Prison Justice: Indigenous Overrepresentation in Australian Prisons

This essay delves into the critical issue of the overrepresentation of Indigenous and Aboriginal Australians, including Torres Strait Islanders, within the Australian prison system. It examines the historical context and current statistics, highlighting the significantly higher incarceration rates compared to non-Indigenous populations, particularly among women. The essay explores the role of recidivism, victimization, substance abuse, and lack of awareness as contributing factors to these disparities. Statistical data from various sources are presented to illustrate the severity of the issue. The essay also discusses the impact of systemic issues within the criminal justice system and the urgent need for interventions and reforms to address the complex challenges faced by Indigenous communities and promote prison justice.

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

1PRISON JUSTICE
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

2PRISON JUSTICE
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.

3PRISON JUSTICE
Recidivism
Recidivism in criminal justice has been described as the repetitive conduct of any
individual that would be considered offensive by any reasonable person. It is one of the
contributing factors for the high incarceration rate among the female population of the
indigenous and aboriginal communities. Over the years various data have been published by the
Australian Institute of Criminology that have been concerned with the recidivism rates among
the indigenous communities. It has been observed in those data that of all indigenous people who
have been imprisoned over the past few years on an average almost 76% had previous record of
being imprisoned (AIC, 2019). Multiple surveys have also been conducted throughout the years
among the women of indigenous communities who have been imprisoned where it had been
observed that almost 98% of all the indigenous women who have been imprisoned have previous
conviction records. As per the New South Wales data the rate of recidivism rate among the
aboriginal women is more likely to be higher than the same for the aboriginal men.
Statistics
The rate of incarceration in the aboriginal and indigenous communities has been observed
as being in a significant rise in the past few years. As per statistical data published in 2016 The
Human Rights Social Justice and Native Title Report it was observed that in the last 15 years the
rate of incarceration in relation to the individuals of aboriginal and indigenous communities have
risen to an average of almost 57%. In that report it had further been observed that almost half of
the juvenile population in the Australian prison system consists of the juveniles from the
indigenous and Aboriginal communities. The imprisonment rate for the Juvenile offenders from
indigenous communities is almost 58% which is observed as more than the retention rate of

4PRISON JUSTICE
indigenous youth in school. In a data published by the Australian government in the previous
year observation was made that although only 2% of the total Australian population consists of
aboriginal and Torres Strait islander yet they contribute to almost 28% of the total Australian
prison population. The data further observed the likeliness of any male of Aboriginal or any
Torres Strait Islander community is considered as 15 times higher than those of any non-
indigenous male. (Abs.gov., 2018). The rate of imprisonment among indigenous women was
observed as 21 times more likely to be higher than that of the non-indigenous women.
Victimization of Aboriginal Women
Victimisation of indigenous women has been observed by many as a significant factor
which contributes toward the rise in the rate of repeated offences by indigenous women. The
Aboriginal women have been experiencing violence and abuse at tremendously higher rates
(Baldry and Cunneen, 2014). It has been suggested in many of the studies that were conducted
over the last few years researchers have observed that Aboriginal women have a 3 times more
likely chance to be dying of abuse and violence than the non-Aboriginal women and this rate is
more obvious among the indigenous offenders (Balfour, 2013). The reason for the high rate of
victimisation can be referred towards their addiction for alcohol, drugs, or because of physical,
sexual or psychological abuse and even for the breakdowns in their families. According to the
reports of the Torres Strait Islander health survey, it has been noticed that most of the
Aboriginals are habituated of daily smoking and they are also observed for having higher risks of
alcohol consuming (Abs, 2019). These individuals were also tested positive for a substance
abuse test that had been conducted by an Australian program for illicit substances. Although no
correlations have yet been found between offending and addictions, yet it has been observed that

