Dying in police custody

The Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody of 1987-1991 was established by Prime Minister Bob Hawke in response to growing public concern that “deaths in custody of Aboriginal people were too common and public explanations too evasive”.

Chief Commissioner J.H. Muirhead QC examined all 99 deaths in State or Territory custody between January 1980 and May 1989, 88 males and 11 females aged 14 to 62 years.

A significant finding was the high rate of Aboriginal deaths in custody was “not because Aboriginal people in custody were more likely to die than others in custody, but because Aborigines were grossly over-represented in the numbers”, with Aboriginal admissions 29 times more common than others in spite of being less than 3 per cent of the population. Muirhead acknowledged this finding “could disappoint those who anticipated foul play” but he also found there was insufficient dedication by authorities to the duty of care of those in custody.

The deaths were by hanging (30), head injuries (12), gunshot wounds (4), other external trauma (7), substance abuse (9), and natural causes (37).

Of these 99 prisoners 83 per cent were unemployed when detained, only two had completed secondary school, 43 had experienced separation from their natural families through intervention by authorities, 43 had been charged with an offence by age 15, all cases involved alcohol.

The standard of health varied from poor to very bad, economic situations were “disastrous”, social position was “at the margin of society”, and of the 22 deaths by hanging 19 had a blood alcohol level of 0.174 per cent or more.

Government control

“Aboriginal people have a unique history of being ordered, controlled and monitored by agents of the State”, the Commission reported, tracing the familiar pattern of control from birth including adoption; forced removal from parents with mixed racial origins; described as truant, intractable and unteachable at school; court appearances; “dismissive entries” in medical records like “drunk again”; and standard notes like “no suspicious circumstances” when police investigated death in a cell. “All too often the files disclose the prejudices, ignorance and paternalism of those making the record.”

Commissioners felt important aspects of Australian history, including two centuries of European domination, had an important bearing on behaviour in an individual’s last hours. Aborigines were often dispossessed of their land without compensation, suffering brutality and bloodshed when they showed resistance to losing the basis of their hunting and foraging culture and economy. Then there were “dramatic effects of introduced disease” to which they had no resistance.

Having reduced many to a condition of abject dependency the colonial governments decided upon a policy of protection. Aboriginal people were “swept up into reserves and missions where they were supervised as to every detail of their lives and there was a deliberate policy of undermining and destroying their spiritual and cultural beliefs”.

Another aspect of that policy was removing Aboriginal children of mixed race from their family and placing them in institutions to grow up as “good European labourers or domestics”. Even those outside reserves were “under the eye of the non-Aboriginal police”. Although legislation varied over place and time the effect was the same: control over personal lives, with institution supervisors and missionaries having all the power. A person needed permission to live on a reserve, leave or return, have a relative visit, work - usually under supervision - and there were special laws about alcohol.

These practices were based on the theory that “full blood” Aboriginal people would die out and those of “mixed blood” would be bred out. When this didn’t happen assimilation was tried, the hope being that children removed from their families would disappear by becoming culturally indistinguishable from the dominant Westerners.

Land dispossession made Aborigines dependent upon government or employer for rations, blankets, living conditions. Deliberate disempowerment meant decisions were imposed, usually by non-Aborigines. An Aboriginal woman living with a non-Aboriginal man was outlawed. “With loss of independence goes loss of self esteem.”

The Commissioner argued these social forces were of central importance in understanding Aboriginal over-representation in custody. He also acknowledged there were strong people who kept the culture alive. “Some strove to organise a better deal, to call for rights, but the battle was uphill, and while some gains were made it was a slow and painful progress”. They were still not counted in the population, they were not entitled to social security benefits, mothers still gathered their children about them and ran into the bush when they heard the welfare was about. “The damage to Aboriginal society was devastating ... In some places, dependency, despair, alcohol, total loss of heart wrought decimation of culture.”

Government policy took for granted “the inferiority of the Aboriginal people”. Taking their land was based on the assumption it was not occupied and the people uncivilised. The protection policy was based on the view that Aboriginal people “must be protected against themselves while the race dies out”. The policy assumed non-Aborigines conferred a favour on them by assimilating them into their ways - even to the point of removing children from family.

