No end in sight to ever-rising Indigenous incarceration numbers

The latest data shows Indigenous Australians in prisons have reached a new all-time high, Alan Austin reports.

THE NUMBER of Indigenous adult prisoners in Australia surged in 2023 by 950, or 7.4%, to reach a record 13,852. Non-Indigenous prisoners only increased by 253 – or 0.9% – to tally 27,942, which is well below the high of 31,095 reached back in 2018.

Non-Indigenous prisoner numbers have been declining steadily since 2018, while Indigenous numbers reach new highs almost every year.

This is the grim story told by the figures recently released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS):

Source: Prisoners in Australia (latest release), Australian Bureau of Statistics

Of those 13,852 First Australians in prisons, 62% are in for violent crimes and 38% for non-violent offences. Among non-Indigenous prisoners, the ratio is 56% to 44%.

The category, 'Acts intended to cause injury', is the most common conviction for First Nations offenders, at 5,441 last year, which is 39.4% of all categories of crime. Among non-Indigenous prisoners, this is just 20.8%.

Disturbingly, 40.9% of all Indigenous prisoners have not been convicted of any crime, instead being held on remand before trial or awaiting release at the discretion of the police. The percentage of non-Indigenous prisoners on remand is 36.6.

Prisoner numbers declining but Indigenous people still overrepresented

The latest prison figures show state and federal government departments are still failing First Australians.

Continuing police violence

Causes of Indigenous incarceration are complex, multiple, historic and seemingly insoluble. They exist on many levels, from street poverty to substance addiction to the continuing legacy of colonisation.

Mark Riboldi is a lecturer in Social Impact at the University of Technology Sydney with an impressive history of working with vulnerable communities, including with Community Legal Centres NSW.

He told Independent Australia:

'Australian policing is typically very heavy-handed. Local officers are armed and dangerous and our country has a long and sad history of racism. Until recently, NSW Police operated the Suspect Target Management Plan (STMP), which led to the unjust and discriminatory targeting of young Indigenous men and women.'

Riboldi is disturbed by the stark difference in treating Indigenous and non-Indigenous offenders.

'Historically, imprisonment rates of Indigenous men and women have been inflated by the number of people held on remand, without charge. Also, bail conditions can be extremely onerous. All of these are potential factors, many of which come down to how police chose to respond to situations.'

For positive long-term change, Riboldi argues that communities need more local support, 'including access to housing, health and education'.

'Probably the best thing we could do is to make police and other public service providers directly accountable to First Nations leadership at a local level.'

One in ten inmates in Victoria’s prison system is Aboriginal

Victoria's State Government must do better on Indigenous incarceration rates, writes Victorian Greens MP Dr Tim Read.

Colonisation remains a destructive force

Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians working in Arnhem Land and other remote regions claim colonisation still has a negative impact.

Richard Trudgeon has lived and worked with the Yolngu people of north-east Arnhem Land for over fifty years. He is a community educator, business developer, author and CEO of Why Warriors.

Trudgeon has chronicled the intergenerational transfer of destructive post-colonial factors. These include trauma, poverty, confusion, hopelessness, derogatory naming, subconscious or implicit bias and structural or community violence.

He rejects emphatically the assertion that British colonisation has only brought advantages.

He told IA:

Their arguments rely on the changes to people’s lives wrought by modernisation, which has brought both benefits and harms to all cultures. However, to argue that colonisation has not dramatically affected the Original Australians is patently false. Proof that colonisation delivers ongoing harm has been demonstrated by the abject failure of Closing the Gap efforts.

Because of colonisation, the Yolngu people now suffer from the highest death rates in Australia, massive underemployment, low academic attainment and high incarceration rates. They have lost their business mastery, academic languages, systems of governance, teaching institutions, midwifery skills and other high-level medical expertise.

Past government failure

Richard Trudgeon first set out his findings in 2000 in his landmark book, Why Warriors Lie Down and Die. Since then, he has seen the destruction accelerate, especially through the massive injection of public money during the Howard Government’s failed intervention into the Northern Territory Aboriginal communities.

In June 2007, Prime Minister Howard authorised a task force led by a white magistrate to implement highly oppressive measures to control Aboriginal communities. These included discriminatory changes to welfare, banning alcohol, increased policing, deploying the army for surveillance and appointing white managers.

Trudgeon argues:

This short-sighted, destructive policy set back these communities by at least thirty years.

To find answers, we need to look at what is still causing the division and failure in program development. Without looking at the continuing underlying problem in the structural relationships, nothing can change for the better.

Voice to Parliament a chance to minimise Indigenous child imprisonment

Establishing the Indigenous Voice to Parliament will provide an opportunity for First Nations Australians to make a better life for troubled youth.

Looking to Albo for hope

The Albanese Government, according to Mark Riboldi, offers hope through its support for First Nations community-led justice reinvestment.

The purpose of this is to align government and non-government resources to a community-led agenda for change.

While the impacts won’t appear overnight, long-term investment in First Nations community leadership and self-determination is a positive sign.

To be fair to the Albanese Government, it supported the First Nations National Constitutional Convention in formulating the Voice to the parliaments. That initiative would almost certainly have reduced Indigenous crime and imprisonment. As we saw late last year, that was stymied by Opposition leader Peter Dutton – a former police officer – and the wreckers in the Liberal and National parties.

We shall soon see what current negotiations with Indigenous communities yield. Meanwhile, more than 13,000 First Australians are wasting away in prison cells. That number keeps on climbing.