30th Anniversary of the RCIADIC and the ‘white noise’ of the justice system is loud and clear

2021 ◽  
pp. 1037969X2110191
Author(s):  
Eddie Cubillo
Keyword(s):  
White Noise ◽  
Indigenous People ◽  
Justice System ◽  
Royal Commission ◽  
30Th Anniversary ◽  
Deaths In Custody

It's been 30 years since the tabling of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody and for Indigenous people things are worse than they have ever been when dealing with the justice industry.

Death and Dying in Prison in Australia: National Overview, 1980–1998

1999 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 269-274 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vicki Dalton
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Indigenous People ◽  
Justice System ◽  
Social Economic ◽  
Death And Dying ◽  
Royal Commission ◽  
Australian Institute ◽  
Underlying Causes ◽  
Deaths In Custody

This paper discusses the role of the Australian Institute of Criminology (AIC) in monitoring inmate deaths in custody on a national basis. It also provides a descriptive overview of Australian Indigenous and non-Indigenous inmate deaths in custody during the eighteen-year period between 1980 and 1998.In October 1987, the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody (RCIADIC) commenced investigating the deaths of Australia's Indigenous people in custody throughout Australia between January 1, 1980 and May 31, 1989. RCIADIC's task was to examine the circumstances of the deaths; the actions taken by authorities; and the underlying causes of Indigenous deaths in custody, including social, cultural, and legal factors. The investigation found that the major factor contributing to the high number of Indigenous deaths in custody was the disproportionately higher rates at which Indigenous people come into contact with the criminal justice system. RCIADIC concluded that the most significant reason for this contact was the severely disadvantaged social, economic, and cultural position of many Indigenous people.

scholarly journals Decolonise This Space

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Suzi Hutchings
Keyword(s):  
Indigenous People ◽  
Cultural Knowledge ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Royal Commission ◽  
Indigenous Australians ◽  
Final Report ◽  
Public Servants ◽  
Colonial State ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Deaths In Custody

The 15 th April 2016 marked the 25-year anniversary since the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody (RCIADIC) in Australia handed down its Final Report. The report signified a landmark in the relationships between Indigenous Australians and the post-colonial State and Federal governments. Established by the Hawke Labor Government in 1987, the Commission examined 99 Indigenous deaths. Most significant was the finding that the deaths were due to the combination of police and prisons failing their duty of care, and the high numbers of Indigenous people being arrested and incarcerated. In the wake of the RCIADIC, cross-cultural sessions and cultural competency workshops have become ubiquitous for public servants, therapists, and legal and welfare employees, in attempts to bridge gaps in cultural knowledge between agents of the welfare state and Indigenous clients. Using Indigenous Knowledges theory, this chapter assesses how cultural misalignments between Indigenous clients and those who work with them in the name of therapies designed to improve Indigenous lives, dominate cross-cultural interactions. In so doing the questions are posed: how do good intentions become part of the discourses and practices of on-going colonialism for Indigenous Australians, and what can be done to change the balance of power in favour of therapies of relevance to Indigenous people?

scholarly journals Reporting Black Lives Matters: Deaths in custody journalism in Australia

2020 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 202-220
Author(s):  
Bonita Mason
Keyword(s):  
First Nations ◽  
Aboriginal People ◽  
News Coverage ◽  
Royal Commission ◽  
Final Report ◽  
30Th Anniversary ◽  
Journalism Students ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Deaths In Custody

George Floyd’s death at the knee of USA police sparked protests and renewed reporting of Indigenous deaths in custody in Australia. As the 30th anniversary of the release of the final report of the Australian Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody approaches, it is timely to update Wendy Bacon’s 2005 research on deaths in custody journalism. While most deaths in custody continue to pass in judicial and media silence, this article, written from a white journalism academic’s perspective, includes instances of in-depth reporting since 2005, journalism that meets the Royal Commission’s observation that journalism can contribute to justice for Aboriginal people when it places deaths in custody in their social and moral contexts. It also includes mini-case study of the news coverage of Mr Ward’s 2008 death, which demonstrates the relationship between governmental or judicial processes and announcements and patterns of coverage. It also notes the effect that First Nations journalists are having on the prevalence, perspectives and depth of deaths in custody journalism. Information and resources are provided for journalists and journalism students to more effectively report Indigenous deaths in custody, include Indigenous voices in their stories, and to better understand trauma and take care of themselves, their sources and their communities

scholarly journals National Association of Medical Examiners Position Paper: Recommendations for the Definition, Investigation, Postmortem Examination, and Reporting of Deaths in Custody

2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 604-618
Author(s):  
Roger A. Mitchell ◽  
Francisco Diaz ◽  
Gary A. Goldfogel ◽  
Mark Fajardo ◽  
Stephany E. Fiore ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Justice System ◽  
Ad Hoc ◽  
National Association ◽  
Medical Examiner ◽  
Forensic Pathologist ◽  
Complex Issue ◽  
The Public ◽  
Release Of Information ◽  
Medical Examiners ◽  
Deaths In Custody

