Somewhere, sometime in Australia last night the cell door slammed shut and the key was turned.
A lonely moment, with no-one to care. At the moment the cell door shuts despair befalls the prisoner. He (more often he than she) will more likely be drunk, drugged, injured or in ill-health than anyone else in the community. He will more likely be Aboriginal. He will more likely commit suicide or die from other causes.
But we do not know precisely how many people will be locked up, or why. Nor do we know precisely who is being locked up: their ages, sex, Aboriginality, reason for detention, when and why released and so on.
Without this information how can we prevent deaths in custody?
From last night, we will know. Throughout August, the Institute of Criminology will survey every person in Australia put into a cell, even if for only a few minutes.
The institute has got the co-operation of every police force, prison service, remand centre, juvenile detention centre and coroner in the land. In itself that is an achievement. All have agreed that throughout August they will provide data on a form for the institute.
Only with this sort of research can we stop wringing our hands about deaths in custody and learn how to prevent them.
David McDonald heads a new unit at the institute to carry on research recommended by the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody. When the commission wound up it recommended that research continue. Some in the Aboriginal community rejected the commission’s findings on individual deaths, seeking that blame be attached to individuals. However, the Aboriginal community as a whole accepted the other general recommendations.
The question is whether much has changed since the commission brought down its report. That question cannot be determined without detailed research.
The last time all people in Australia placed in custody were surveyed was in August, 1988. Now, four years later a direct comparison will be able to be made.
The research will embrace all those placed in custody.
We know that Australia averages 50 deaths in custody a year. We know that deaths among Aborigines in custody are proportional to the number of Aborigines in the custodial population. But the proportion of Aboriginal deaths is far greater than the proportion of Aborigines in the total population. (More than half against 3 per cent in Western Australia, example).
So the fundamental question is not so much, why are so many Aborigines dying in custody, but why are so many Aborigines being placed in custody in the first place.
Hence this month’s survey.
Institute researcher David McDonald will head the research. He said yesterday, ÿ(jul31)@ “”The Aboriginal community has a special interest in this research. Aboriginal health and legal services are being consulted about it. If the research had been better in 1987 we would have been alerted far earlier to the rise in deaths in custody. We would have known if it was a trend or an aberration.
“”Police, quite rightly, have to focus on day-to-day matters and cannot be expected to get an overview and look at trends. That’s where research comes in. If trends change, authorities need to know so they can do something about it.”
The deputy director of the institute, David Biles, said he hoped the research would show that police in Australia had taken the message of the Royal Commission and done something about it.
Representatives from all Australian police jurisdictions have met regularly since the royal commission. A meeting was held this week in Alice Springs which looked at improving conditions for those in custody, including such things as cell design, access to natural light and the circulation of fresh air and a host of other matters.
Since the royal commission the institute has monitored all deaths in custody. it has got co-operation from all police forces, coroners, juvenile detention centres and prisons to provide details of all deaths.
The research, however, is under some threat. The coalition’s Fightback policy states, “”The Australian Institute of Criminology which duplicates a role performed by many specialists and police agencies around Australia, will also be abolished.”
People involved in deaths in custody question whether there is any body, state or national, that can do the research required on this or indeed other criminological issues.