Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers: please note this article mentions deceased persons.
Last week the UN Committee against Torture released its concluding observations following a regular review of Australia’s compliance with the UN Convention against Torture.
The report shines a light on the harrowing conditions inside Australia’s prisons and detention facilities. It also highlights the impunity of police and prison officers for torture and abuse.
Police and prison officers have the full protection of Australia’s legal system as police investigate police, governments withhold information and complaint systems are weak, toothless and inaccessible.
The UN pointed to various forms of torture and inhumane and degrading treatment in Australia’s prisons. It commented on the mistreatment of children in detention, the crisis of Indigenous deaths in custody, soaring rates of incarceration of First Nations people, solitary confinement, lack of adequate healthcare, routine and degrading strip searches, and physical and chemical restraints.
These reported issues are hardly new. In my role at the Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service (VALS), I speak to clients daily about their mistreatment in police and prison custody.
Clients, including young children, tell stories of being abused and threatened by officers, held in solitary confinement for weeks on end, tasered and placed in chokeholds when having mental health episodes, routine abusive strip searches, and failing to receive basic medical care.
One client, who is a child, has been violently arrested for behaviour including stealing household items, and has been held in life-threatening restraints. Their story is recounted in VALS’s submission to the Yoorrook Justice Commission. Other children are detained in solitary confinement in maximum security adult prisons.
Rarely, as we saw with the recent Four Corners expose of Western Australia’s youth justice system, these forms of abuse reach the public’s awareness. Even more rarely is any police or prison officer held to account — not surprising given Australian governments’ practice of obscuring what really happens in prisons. The UN criticised Australia for failing to track the experiences of people in detention, failing to provide crucial data, and the lack of information on legal redress available for torture and mistreatment in prisons.
Only one month before Australia’s UN appearance, New South Wales and Queensland prevented UN inspectors from visiting places of detention, in clear breach of international obligations, prompting a UN delegation to prematurely suspend its visit.
Governments withholding information and data is just one part of an entire legal system targeted at enabling police, prison officers and the prison system itself to avoid scrutiny.
In my role, I work with clients to bring their stories of mistreatment in police and prison custody to light. We face hurdles every step of the way.
In Victoria, like in most states, in 99% of cases if a person makes a complaint about police it will be investigated by a member of the police force instead of an independent body. Even where there is clear excessive force — such as people thrown to the ground or tasered for no reason — investigators fail to find wrongdoing. A recent audit of Victoria Police handling of complaints by Aboriginal people found high rates of bias and conflicts of interest, leading to the potential concealment of misconduct.
Even where someone successfully sues the police, the Independent Broad-based Anti-Corruption Commission has revealed that a complaint “is not recorded on personnel files … and is therefore not considered by panels when Victoria Police personnel apply for positions or promotions”.
When police do make gestures to their human rights obligations in the form of policy changes, those policies don’t filter down to officerson the ground. Their own lawyers describe policies as not “strict proscriptive rules for what police officers have to do”.
Even though Victoria has a human rights charter, its design is such that people can’t be compensated for human rights abuses, and there are limits on police and prison officers being sued for breaching it.
Accountability for deaths in custody is equally lacking. The UN noted rising rates of First Nations deaths in custody and criticised insufficient information provided to it on investigations into these deaths.
In jurisdictions throughout Australia, police are responsible for investigating deaths in police and prison custody. The conflict of interest is obvious. In many investigations, police compile shoddy briefs with crucial, time-sensitive evidence missing and fail to interview key witnesses or investigate system failures. In Victoria, initial reviews of deaths in custody are conducted by a business unit within Corrections Victoria and frequently fail to uncover any wrongdoing. This process has been criticised by the Coroners Court.
Even where coroners refer officers involved in deaths to prosecution agencies, as was the case with the death of Yorta Yorta woman Aunty Tanya Day, prosecutors often refuse to bring charges, leaving families “devastated and angry”. Despite at least 517 First Nations deaths in custody since 1991, no police or prison officer has ever been convicted of a criminal offence for one of them.
