Deaths in custody in Australia: a quantitative analysis of coroners’ reports

ABSTRACT

This paper reports on a large-scale documentary analysis of all publicly available coroners’ reports on deaths in custody released between 1991 and 2016. The research was undertaken to mark 25 years since the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody. We collected quantitative data from 505 reports including characteristics of deceased persons, causes of death, type of custody and the state or territory in which they died. We found that Australian states and territories differ substantially in their reporting practices, and official information on deaths in custody remains difficult to access. Our results indicate trends that require further research. For example, despite the significant increases in the Indigenous and female prison populations in recent years, women and Indigenous people were under-represented amongst our sample of deaths in custody. We found that they were more likely to have died in police custody than in prisons. We also found that indigenous status was often not reported by coroners.

KEYWORDS:

• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
• corrections
• death in custody
• police
• prison

Acknowledgements

This research was a partnership between the University of Queensland and Sisters Inside Inc. The authors acknowledge the enormous contribution of the University of Queensland LLB students who have been members of the pro bono UQDIC team since 2016, particularly Louise Scarce (Student Leader 2016), Ella Rooney and Hannah Stadler (Student Leader 2019 and assistant with the literature review). For a full list of the researchers, see Walsh 2018b.

Legislation

Alcohol and Other Drugs Act 1974 (WA)

Coroners Act 1997 (ACT)

Coroners Act 2009 (NSW)

Coroners Act (NT)

Coroners Act 2003 (Qld)

Coroners Act 2003 (SA)

Coroners Act 1995 (Tas)

Coroners Act 2008 (Vic)

Coroners Act 1996 (WA)

Corrective Services Act 2006 (Qld)

Crimes (Administration of Sentences) Act 1999 (NSW)

Prisons Act 1981 (WA)

ORCID

Tamara Walsh http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4119-3550

Notes

1 See particularly Corrective Services Act 2006 (Qld) s 132; Prisons Act 1981 (WA) ss 60, 65. See also Crimes (Administration of Sentences) Act 1999 (NSW) s 267.

2 Coroners Act 1997 (ACT) s 13(1)(i); Coroners Act 2009 (NSW) s 23; Coroners Act (NT) s 15(1)(b); Coroners Act 2003 (Qld) ss 8(3)(h), 11(7), 27(1)(a)(i); Coroners Act 2003 (SA) ss 21(1)(a), 28; Coroners Act 1995 (Tas) ss 19(4)(a), 24(1)(b); Coroners Act 2008 (Vic) ss 4(2)(c), 11, 52(2)(b); Coroners Act 1996 (WA) ss 17, 19.

3 As to deaths in custody reporting obligations, see Coroners Act 1997 (ACT) s 75; Coroners Act 2009 (NSW) ss 12, 37; Coroners Act 2003 (Qld) ss 47, 77(2); Coroners Act 2003 (SA) s 25(4)(b); Coroners Act 1995 (Tas) s 69(2)(a); Coroners Act 2008 (Vic) s 73(1B) (requires publication on the Internet); Coroners Act 1996 (WA) s 27.

4 They include the Western Australian Coronial Ethics Committee, the Coroners Court of Victoria Research Committee, the Victorian Department of Justice Human Research Ethics Committee and the NCIS Research Committee, in addition to any institutional/university ethics committee applicable to the individual researcher.

5 Our database is available online: see http://deaths-in-custody.project.uq.edu.au

6 Level 1 Access provides access to all data related to closed cases (including case reports where available) and non-identifying access to open cases.

7 Note, however, that other researchers have drawn upon NCIS data in their research, with the assistance of the AIC, supplementing their findings with publicly available coroners’ reports: see, for example, Porter (2013).

8 Coroners Act 1997 (ACT) s 3C(1), (2); Coroners Act 2009 (NSW) s 23(1)(a), (d); Coroners Act (NT) s 12(1); Coroners Act 2003 (Qld) s 10; Coroners Act 2003 (SA) s 3; Coroners Act 1995 (Tas) s 19(4)(a); Coroners Act 2008 (Vic) ss 3(c)–(g), (k), 4(2)(c), (e); Coroners Act 1996 (WA) s 3. In WA, places of detention extend to centres established under the Alcohol and Other Drugs Act 1974 (WA); Coroners Act 1996 (WA) s 3.

9 Coroners Act 1997 (ACT) s 3C(1)(c), (3); Coroners Act 2009 (NSW) s 23(1)(c), (e); Coroners Act (NT) s 12(1), (1A); Coroners Act 2003 (Qld) s 10; Coroners Act 2003 (SA) s 3; Coroners Act 1995 (Tas) ss 19(4)(b), (c); Coroners Act 2008 (Vic) ss 3(j); Coroners Act 1996 (WA) s 3(a), (aa); Extends to centres established under the Alcohol and Other Drugs Act 1974 (WA).

10 Coroners Act 1997 (ACT) s 3C(1)(b); Coroners Act 2008 (Vic) s 4(2)(f). Note also that in SA, home detention is also included as a place of detention: Coroners Act 2003 (SA) s 3. And see generally Coroners Act 2003 (Qld) s 10(2)(b).

11 Coroners Act 2009 (NSW) s 23(1)(c). Police operations are defined as any activity engaged in by a police officer while exercising the functions of a police officer other than a search and rescue operation: s 23(2).

12 Coroners Act 2003 (Qld) s 8(3)(h).

13 Coroners Act 1996 (WA) s 3(g).

14 Coroners Act (NT) s 12(1). These are not considered deaths in custody.

15 Note that in other studies, researchers have devised their own definitions of deaths in custody in order to meet specific goals, such as ‘maximising learning for prevention’: see, for example, Porter, 2013.

16 Please note that the columns may not add to 100% due to rounding to the nearest percentage.

17 Pearson chi2(6) = 16.7395 Pr = 0.010; likelihood-ratio chi2(6) = 16.0087 (Pr = 0.014).

18 Pearson chi2(14) = 20.8709 (Pr = 0.105); likelihood-ratio chi2(14) = 23.0158 (Pr = 0.060).

19 Pearson chi2(30) = 250.1885 (Pr = 0.000); likelihood-ratio chi2(30) = 267.9970 (Pr = 0.000).

20 Pearson chi2(21) = 345.8906 (Pr = 0.000); likelihood-ratio chi2(21) = 365.0266 (Pr = 0.000).