“Non-Aboriginal Australia has developed on the racist assumption of an ingrained sense of superiority that it knows best what is good for Aboriginal people. With many people associated directly or indirectly with land settlement, the assumption was underpinned by economic interest; while with many others it was underpinned by an absolute certainty that it was essential to religious enlightenment that Aboriginal religious belief be obliterated where possible. That feeling of superiority towards Aboriginal people, which is a racist view, was very strong”, the Commission reported.

Immediately after Federation, White Australia, the concept of white superiority, was adopted as national policy. “What Aboriginal people have largely experienced is policies nakedly racially-based and in their everyday lives the constant irritation of racist attitudes. Relations between the two groups were conducted on the basis of inequality and control.”

The worst relationships of all, the Commissioner concluded, were between Aboriginal people and police forces. The latter “naturally shared all the characteristics of the society from which they were recruited, including the idea of racial superiority”. The police were the enforcers of government policies: control and supervision, often the takers of the children, rounding up people accused of (ironically) “violating the rights of the settlers”. Not surprisingly animosity and often hatred developed between Aboriginal people and police.

The consequences of this history were several: destruction of Aboriginal culture, breakdown of society, disadvantage in all areas of social life, consequences like excessive drinking and violence. The Commission saw this legacy of history going far to explain the over-representation of Aboriginal people in custody.

There were of course, outstanding people, Indigenous and others who campaigned for equality. The 1967 Referendum was a watershed. Since then, “governments have moved in the direction … of an assault on inequality”. Laws have been passed outlawing discriminatory behaviour reflecting international conventions to which Australia is a party and efforts have been made by government. “But what is absolutely outstanding is the efforts which have been made by Aboriginal people, organisations and communities to grasp the opportunities which have become available and to assert their rights”.

Coronial investigations

“It must be acknowledged as a blunt reality”, concluded Commissioner Muirhead, “despite all endeavours to lessen the risks, there will be future Aboriginal deaths in custody. The adequacy of coronial investigations is critical if the tragic aftermath of such deaths is not to perpetuate the feeling of anxiety and suspicion in the minds of the deceased's family and the Aboriginal community.

“It is very desirable that no suspicion should arise in the public mind that deaths in Government Institutions such as gaols are made the subject merely of investigations by Government Officers … The public should be satisfied that the prisoner came to his death by the common course of nature, and not by some unlawful violence or unreasonable hardship put on him by those under whose power he was while confined. There should not be an opportunity for asserting that matters with regards to deaths in public institutions are ‘hushed up’.

“A Coroner inquiring into a death in custody must be required by law to investigate not only the cause and circumstances of the death but also the quality of the care, treatment and supervision of the deceased prior to death.”

The Report went on “investigations into deaths in police watch-houses should include full inquiry into the circumstances leading to incarceration, including the circumstances of arrest or apprehension and the deceased's activities beforehand … In the course of inquiry into the general care, treatment or supervision of the deceased prior to death particular attention should be given to whether custodial officers observed all relevant policies and instructions relating to the care, treatment and supervision of the deceased; and the scene of death should be subject to a thorough examination including the seizure of exhibits for forensic science examination and the recording of the scene of death by means of high quality colour photography”.

The 1991 Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody was unusual in that it not only looked into the immediate causes of 99 recent deaths in custody, but comprehensively considered the historical economic and cultural causes of the over-representation of Indigenous people in police custody. A history which has as much relevance today.

In spite of Commissioner Muirhead’s optimistic conclusions many Indigenous Australians remain among the poorest people in the world today, hence the persistence of chronically bad health, dependence on substances, and violence, world-wide symptoms of community infrastructure poverty, largely ignored by Australian governments.

Another report on the problems of Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory, Little Children Are Sacred contains much that can be explained by Commissioner Muirhead’s report on Aborigines’ economic history, not only following the arrival of the First Fleet but right up to the present.