What has happened in the 10 years since the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody?
So first, what has happened in the 10 years (now 11 years) since the Royal Commission reported in 1991? The most tangible indicator of progress since the Royal Commission is the extent of Indigenous contact with the criminal justice system. Has the rate of over-representation of Indigenous people and the number of deaths in custody been reduced? We could have reasonably expected that lasting improvements for both of these measures would have been realised within a timeframe of ten years and following the injection of more than $400 million of additional federal funding to meet this objective. This has not happened. Indigenous people continue to be grossly over-represented in criminal justice processes, and the rate of this over-representation has in fact worsened – rather than improved – since the Royal Commission. The number of Indigenous prisoners increased at an average rate of 8% per year between 1991 – 1999, compared with an increase in the non-Indigenous prisoner population of 3%
