People with disability, particularly First Nations people with disability, are overrepresented at all stages of the criminal justice system.
The Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability has been hearing from people with disabilities and legal and justice advocates in response to the Commission s papers into criminal justice issues.
The Australian Centre for Disability Law estimated that 95 per cent of Indigenous people appearing in court charged with a criminal offence have an intellectual disability, cognitive impairment or mental illness.
Many responses cited the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare’s 2018 findings that people with disability form 29 per cent of the prison population in Australia, despite being only 18 per cent of the general population.