They have subsequently shown a downward trend, particularly deaths in institutional settings.Tables 2.6a-c present the cause of death for each custodial authority.It is important to note that the circumstances of death resulting from natural causes were not less necessarily less serious than deaths resulting from shooting by police officers or other injuries sustained during arrest. Table 2.3 presents the age distribution of Aboriginal people who died in custody in the two periods. The Report shows that deaths from these causes disclosed breaches of recommendations as serious as deaths resulting from more direct involvement by custodial officers (eg, gunshot).The characteristics of Aboriginal deaths in custody since the Royal Commission are profiled in this chapter.The number of Aboriginal deaths in custody from 1980 to 1989 (nine years and five months) are presented in Table 2.1a. Its recommendations are still valid today, but very few have been implemented. The information in this database is from published coronial findings. While the majority of deaths occurring in prison custody have been of natural causes (58%), hanging deaths accounted for 32%, but the latter have shown a marked decrease in recent years. The mean age of people who died in institutional settings after the Royal Commission was 30.2 years. It rose in prominence in the early 1980s, with Aboriginal activists campaigning following the death of 16-year old John Peter Pat in 1983. It was updated in August 2019 to include 17 further reports of Indigenous deaths in custody, some of which occurred in that 12-month period, and some which had only recently been subject to coronial findings. Office of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner There were 79 deaths in institutional settings. It ran from 1987 to 1991, investigating the period between 1 January 1980 and 31 May 1989, producing its final report in April 1991.The term "death in custody" was defined in the RCIADIC report to include people under RCIADIC concluded that the deaths were not caused by deliberate killing by police and prison officers, but that "glaring deficiencies existed in the standard of care afforded to many of the deceased".The rate of imprisonment of Indigenous Australians almost doubled during the time between 1991 and 2018.Indigenous youth are 26 times more likely to be placed in detention.Overall, the rate of Indigenous deaths in custody has reduced since 1991, as of June 2020On 17 June 2020 reforms to the legislation relating to jail sentences for unpaid fines, long a bone of contention, spurred on by the death of There is a steady upward trend in New South Wales while South Australia has shown a sudden increase in the last year. There is, however, a number of cases in which calls have been made for greater scrutiny, as avoidable deaths, such as those of Concern about the high number of Aboriginal people who had died in custody in the 1980s led to the establishment of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody (RCIDIAC) in 1987, to investigate and report upon the underlying social, cultural and legal issues behind the deaths, including allegations of mistreatment of prisoners which may have led to their deaths.
A royal commission in 1987 investigated Aboriginal deaths in custody over a 10-year period, giving over 330 recommendations. Every year, Aboriginal people continue to die in custody. 2.2 In 1995 there were 22 Aboriginal deaths in custody, the highest number since the Royal Commission. The 15 th of April 2016 marks 25 years since the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody handed down its final report, which set many directions in current Indigenous policy. 21% were attributed to natural causes, with self-inflicted deaths accounting for 19%.
Indeed, as Part E shows the deaths where the most number of recommendations were breached were deaths resulting from natural cause and self-harm (see for example 62NSW, 67NSW, 43QLD, 45QLD and 65WA). Indigenous people are now less likely than non-Indigenous people to die in prison custody. The difference in age is not significant. Subsequent deaths in custody, considered suspicious by families of the deceased, culminated in the 1987 Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody (RCIADIC).