Indigenous Australians are being locked away throughout Australia in what is the latest national disgrace. Attorney-General Rober McClelland has revealed figures which show the imprisonment rate over a decade for Indigenous Australias is up 51%, 11 times the increase for non-Indigenous people.
Indigenous in jail: massive increase
Attorney-General Robert McClelland has acknowledged the massively high numbers of Indigenous Australians “interacting with the criminal justice system”.
Speaking at the official opening of a refurbished Aboriginal Legal Service officer in Redfern, Sydney, on 19 November 2010, he said: “There has been a significant increase in the Indigenous prison population.
“Nationally the Indigenous prison population has increased by 71% over the last decade. Significantly, in the last decade the Indigenous prison population in NSW has increased by 87%, rising from 1265 in 1999 to 2374 in 2009.
“It is clear the high rate of imprisonment has had a disproportionate impact on indigenous Australians, who currently comprise one in four of the Australian prison population.
“In fact, between 2000 and 2009, the imprisonment rate for Indigenous Australians increased by 51% – 11 times the increase of non-Indigenous adults.”
In 2009, Indigenous people were 14 times more likely to be incarcerated than non-Indigenous people, Mr McClelland said. He called for ideas from the Indigenous community to help reverse the alarming trend:
“There is an appetite at the federal level for discussion of how we can support ambitious initiatives like justice reinvestment, trials of innovative policing models in Indigenous communities, arrangements so that ‘the first door is the right door’ for victims of violence, and for alcohol supply reduction strategies,” Mr McClelland said.
– source: A-G’s media release