A total of 147 Indigenous Australians have died in custody in the country since 2008, a study by the Guardian newspaper, dubbed Deaths inside, revealed on Tuesday.
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 28th August, 2018) A total of 147 Indigenous Australians have died in custody in the country since 2008, a study by the Guardian newspaper, dubbed Deaths inside, revealed on Tuesday.
"Guardian Australia's reporting team has spent months collecting and analysing all available coronial data and other sources to build this searchable database. 'Deaths inside' tracks every known Indigenous death in custody in every jurisdiction from 2008 - 2018," the study read.
According to the outlet, Indigenous people account for 27 percent of the prison population in the country, 22 percent of deaths in prison custody and 19 percent of deaths in police custody. At the same time, only 2.8 percent of the country's population identify themselves as Indigenous Australians.
The Guardian's study revealed that Indigenous Australians were much less likely to receive necessary health care than non-Indigenous people, and were therefore dying from medical conditions that could have been treated, such as tooth abscesses and heart diseases. Indigenous Australians suffering mental health conditions or cognitive impairments received the necessary medical aid in 53 percent of cases only, while mental health problems account for 41 percent of all the deaths in custody.
The outlet went on to say that police stations, prisons and hospitals failed to complete the investigations into Indigenous Australians' deaths in 34 percent of cases, which is 13 percent more compared to the cases, related to non-Indigenous population.
"We are going backwards as a nation. The current government is failing to show leadership and commitment to turning around the appalling state of how our justice system treats Indigenous people," Pat Dodson, an Indigenous Labor senator, said, as quoted by the Guardian.
According to the media outlet, 407 Indigenous Australians have died in custody since the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody, set to investigate the reasons behind the Indigenous Australians' deaths in custody, stopped operating in 1991.
