After less than a week in police custody, Sony was rendered a quadriplegic
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Six days after being taken into police custody, Aboriginal man Sony Ray Austinâs spinal cord was severed and he was rendered a quadriplegic.
Sonyâs story, uncovered in documents made public for the first time, detail a rarely reported aspect of incarceration: when Aboriginal people are disabled in the course of their confinement.
Sony Ray Austin, prior to his injury while in police custody.
In 2018, the 26-year-oldâs mental state had deteriorated after he was picked up by police over a family violence matter in Bendigo on February 16. Three days later, Sony was transferred to a holding cell beneath the Melbourne Magistrates Court in the CBD as he awaited a magistrate.
Calls for Ken Wyatt to pressure the states to better prevent Aboriginal deaths in custody
Posted 2
updated 23
Ken Wyatt s family has been directly touched by deaths in custody.
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The most powerful Indigenous politician in the country is coming under increasing pressure to lead the response to deaths in custody, an issue that is personal for him.
Key points:
As of 2018, about a third of the 1991 Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody s recommendations had not been fully implemented
In 1991, the incarceration rate for Indigenous Australians was 14 per cent, now it is nearly 30 per cent.
Advocacy groups want the federal government to pressure states and territories to cut deaths in custody
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? msn.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from msn.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Anniversary highlights Aboriginal deaths in custody crisis
Issued on:
15/04/2021 - 05:10 Despite calls for sweeping reforms in 1991, a spate of recent fatalities and soaring rates of Aboriginal incarceration have highlighted failures to act PATRICK HAMILTON AFP/File 4 min
Brisbane (Australia) (AFP)
Thirty years after sweeping reforms were recommended to end the injustice of Indigenous deaths in Australian custody, a spate of recent fatalities and soaring rates of Aboriginal incarceration have highlighted failures to act.
Jailing children as young as 10, persistent racist attitudes and tough law-and-order policies all contribute to what has been called as a national shame by Aboriginal leaders.
More than 450 Indigenous fatalities have been recorded since the landmark Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody was published in 1991, including five since early March.
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? WHO SHOULD GUARD THE GUARDS?
According to
Guardian Australia, a cross-party New South Wales parliamentary inquiry into Aboriginal incarceration has unanimously proposed that the state’s police watchdog, the Law Enforcement and Conduct Commission, investigate deaths in custody to stop “police investigating police”.
The inquiry was called during 2020’s Black Lives Matter protests and included Liberal, Labor, Greens, Nationals, and One Nation committee members. They have made 39 recommendations including for the LECC to appoint a senior Indigenous statutory officer to provide judicial and cultural expertise in investigating Aboriginal custodial deaths; raising the age of criminal responsibility from 10 to 14 years old; and reforming the Summary Offences Act to exclude “obscene language” as grounds for arrest.