5PRISON JUSTICE
the victims of abuse and violence are more likely to get addicted to alcohol and substance abuse
as a measure for coping up with all the violence and abuse and as a survival strategy (Devries et
al., 2014). In a survey conducted among the female prisoners in the prison systems of Australia it
was observed that a link between substance abuse and defensive behaviour was reported by
almost 67% of the women and almost 41% reported that while committing the crimes they were
under the influence of either drugs or alcohol (Abs.gov, 2018). Many of these women were seen
as committing crimes for collecting money necessary for toying alcohol or drugs for the
addictions.
There requires serious consideration for the address of the problems that most of these
Aboriginal women face. The offending patterns of Aboriginal women are mostly seen to be
linked with trauma, substance abuse, and mental illness, therefore a regular screening process
conducted for the Aboriginal women upon their entrance in the prisons is required (McCausland,
McEntyre, and Baldry, 2018). The women should further be encouraged to undergo required
treatments on basis of the results found (Hovane, Dalton and Smith, 2014).
Conclusion
Thus in conclusion it can be expressed that there has been a tremendous rise in the prison
population within the Aboriginal and indigenous people. In the essay a detailed discussion is
provided for the problem of overrepresentation of Australian indigenous community in the
prison system of Australia with a special reference towards the women of those communities. In
this a brief analysis is conducted for the statistical data available for the incarceration rate of
indigenous and Aboriginal people. The essay also provides the reasons for increase in crime rate
among Aboriginal women. Among indigenous and Aboriginal women victimisation is seen as

6PRISON JUSTICE
one of the most important issues for rise of crime rate among them. In many of the reports
released over the years the fact that has been viewed that most of these indigenous women are
victims of severe physical, emotional, and psychological violence which leads them in the way
of alcohol and substance abuse and in a subsequent manner towards the path of crime.

7PRISON JUSTICE
Reference
Abs (2019). Survey Participant Information - National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
Health Survey. [online] Abs.gov.au. Available at:
https://www.abs.gov.au/websitedbs/d3310114.nsf/home/survey+participant+information+-
+national+Aboriginal+and+torres+strait+Islander+health+survey
Abs.gov. (2018). 4517.0 - Prisoners in Australia, 2018. Retrieved 10 September 2019, from
https://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Lookup/by%20Subject/4517.0~2018~Main
%20Features~Aboriginal%20and%20Torres%20Strait%20Islander%20prisoner
%20characteristics%20~13
AIC (2019). Recidivism rates. [online] Australian Institute of Criminology. Available at:
https://aic.gov.au/publications/rpp/rpp107/recidivism-rates
Anthony, T., 2015. Sentencing indigenous offenders.
Baldry, E. and Cunneen, C., 2014. Imprisoned Indigenous women and the shadow of colonial
patriarchy. Australian & New Zealand Journal of Criminology, 47(2), pp.276-298.
Balfour, G., 2013. Theorizing the intersectionality of victimisation, criminalization, and
punishment of women: An introduction to the special issue. International Review of
Victimology, 19(1), pp.3-5.
Cunneen, C., 2014. Colonial processes, Indigenous peoples, and criminal justice systems. The
Oxford handbook of ethnicity, crime, and immigration, pp.386-407.

8PRISON JUSTICE
Devries, K.M., Child, J.C., Bacchus, L.J., Mak, J., Falder, G., Graham, K., Watts, C. and Heise,
L., 2014. Intimate partner violence victimisation and alcohol consumption in women: A
systematic review and meta‐analysis. Addiction, 109(3), pp.379-391.
Hovane, V., Dalton, T. and Smith, P., 2014. Aboriginal offender rehabilitation
programs. Working together: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander mental health and wellbeing
principles and practice, pp.509-519.
McCausland, R., McEntyre, E. and Baldry, E., 2018. Institutions of Default and Management:
Aboriginal Women with Mental and Cognitive Disability in Prison. In Mental Health in
Prisons (pp. 185-210). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.
Short, D., 2016. Reconciliation and colonial power: Indigenous rights in Australia. Routledge.