Echoing calls made by First Nations peoples and organisations for decades, the UN called for the prompt, effective and independent investigation of deaths in custody and for accountability and sanctions for these deaths.
Its report provides a clear mandate for all Australian jurisdictions to end the practice of police and prisons investigating themselves, and for police and prison officers to be held to account for abuse and torture in custody.
Should police be allowed to investigate themselves? Let us know your thoughts by writing to letters@crikey.com.au. Please include your full name to be considered for publication. We reserve the right to edit for length and clarity.
This article is very misleading. Police do not manage prisons, nor are they employed within them, so how are they responsible for the hotbed of abuse in Australia’s prisons? The UN concluding observations do not highlight impunity of police from charges of abuse.
It did say police AND prison officers and the general point is the same.
I agree with Ms Schwartz that the police should not investigate allegations of their own misconduct. But almost everything else she says is biased garbage! For almost a decade I worked in a Queensland prison, so I have some first-hand knowledge of who goes to prison, how they are treated, and how they behave. Of the thousands of inmates I ‘served’ with, I believe that one man was innocent of the crime for which he was convicted. One! Every other prisoner I gained knowledge of was, I believe, guilty of their crime. So don’t tell me that Indigenous inmates should not be in prison. Don’t want to go to jail? Don’t commit a crime! As for allegations of sexual abuse in prison, yes, it happens. But many of the young offenders were abused well before they went to prison! Jacinta Price has the right of it: until Indigenous leaders, politicians and welfare workers recognise that incest, domestic violence, alcohol and drug abuse and ‘sit-down money’ are the principal causes of the Indigenous communities’ problems, they won’t ever – ever! get better. And referring to some spurious UN Treaty is a joke. Yes, we have problems in this country. But boy, I would rather be a convicted prisoner in an Australian institution than one in almost any other country! Just ask anyone who has survived a spell in an Asian, African or American prison! So stop the bleating, Sarah, and tell the real truth about what goes on!
No, the UN Articles set very reasonable and humane standards that Australian organisations are dodging because they’re doing the wrong thing. The author also didn’t generalise, which you are doing.
So why were UN investigators prevented from doing their jobs?
Except that research consistently shows that for similar crimes indigenous Australians are much more likely to be arrested, much less likely to be bailed, much more likely to be convicted, much more likely to be jailed, and much more likely to receive longer sentences than non-indigenous.
And the fact that prisoners are treated even worse in other counties in no way justifies the abuses described in this article.
countries
Well, local natives are more likely to be doing crime ,that’s why they keep getting arrested.
You missed the point, mate. Just like the US, if your skin is black, you’ll suffer more arrests and more jail time for the same crime than if your skin is white. Separate point.
And then we join the US (with an even worse human rights record against minorities and prisoners) in justifying our provocation of war on China because of China’s human rights record. If there’s one thing worse than a human rights abuser, it’s a hypocritical human rights abuser.
David dungay. They killed him because he would give biscuits back. If you read the inquest it’s clear that nothing was learned by corrections. They tried to divert the blame on to health.
*wouldnt
I work at a maximum security prison in Victoria and I can assure you that any “abuse” towards prisoners is taken very seriously. In any incident responding staff have to activate body worn cameras, and if staff are seen to use excessive force they’re put under investigation. (I know staff who have lost their jobs or been demoted, despite being good officers, because someone who wasn’t involved in the situation analysed it afterwards).
And the reason for these incidents? Usually staff assaults. If force seems excessive it’s because it’s difficult to judge the force required in a particular situation and often the prisoner/s involved are very violent and dangerous.
The majority of the time prisoners are treated very well by staff. Compliant prisoners have zero issues. It doesn’t matter their race or what they’re in for.
Indigenous prisoners are given extra support and are even allowed to make money via selling their artwork (talented non-indigenous artists are not given this opportunity).
The point is, prison in Victoria is pretty good. The prison food is good, they’ve got access to canteen and special spends and it’s nothing like what people see on TV. Most interactions between officers and prisoners is pleasant if not friendly.