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Introduction
THIS ARTICLE IS CONCERNED WITH ABORIGINAL DEATHS IN CUSTODY IN AUSTRALIA. Given the widespread phenomena of Aboriginal overrepresentation incriminai justice systems internationally, it is not a problem unique to Australia. Indeed, the social, economic, health, and educational status of indigenous peoples is indicative of the most marginalized groups globally.1 As a result, it is not surprising that they are so frequently criminalized. Examples from Canada, New Zealand, and the United States illustrate the point. Criminal justice data show that Maori are overrepresented at every stage of the New Zealand criminal justice system. In 1998, they were 3.3 times more likely to be apprehended for a criminal offense than non-Mäori. They were more likely to be prosecuted, convicted, and sentenced to imprisonment. The result was that Maori made up 14% of the general population, but 51% of the prison population. Evidence suggests the gaps are widening, not narrowing (Doone, 2000: 8). In Canada, Aboriginal people comprise three percent of the general population, but Aboriginal offenders make up 17% of inmates in the federal penitentiary system. The situation is even worse in some provincial institutions, particularly in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta, where Aboriginal people make up more than 60% of the inmate population in some penitentiaries. In Saskatchewan, for example, Aboriginal people are incarcerated at a rate 35 times higher than the mainstream population (Cunneen, 200 Ic: 108). In the United States, on any given day an estimated one in 25 American Indians 18 years old and older is under the jurisdiction of the nation's criminal justice system. This is 2.4 times the rate for whites and 9.3 times the per capita rate for Asians, but about half the rate for blacks. The number of American Indians per capita confined in state and federal prisons is about 38% above the national average. The rate of confinement in local jails is estimated to be nearly four times the national average (Greenfeld and Smith, 1999).
This article looks at indigenous overrepresentation in the criminal justice system in Australia and the findings of research on indigenous deaths in custody in the context of the landmark Royal Commission into Aboriginal deaths in custody. Using a number of case studies, the article considers deaths in police custody and in prison, which...