Aboriginal custody death risk still too high, says report Source: AAP|Published: Wednesday July 12, 3:28 PM Aboriginal people remain almost 20 per cent more likely to die in custody despite a decade of effort to cut the indigenous death rate, a new report reveals. The report on deaths in custody for 1999, by Australian Institute of Criminology (AIC) researcher Vicki Dalton, shows that indigenous people continue to die in custody in record numbers. Overall, 85 people died in custody, including prisons, detention centres and police cells, in 1999 - 10 fewer than 1998 and 20 fewer than 1997. But 19 of those deaths - or almost one in four - were Aborigines. 'There were more Aboriginal deaths in institutional custody in 1999 than in any previous years except 1987 and 1995,' institute director Adam Graycar said in a statement. 'In the decade prior to the (1991) Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody, 12.1 per cent of all prison deaths were indigenous people. during the last decade this proportion has risen to 17.6 per cent. 'During 1999, 22 per cent of all prison deaths were indigenous people.' Ms Dalton said it was possible to calculate relative risk of death in prison for indigenous and non-indigenous people. For the decade before the royal commission the figure was 1.22, for 1990-99 it was 1.06 and for 1999 it was 1.18. 'Therefore during 1999 the relative risk of death in prison custody for indigenous prisoners compared with non-indigenous prisoners was 1.18,' she said in the report. 'This means that the risk of death for indigenous prisoners was approximately 1.2 times greater than that of non-indigenous prisoners.' The report classifies deaths in custody into categories including police institutional custody (such as lockups), police operations (such as chases, sieges or shootings) and prison and juvenile institutions. The overall fall in deaths in custody represented a positive development although the AIC cautioned that numbers had varied inexplicably in other years. Hanging remains the most common cause of death in custody, accounting for 44 per cent of all deaths. Eight indigenous people died of natural causes (illness) while six died of self-inflicted hanging. The report noted a fall in the number of deaths in police custody, from 31 in 1990 to 26 in 1999. During 1999 there also was a noticeable reduction in deaths in police institutional custody, including lockups. Six died in 1999 compared with 10 in 1998. 'On the other hand there was a noticeable increase in the deaths in police operation - up from 15 (in 1998) to 20 deaths,' the report said. -- ********************************** 'Click' to protect the rainforest: Make the Rainforest Site your homepage! http://www.therainforestsite.com/ ********************************** ------------------------------------------------------ RecOzNet2 has a page @ http://www.green.net.au/recoznet2 and is archived at http://www.mail-archive.com/ To unsubscribe from this list, mail [EMAIL PROTECTED], and in the body of the message, include the words: unsubscribe announce or click here mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20announce This posting is provided to the individual members of this group without permission from the copyright owner for purposes of criticism, comment, scholarship and research under the "fair use" provisions of the Federal copyright laws and it may not be distributed further without permission of the copyright owner, except for "fair use." RecOzNet2 is archived for members @ http://www.mail-archive.com/recoznet2%40paradigm4.com.au/
