The National Indigenous Drug and Alcohol Committee of the Australian National Council on Drugs (NIDAC) has released a new report titled Bridges and Barriers - Addressing Indigenous Incarceration and Health describing the appalling rates of, and consequences of, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander imprisonment. In broad terms SNAICC supports the report’s recommendations, in particular the relaxation of requirements to enter juvenile diversion programs and the development of an individual education support fund to assist their participation within the education system.

SNAICC would argue however, that Government response to incarcerations need to be far more preventative, culturally appropriate and child focused, because working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander child and family based organisations through early intervention strategies, is the proven way to break the cycles of violence and incarceration and achieve the best long-term outcomes for individual and communities.

Implications of the high levels of incarceration for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children:

1.   For out-of–home-care services

When a parent is jailed, children invariably suffer. Often authorities remove the child (in some states more frequently than others) and the kids are placed in the out-of-home-care system, often away from their cultural context with non-Indigenous carers. Whatever the situation prior to removal, evidence suggests that this option for placement is generally not productive.

SNAICC has long argued that the best place for a child is with their mum or dad and the better option for the parent is out of prison and doing alternative family based programs. The effort to reunify our families places huge burdens on our families and organisations, especially given the scale of incarcerations. Governments must recognise that community based Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander child and family organisations are the best placed to provide services to the children and ideally parents too, as is appropriate.

2.   For Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander early childhood services

Where family separations, violence and incarceration are common, early childhood staff members need to follow difficult duty of care obligations (e.g. abiding by statutory declarations and court orders relating to violent family members and respecting confidentiality at all times).

In situations where intoxicated family members or parents arrive to collect children, staff cannot physically prevent collection however, they have a duty of care to inform the parents that the police will be notified. If the child is collected the call to police must be made.

Further, children with a violence and jail fractured family background often have additional support needs. However, early childhood centres are not resourced for additional staff to meet these needs.

Overstressed early childhood staff can burn out and cannot supply the care the children need. The very children that need the early preventative interventions are then less likely to get the extra support they need, to strengthen their resilience and especially, to avoid repeating the pattern. These children need support to continue schooling, often with intensive remedial attention. The proposal to develop an individual education support fund recognizes this need, but it needs to be extended to meet the needs of early years children.

3.  A new child focussed national drug strategy action plan

SNAICC notes that The National Drug Strategy Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People’s Complementary Action Plan 2003 – 2009 expires this year. This evaluation of this action plan will be released shortly. Presumably there will be a new action plan developed over the coming period, and SNAICC recommends that a more child-focused response will be developed. Preventative work in the early years will pay big dividends.

SNAICC also notes that committee representation for the NIDAC is heavily weighted to the health and drug and alcohol sector, but preventative work is not simply a physical or psychiatric health issue. Representation needs to be widened to include spokesperson/s clearly identified with the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community controlled child and family sector and other relevant departments and NGOs.

Key findings from the NIDAC report (Bridges and Barriers - Addressing Indigenous Incarceration and Health)

Despite investment by governments to reduce incarceration, in 2006–07 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people:

• Make up 25% of Australian’s prison population
• Are 13 times more likely to be in prison than other Australians
• Make up over half of the total juveniles in corrective institutions
• Make up 31% of all adult female prisoners
• Have had a threefold increase in the number of women incarcerated since the 1991 Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody.
• Have a low participation rate in diversion programs with young offenders are much less likely to be diverted into treatment than their non-indigenous counterparts.

The report estimates taxpayers pay $269 per day for each prisoner and compared to the cost of residential rehabilitation of $98 a day. Data from 2007 indicates over 68% of Indigenous adult police detainees tested positive to a range of drugs with 63.8% self reporting that they had consumed alcohol within the past 48 hours prior to the arrest.

Associate Professor Ted Wilkes, a Nyungar man from WA and the Chair of the NIDAC says: “It is clear current initiatives simply aren’t enough. Without question Indigenous Australians increasingly fill our country’s prisons and juvenile detention centres at alarmingly disproportionate rates. Treatment is far more effective in terms of outcomes and costs than imprisoning people. Then there are the social and family costs associated with offending.  Treatment provides people with a chance of recovery, which could mean less re-offending

“It is widely known that there is a strong link between harmful alcohol and drug use, offending rates and poor health. A major re-think is needed and unless we address these issues, a lifecycle of offending can perpetuate and span across generations.

Short term recommendations:

• Provide every young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander person with an individual education support fund to assist and promote participation and retention within the education system. 
• Amend the eligibility criteria of diversion programs to not rule out offenders who have prior convictions related to AOD, selective multiple charges, and co-existing mental illness or health problems. 
• Establish more Indigenous-specific diversion programs with appropriate links with existing Aboriginal community-controlled health services in their region.
• Develop and implement appropriate programs to assist family members with the return and re-integration of offenders into their community. 
• Improve the level of health services available to all Indigenous prisoners and juvenile detainees and by allowing Indigenous health services access to prisoners and detainees.

Long-term recommendations:

• Fund a network of community-based Indigenous youth wellbeing and activity centres with links to education & health services. 
• Develop a national AOD campaign for Indigenous Australians to reduce demand and supply, as well as decrease the incidence of foetal alcohol spectrum disorder. 
• Establish a ‘break the cycle’ network of Indigenous-specific residential rehabilitation centres for courts to utilise as a viable alternative to incarceration. 
• Develop a national employment strategy to train and establish a specialist Indigenous workforce of psychologists, doctors and nurses which can provide substance misuse, mental health and general health services.  

Associate Professor Ted Wilkes (Chair of NIDAC), says “Indigenous offenders face many issues that can exacerbate their health while in detention or prison.  Separation from family and culture, together with a previous history of an undiagnosed or untreated substance misuse, mental health or physical health problem places an Indigenous offender at great risk, if left unattended. It is important we are pro active in preventing and reducing the cycle of offending and re-offending”  

The paper also highlights that since health, harmful alcohol and drug use and wellbeing issues are closely linked to Indigenous violence, offending and incarceration, interventions to address alcohol and other drug misuse have clear potential to significantly reduce the issue. 

The proportion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander prisoners varies across states and territories. As at 30 June 2008:

NT  – 83% of total inmate population of 953

WA – 41% of total inmate population of 3,766 

QLD – 27% of total inmate population of 5,544

NSW – 20% of total inmate population of 10,510

SA – 20% of total inmate population of 1,942 

TAS – 13% of total inmate population of 515  

ACT – 10% of total inmate population of 250

VIC – 6% of total inmate population of 4,223  

The NIDAC report, Bridges and Barriers – Addressing Indigenous Incarceration and Health was launched on on 25 June 09 by the Hon. Warren Snowdon, Federal Minister for Indigenous Health, Rural and Regional Health and Regional Services Delivery and the Hon. Brendon O’Connor, Federal Minister for Home Affairs.  Download paper here www.nidac.org.au

SNAICC also notes the upcoming national Indigenous Young People, Crime and Justice Conference 31 August – 1 September 2009, Crown Plaza Hotel, Parramatta NSW, hosted by the Australian Institute for Criminology (AIC), the SW Commission for Children and Young People, the NSW Attorney General’s Department and the Australian Human Rights Commission.

This conference focuses on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and young people who interact with the criminal justice system early and/or repeatedly, who are likely to have complex needs and require highly targeted and collaborative responses across the justice and other interrelated systems such as education, child protection, family support and cultural services.