Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody
The Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody was announced in 1987 after a spate of Aboriginal deaths in prison and police custody and in response to a growing public concern that deaths in custody of Aboriginal people were too common and poorly explained. Hearings began in 1988, the final report was submitted in April 1991.
Findings of the commission
The Royal Commission examined the deaths of 99 people who had died in custody between 1 January 1980 and 31 May 1989. It looked into both the causes of the deaths and the prevention of future deaths and tried to answer the question: Why are so many Indigenous people in custody? Why were they treated that way?
Findings of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody:
- Aboriginal people do not die at a higher rate than non-Aboriginal people in custody.
- The rate at which Aboriginal people are taken into custody is overwhealmingly different.
The conclusion was that too many Aboriginal people are in custody too often. In its report the commission made 339 recommendations, for example
- Arrest people only when no other way exists for dealing with a problem.
- Imprisonment should be utilised only as a sanction of last resort.
- Initiate a formal process of Reconciliation between Aboriginal people and the wider community.
The last recommendation led to the establishment of the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation. However, levels of Aboriginal prison rates have since increased, and police custodial rates remain as high as before.
Eddie Murray: A case study
Eddie Murray was 21 when he was last arrested. On June 21, 1981 he was drinking under a tree with his cousin and some friends.
He was arrested at 1.45 am, taken to Wee Waa police station, and held under the Intoxicated Persons Act. Within the hour he was dead, strangled with a blanket in his cell.
At the inquest the police claimed he had killed himself by hanging, even though they agreed under cross examination that he was "so drunk he couldn't scratch himself". Yet according to them, Eddie had managed to tear a strip off a thick prison blanket, deftly fold it, thread it therough the bars of the window, tie two knots, fashion a noose, and hang himself without his feet leaving the ground.
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Later the police were found to have lied under oath. The coroner ruled that Eddie had died "at the hands of person or persons unknown" and strongly criticised the police. No-one was charged with Eddie's murder, a fact that left his parents Arthur and Leila deeply unsatisfied.
The Murrays initiated an exhumation of Eddie's remains in 1997 which revealed injuries undisclosed at the original post mortem and during the Royal Commission, and in 2000 the matter was referred to the NSW Police Integrity Commission for further investigation.
In 2006 Simon Luckhurst launched his book "Eddie's Country", a detailed history of the complex social, historical and legal issues experienced by members of the Murray family: "It attempts an unbiased and comprehensive exploration of the Eddie Murray case, which incorporates a socio-political context as well as a personal one. For the first time all the available evidence on the case has been brought together, and the result is both revealing and moving."
Out of respect for Aboriginal culture I use Indigenous sources as much as possible.
NSW Department of Aboriginal Affairs, en.wikipedia.org, www.simonluckhurst.com