

The Royal Commission found the situation "would not be tolerated if it occurred in the non-Aboriginal community."

Last year, nationwide rallies drew tens of thousands who defied coronavirus rules to protest in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement in the US and to highlight systematic racism at home.

Hundreds of people attended fresh demonstrations in Brisbane, Sydney and other cities Saturday, with crowds holding placards bearing the images of the dead.

ME