Overrepresentation of Indigenous Women in the Prison System

Running head: PRISON JUSTICE
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Name of Student
Name of University
Author Note

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Introduction
The current essay can be seen as discussing about the problem of overrepresentation of
indigenous and aboriginals and Torres Strait Islander people. The aboriginals and the indigenous
people are the native people of Australia living in the country for almost sixty thousand year.
The indigenous community not just only consists of the aboriginals or the Torres Strait islanders
but also many other communities. Although these communities can be seen as similar, yet are
greatly diversified in their practices and cultures. With great diversity the communities also
suffer from many problems. One of the major challenges that the Australian Government has to
face is the increasing rate of incarceration of the indigenous people in the prison system. This
rate is particularly higher among the women of these communities, who are often victimized and
led to substance and alcohol abuse. A statistical data has been provided in this essay that focuses
particularly on the prison population rate among indigenous and aboriginal communities. In this
essay a brief discussion has also been conducted which focuses on the rate and the reasons
present for recidivism of crime among the women of indigenous communities.
Indigenous People and the Criminal Justice System
Criminal justice system in Australia is the system which delivers justice for the
commitment of serious crimes and violence. Criminal justice also ensures the prevention of
crimes, rehabilitation of offenders and moral support for the crime victims. It also helps in
prevailing order and control in the society and helps in the investigation of crime and protection
of basic Human Rights that both the accused and the victims are eligible of. One of the most

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urgent human right issues that the criminal justice system in Australia is facing can be saved as
the overrepresentation of the incarceration of indigenous people.
The people of the aboriginal and indigenous communities have been inhabiting in
Australia and the islands surrounding it for long before the British Colonisation. These
communities have great diversity in their cultures in spite of being structurally similar to each
other. For many years it has been considered that the indigenous communities are other non
functional or dysfunctional in such a way that has resulted in the offenders being regarded as
helpless as victims or there not capable of being defined as indigenous (Short, 2016). The
characterization of indigenous offenders have shifted in a significant way in the eyes of law from
being an object of sympathy towards becoming an object of risk and terror. Despite of multiple
efforts put for the development and coordination for slowing down the crime rate among
indigenous and aboriginal communities, there is a widespread of concern shown by the
international communities for the very low success rate seen about the effectiveness of
implementing the development processes (Anthony, 2015).
As per any demography presented which shows the rate of incarceration among the
indigenous people it has been observed that rate of imprisonment is significantly higher among
indigenous women than that of indigenous men. A reason for the higher incarceration rate among
the indigenous women can be considered as their lack of awareness. Recidivism can be
considered as another factor for such high rates of incarceration.