Deaths in Custody: 10 Years on From the Royal Commission

• NCJ Number: 188345
• Author(s): Paul Williams
• Date Published: April 2001
• Length: 6 pages
• Sale Source: Australian Institute of Criminology
• Publication Format: Document
• Publication Type: Statistics
• Language: English
• Country: Australia
• Note: Australian Institute of Criminology Trends and Issues in Crime and Criminal Justice, No. 203. Downloaded April 26, 2001

Annotation

This paper examines the number and circumstances of deaths in custody for the period January 1980 to May 1989 and compares them with those which occurred in the period 1990 to 1999.

Abstract

The Royal Commission Into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody examined the circumstances of the deaths of 99 Indigenous persons in police or prison custody that occurred between January 1980 and May 1989. In the decade 1990 to 1999, there were a further 628 deaths (115 of which were Indigenous persons) in police or prison custody, and a further 190 deaths (30 of which were Indigenous persons) during police operations. The average annual rate of death in custody for an Indigenous person decreased from 4.4 deaths per 100,000 persons between 1980 and 1989, to 3.8 deaths per 100,000 persons between 1990 and 1999. Over this period, as a proportion of all deaths in custody or police operations, deaths of Indigenous persons decreased from 21 percent to 18 percent. Deaths of all persons in police custody decreased from 61 percent of all deaths in custody between 1980 and 1989 to 18 percent between 1990 and 1999. Conversely, over the same period, deaths in prisons increased from 35 percent to 81 percent of all deaths in custody. Figures, tables, references