Law Council of Australia Media Release: Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody requires urgent action 30 years on

14/04/2021

The Law Council of Australia is calling for a comprehensive national response to address the vastly disproportionate imprisonment of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, 30 years on from the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody.

In 1991, the Royal Commission concluded: “The conclusions are clear. Aboriginal people die in custody at a rate relative to their proportion of the whole population which is totally unacceptable and which would not be tolerated if it occurred in the non-Aboriginal community.” This occurred because “too many Aboriginal people are in custody too often.”

Yet in December 2020, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander imprisonment rate was 2,333 persons per 100,000 adult Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population, compared to the imprisonment rate of 208 persons per 100,000 adult population generally.

The full media release is available here.