The Law Society welcomes the Select Committee Report on First Nations people in custody

Last Thursday, 30 years to the day since the final report of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody was handed down, a NSW parliamentary committee examining the unacceptably high level of Indigenous people in custody delivered its final report.

The Law Society welcomes the Select Committee Report on First Nations people in custody, which has adopted many of the key recommendations made in our submission to the Inquiry including:

• Long term funding for justice reinvestment
• Expansion of the Drug Court to regional areas
• Expansion of circle sentencing to more locations
• Fund the Walama Court in the District Court
• Raise the minimum age of criminal responsibility.

As we stated in our submission, the key finding of the Royal Commission, and other reviews since, is that the crux of the problem is the disproportionate number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in our criminal justice system, and the systemic issues underlying incarceration.

Given the 2018 Deloitte review of the implementation of the recommendations from the Royal Commission found that, “the lowest proportion of fully implemented recommendations relates to self-determination, non-custodial approaches, and cycle of offending”, it’s not surprising that this issue remains unaddressed almost 30 years after the Royal Commission – a view also expressed by the Select Committee.

There are two other things that have not changed in the past three decades – which I am pleased to see the Select Committee has also emphasised in its final report. First, the pressing need for all 339 recommendations from the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody to be fully implemented, in particular those recommendations that are underpinned by Indigenous community empowerment and principles of self-determination.

And second, a requirement that we do not allow ourselves to ever forget, that for the families, friends and communities of every single Indigenous person who has died in custody before or since the Royal Commission, the pain, grief and suffering endures.

Juliana Warner, President, the Law Society of NSW

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