The National Association of Medical Examiners commissioned an ad hoc committee to provide recommendations for the investigation, examination, and reporting of deaths in custody. Deaths in custody, whether occuring in jail/prison or during an altercation with law enforcement, is a complex issue and requires the forensic pathologist to be knowledgable and deliberative about his/her diagnosis. This paper provides recommendations for the forensic pathologist as it relates to 1) categorization of deaths in custody, 2) critical information required during investigation, 3) enhanced autopsy procedures, 4) guidance on death certification, 5) parameters for statistical reporting, and 6) release of information to the public. A uniform approach by medical examiners and coroners to the investigation and evaluation of deaths in custody is critical. The establishment of recommendations has the potential to ensure consistency and reliability to the definition, investigation, and certification of these cases. Such uniformity and consistency will instill confidence in the independence of the medical examiner/forensic pathologist/coroner by the criminal justice system, public health system, and community at large.

scholarly journals Indigenous Education 1991–2000: Documents, Outcomes and Governments

2012 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 75-84 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Gunstone
Keyword(s):  
School Attendance ◽  
Indigenous Education ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
Royal Commission ◽  
Policy Area ◽  
Educational Disadvantage ◽  
History Of ◽  
Lack Of Commitment ◽  
Deaths In Custody

There is often a disparity in Indigenous Affairs between many documents, such as policies, reports and legislation, and outcomes. This article explores this difference through analysing the policy area of Indigenous education during the period of 1991 to 2000. I examine three key documents relating to Indigenous education. These are theNational Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education Policy, theCouncil for Aboriginal Reconciliation Act (Cth)and the report of theRoyal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody. I then analyse the abysmal outcomes of Indigenous education over this period, including educational access, educational attainment, school attendance and reading benchmarks. I argue that the substantial educational disadvantage experienced by Indigenous people is in stark contrast to the goals, policies and objectives contained in the numerous documents on Indigenous education. I then explore the role of governments in contributing to this disparity between documents and outcomes in Indigenous education, including their failure to acknowledge the history of Indigenous and non-Indigenous relations, their lack of commitment to address Indigenous educational disadvantage, their failure to recognise self-determination and the lack of cooperation between governments to address Indigenous educational disadvantage.

Colonial Traditions, Co‐optations, and Mi'kmaq Legal Consciousness

2011 ◽  
Vol 36 (01) ◽  
pp. 171-200 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. Jane McMillan
Keyword(s):  
Nova Scotia ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Legal System ◽  
Justice System ◽  
Legal Culture ◽  
Legal Consciousness ◽  
Royal Commission ◽  
Specific Recommendation ◽  
Overwhelming Evidence ◽  
Life Sentence

In 1996 a provincial court was established at Eskasoni Mi'kmaq Community in Nova Scotia, Canada, in response to overwhelming evidence confirming the failures of the Canadian legal system to provide justice for Indigenous peoples, and as a specific recommendation of the Royal Commission on the Donald Marshall, Jr., Prosecution. Marshall, a Mi'kmaq wrongfully convicted of murder, served eleven years of a life sentence before proving his innocence. The importation of provincial legal culture into an Indigenous community creates tensions and contradictions surrounding the legitimacy, authenticity, and efficacy of Indigenous laws. The ontological conflicts that arise from the imposition of a justice system integrally linked with colonization, criminalization, and assimilation cannot be resolved through indigenization of court staff and administrative conveniences. The Mi'kmaq continue to assert their laws and articulate their legal consciousness against the co‐optation of dominant system, with mixed results.

scholarly journals Legal Irresponsibility and Institutional Responses to Child Sex Abuse

2018 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Penny Crofts
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Abuse ◽  
Child Sexual Abuse ◽  
Catholic Education ◽  
Justice System ◽  
Royal Commission ◽  
Sex Abuse ◽  
Institutional Responses ◽  
Child Sex Abuse

The current Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has demonstrated serious long-term failures to prevent and adequately respond to child sexual abuse by institutions. Rather than regarding the law as a system of responsibility, this article argues that it can be read instead as organising irresponsibility, drawing upon Scott Veitch’s ideas in Law and Irresponsibility. His key argument is that legal institutions operate as much to deflect responsibility for harms suffered as to acknowledge them. This article focuses on the ways in which the criminal justice system is complicit in organising irresponsibility for systemic failures through an analysis of the Royal Commission Case Study No 6: The responses of a primary school and the Toowoomba Catholic Education Office to the Conduct of Gerald Byrnes. Through concrete examples, this article analyses the ways in which criminal law organises irresponsibility through the individuation of responsibility and the emphasis upon subjective culpability. These practices ensure irresponsibility for actors for systemic failures.

scholarly journals Urban Indigenous Courts: Possibilities for Increasing Community Control Over Justice

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gabe Boothroyd
Keyword(s):  
Indigenous People ◽  
Justice System ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
Community Control ◽  
Legal Principles ◽  
The Status ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Justice Systems

The settler colonial justice system of the Canadian state continues to inflict immense harm on Indigenous people. One response to these harms could be the creation of urban Indigenous courts in line with the Truth and Reconciliation’s call for Indigenous justice systems that are expressions of self-determination. While any initiative that operates within the confines of the mainstream justice system has significant limitations, the practices of existing courts that avoid convictions, apply Indigenous legal principles, and cede genuine control to Indigenous people and communities demonstrate the potential for a meaningful break from the status quo. The creation of an urban court could facilitate a resurgence of Indigenous justice while mitigating the harm caused by the settler colonial justice system.

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