The number of Indigenous Australians in prisons around the country increased last year despite a drop in the overall prison population due COVID-19, with the ongoing pandemic doing little to stem the systemic discrimination and racism in the justice system.
Incarceration rates of Indigenous Australians have continued to rise in 2021, despite significant calls for governments around the country to address why they are disproportionately impacted.
In the first week of March alone three Indigenous Australians died in prisons in NSW and Victoria.
According to ABS statistics, there was a 7 percent decrease in Australia’s overall prison population from June 2019 to June 2020, with 41,060 people in prison at the end of this month. This marked the first annual decline in a decade, and can be attributed almost solely to the pandemic.
But the number of Indigenous Australians in prisons increased by 2 percent in this same time, reaching 12,092 people by the end of June last year.
This is despite significant concerns over a COVID-19 outbreak in an Australian prison, and Indigenous Australians being more vulnerable to the virus.
The Public Health Association of Australia (PHAA) called for urgent action to address these rates of incarceration, which is a public health issue and violation of the human rights of Indigenous Australians.
“We’ve been able to decrease the rest of the non-Indigenous prison population by around 7 percent, but the Aboriginal rate has risen, and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people already make up a disproportionate amount of Australia’s prison population due to systemic racism and discrimination,” PHAA Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Special Interest Group co-convenor Dr Michael Doyle said.
“The rise in the rate of their incarceration while other Australians are being kept out of prison is deeply concerning and upsetting to our communities who are absolutely fed up with the widening gap in the Australian justice system.
“Our lives matter and this inequality should be completely unacceptable to all Australians.”
In New South Wales, the number of Indigenous prisoners in the state jumped by 7 percent to 3,335 in the 2019-20 financial year, the largest increase out of any Australian jurisdiction. This was despite an overall 8 percent decrease in the state’s prison population.
In Queensland there was a 6 percent increase in the number of Indigenous Australians in prison despite a 5 percent decrease in the overall prison population. Tasmania and the ACT also saw an increase in the number of Indigenous prisoners despite overall decreases.
In the same time in Victoria there was a 14 percent decrease in the number of Indigenous Australians in prison, and a 15 percent decrease in the total prison population.
But these numbers have steadily increased in the time since. In July 2020 there were just over 7,000 people incarcerated in Victoria, and 710 of these people were Indigenous.
By the end of February 2021, the latest data available, there were 770 Indigenous Australians in Victorian prisons, and 7,714 prisoners in total.
A recent report by the Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service (VALS) said the COVID-19 pandemic should be an opportunity to implement significant reforms to address the over-incarceration of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
“VALS anticipates that the numbers of incarcerated people will increase again as courts make their way through their backlog, and with the easing of restrictions in the community,” VALS said in the report.
“Any gains made in terms of reduced prison populations should not only be protected as we enter the recovery period, but should be built upon. Our objective must be more ambitious than simply getting back to pre-pandemic ‘business as usual’. It is past time for a justice system overhaul.”
Denham Sadler is a freelance journalist based in Melbourne. He covers politics and technology regularly for InnovationAus, and writes about other issues, including criminal justice, for publications including The Guardian and The Saturday Paper. He is also the senior editor of The Justice Map, a project to strengthen advocacy for criminal justice reform in Australia. You can follow him on Twitter.
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