NCJ Number
181459
Journal
Journal of Law, Medicine and Ethics Volume: 27 Issue: 3 Dated: Fall 1999 Pages: 269-274
Date Published
1999
Length
6 pages
Annotation
After discussing the role of the Australian Institute of Criminology (AIC) in monitoring inmate deaths in custody on a national basis, this article presents a descriptive overview of Australian Indigenous and non-Indigenous inmate deaths in custody during the 18-year period between 1980 and 1998.
Abstract
Since 1992 AIC's National Deaths in Custody Monitoring and Research Program has been monitoring Indigenous and non-Indigenous deaths in prison and police custody, in custody-related police operations, and in juvenile detention. During the last 18 years, 486 (69 percent) inmates died while they were still serving their sentences. Another 216 (30 percent) died while on remand. Indigenous inmates were more likely than non-Indigenous prisoners to be serving a sentence than to be on remand at the time of death (75 percent compared with 25 percent for Indigenous prisoners and 68 percent compared with 31 percent for non-Indigenous prisoners). The average age of the 216 remandees who died over the last 18 years was 31 years, compared with 37 years for the 486 sentenced prisoners who died. Differences also exist in how sentenced prisoners and prisoners on remand died. Seventy-two percent of remandee deaths were self-inflicted, compared with 35 percent of sentenced deaths. Forty-one percent (200) of sentenced prisoners died from natural causes compared with 17 percent of remand prisoners. The most frequent cause of death was suicide (47.3 percent), with hanging being the vehicle for more than 91 percent of all prison suicides. Death from natural causes was the dominant cause of death among Indigenous prisoners, closely followed by suicide. 25 references