https://www.creativespirits.info/aboriginalculture/law/royal-commission-into-abo...Royal Commission into Aboriginal deaths in custody
A royal commission in 1987 investigated Aboriginal deaths in custody over a 10-year period, giving over 330 recommendations.
Its recommendations are still valid today, but very few have been implemented. Every year, Aboriginal people continue to die in custody.
1987: The Royal Commission starts work
In 1987 the government led by Bob Hawke decided something must be done about a rising number of complaints that Aboriginal people were dying in suspicious circumstances in police cells.
It announced a Royal Commission (a major government public inquiry into an issue) into Aboriginal deaths in custody on 10 August 1987 in response to a growing public concern that such deaths were too common and poorly explained.
Hearings began in 1988. The commission initially set out to examine 44 specific cases but that eventually grew to 99, with 32 in Western Australia, 27 in Queensland, 21 in South Australia and the Northern Territory and 19 across NSW, Victoria and Tasmania [24].
The Commission submitted its final report in April 1991. All up, the commission cost about $40 million, with another $400 million spent on implement of its recommendations [24].
To monitor deaths in custody, the Australian Institute of Criminology established a national deaths in custody program which should publish an annual report.
A decade ago, the program was delivering its reports within days of the close of the reporting period - the 2003, 2004 and 2005 reports were delivered within one month. Then, without explanation, each of the next 3 reports took between 16 months and 2 years to appear. The 2009-11 report has been almost 3½ years in the making [23].
[The deaths in custody report] paints a horrific portrait of the state of indigenous criminal justice.
—Inga Ting, journalist, Sydney Morning Herald [23]
I am constantly stunned when many senators tell me that they are not aware of Australia's death in custody record.
—Gerry Georgatos, Human Rights Alliance, Perth [14]
Aboriginal Australians have learnt to fear for the lives of family members who end up in police cells or jail.
—The Saturday Paper [29]