‘Australia is failing us’: Two more Indigenous deaths in custody

Nakari Thorpe and Ben Millington
Apr 28, 2021, updated Apr 28, 2021

Corrective Services NSW said one of the men was found unresponsive in his cell on Tuesday morning. Photo: ABC

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian says she’s “deeply concerned” after an Indigenous man died at Cessnock Correctional Centre on Tuesday – the seventh across Australian prisons since March.

A Corrective Services NSW spokeswoman said the 37-year-old man was found unresponsive in his cell about 10.

He was pronounced dead an hour later.

“Corrective Services NSW and NSW Police are investigating the incident,” the spokeswoman said.

“All deaths in custody are subject to a coronial inquest.”

Four of the Aboriginal deaths in custody since March 2 have been in NSW prisons.

Mr Berejiklian said she did not know the circumstances of the man’s death.

“But can I say it’s an issue that concerns me deeply,” she said.

“Unfortunately, too many people of indigenous heritage are behind bars and shouldn’t be.

”These are issues that we need to deal with, and it takes more than one answer for me to be able to provide [that] comprehensively, but can I say it’s something I feel very strongly about and something I think we need to address.”

A family spokesperson said: “The family is deeply upset, but is asking for privacy at this time, at least until they know more information from the investigations that are underway.”

The NSW death came less than a day after another Aboriginal man died at Melbourne’s Port Phillip Prison on Monday night.

It is believed he suffered a medical episode.

A spokesperson from the Victorian Department of Justice and Community Safety said a smoking ceremony for the man was being arranged.

“We are consulting with all affected by this death to ensure they are provided with the support they need,” the spokeswoman said.

“All deaths in custody are reported to the coroner, who formally determines the cause of death.”

Linda Burney described the rush of Indigenous deaths as a “national emergency”.

NSW Opposition spokeswoman for Indigenous Australians Linda Burney said the deaths were a “national emergency”.

“We don’t know the circumstances of this man’s death (in Cessnock) but what we do know is it was a person who had a family, whose family and community will be terribly affected,” Ms Burney said.

“Just this morning I read a report … on how the Royal Commission [into Black Deaths in Custody] had not been implemented, and part of it was due to systemic racism, and part of it was about not the appropriate medical attention being provided to Aboriginal prisoners.

“It is a national emergency.”

NSW & ACT Aboriginal Legal Service chief executive Karly Warner said there were major failings in the system.

“This is a huge red flag about care in our state’s systems,” she said.

“People who die in prisons in police custody take their final breaths without their loved ones by their side.

“Australia is really failing us, Australia has really failed the families.”

She said First Nations communities have had the solutions for decades, “but governments haven’t shown the leadership to turn these ideas into action”.

“Deaths in custody aren’t inevitable but governments are choosing to turn the other way and let more people die.”

The deaths this week coincide with the 30th anniversary of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody, with more than 475 Aboriginal people dying in prisons since the 1991 inquiry.

Only a handful of the 339 recommendations from the inquiry’s report have ever been implemented.

NSW Deputy Premier John Barilaro said the deaths were unacceptable, and that Australia needed to do more to prevent them.

NSW Greens MP David Shoebridge said there was a deepening breakdown in the relationship between First Nations communities and prison and police authorities in NSW.

If you or anyone you know needs help: