Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service 6 Alexandra Parade, P.O. Box 218 - PDF document

Head Office: Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service 6 Alexandra Parade, P.O. Box 218 Co-operative Ltd. Fitzroy, Victoria 3065 Phone: (03) 9419 3888 (24 Hrs) Fax: (03) 9419 6024 Toll Free: 1800 064 865 Presentation to Youth Work Students at Victoria University re things to know about the Indigenous Australian community – October 2007 I acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which we are meeting, the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nations and pay my respect to their Elders past and present. My name is Greta Clarke and I am the Research Officer at the Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service which I will refer to as VALS from this point on. You will also hear me say the word Koorie which is the word use for Indigenous Australian Victorians. I am a non-Indigenous Australian who is grieved by the injustices committed against Indigenous Australians since colonisation. My motivation for working at VALS is because my liberation is bound up in the liberation of Indigenous Australians. I do not speak on behalf of the Aboriginal community as I am aware that my own culture affects how I hear information from my Aboriginal colleagues and how I pass it on to others. Much of my work involves recognising aspects of the dominant culture, how the dominant culture impacts the Indigenous Australian community and suggesting ways that the two cultures can fit together. I am going to talk about: 1. The over-representation of Indigenous Australians in the criminal justice system and the underlying issues behind this trend; 2. VALS, the Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service; 3. Why we need a specific Aboriginal Legal Service and what you as Youth Workers can learn from Aboriginal organisations. 4. Good examples of how the justice system has been make more accessible for Indigenous Australians and how justice outcomes have been improved for Indigenous Australians. I will talk about the Koori Court and VALS’ Youth Cautioning and Diversion Program. OVER-REPRESENATION AND UNDERLYING ISSUES An authority on the over-representation of Indigenous Australians in the criminal justice system and the underlying causes for this is the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody Report of 1991. The RCIADIC Report found that Aboriginal people did not die in custody at a greater rate than non-Indigenous Australians but they entered the criminal justice system as a rate disproportionate to the general Indigenous Australian 1 Presentation to Youth Work Students at Victoria University re things to know about the Indigenous Australian community – October 2007

population. Indigenous Australians make up a little under 2.5 per cent of the national population. The RCIADIC was reviewed in Victoria in 2005 and the Review Report made similar findings to those in 1991. It was found in 2005 that Indigenous Australians are more than twelve times more likely to be held in Victorian prisons than non-Indigenous people. The statistics tell a sorrier tale for juveniles as between 2002-2004 the incarceration rate for Indigenous juveniles was 26 times higher than the rate for non-Indigenous juveniles (Australian Bureau of Statistics 2002-2004. 1 The RCIADIC Review provided up-to-date statistics from 2001 on underlying issues that contribute to the over-representation in the criminal justice system and some of these are: 1. Education and Training : the highest levels of schooling completed at Year 12 levels was 13 per cent for Indigenous Australians and 32 per cent for non- Indigenous Australians. 2. Employment and Economic Status: unemployment among Indigenous Victorians was as much as 3 times higher than for non-Indigenous Victorians. 2 Median incomes were $287 for Indigenous Australians and $383 for non- Indigenous Australians. 3. Housing: Only 12 per cent of adult Indigenous Australian Victorians fully owned their own home without a mortgage, compared to 41 per cent of non-Indigenous Australians. 4. Families and Children: the rate at which Indigenous Australian children were the subject of a child protection substantiation was nine times higher than the rate for other children. 5. Health and Well-being: the difference in life expectancy compared to non- Indigenous Australians was – 20 years less for Indigenous male Victorians and 18.6 years for Indigenous female Victorians. 6. Alcohol and Other Substances: Nationally 57.1% of Indigenous Australians reported ever using illicit drugs, whereas 37.7% of non-Indigenous Australians reported this. VALS has identified other factors that contribute to the over-representation: 1. Tough on crime : A tough on crime approach means that tougher or punitive attitudes to crime are common. VALS prefers a ‘smart on crime’ approach that acknowledges that tough on crime approaches often have a disproportionate impact on marginalised communities, such as Indigenous Australians. Also, tough on crime approaches (ie: locking people up and throwing away the key) do not work in terms of rehabilitation. 2. Poor Koorie police relations which makes Koories highly visible to police: According to a VALS’ CSO “[f]or some reason the police and the wider 1 Australian Institute of Criminology ‘Australian Crime Facts and Figures 2005’ as at http://www.aic.gov.au/publications/facts/2005/facts_and_figures_2005.pdf 2 Victorian Implementation Review of the Recommendations from the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody Statistical Information Volume 2 October 2005 p. 20 2 Presentation to Youth Work Students at Victoria University re things to know about the Indigenous Australian community – October 2007

community equate blackness with trouble. Because of been over-policed Koori children use up their ‘out of jail cards’ and compile a lengthy juvenile record early in their teens. Every Koori child between 10 and 18 I know of has had a negative experience with the police in Swan Hill”. 3. Re-offending: in 2002-2003 50% of Indigenous Australian prisoners returned to prison within two years of being released compared with 34% of non-Indigenous Australians. 3 4. Systemic discrimination or racism within the justice system: systemic racism is a concept that focuses on outcomes rather than attitudes or intentions of those administering the criminal justice system. For instance public drunkenness laws arguably indirectly discriminate against Indigenous Australians as Indigenous Australians use public space as cultural space and the law makes visible to police this use of public space. Indigenous Australians use public space as cultural space as they have large gatherings of extended family outdoors rather than indoors as they will not all fit inside. 4 The statistics reflect the disproportionate impact of public drunkenness laws on Indigenous Australians: the 1991 RCIADIC reported that drunkenness cases made up 57% of Aboriginal custodies compared with 27% of non-Aboriginal custodies. 5 5. Rite of passage: Indigenous Australians see prison as a rite of passage and way to get culture. The people involved in the RCIADIC Review were told this by prisoners they visited. 6. maltreatment: statistics from 2002 indicate that maltreated Indigenous Australian children are 4.3 times more likely to subsequently offend than non- Indigenous Australian children. 6 VALS VALS’ vision is to be a service ‘For Koories- by Koories’ and to be both a sword and shield. VALS assists Indigenous Australian peoples in their struggle for justice and self- determination. VALS is a community controlled Aboriginal organisation which commenced in the early 1970s when a group of forward thinking Koori Elders and non-Koori lawyers concerned at the number of Kooris attending court without legal representation. VALS is funded by the Commonwealth Attorney General’s Department. There has been no major increase in funding since the early nineties however during this time the Indigenous Australian population has more than doubled. VALS was incorporated as a Co-operative on 10 th June 1975 . VALS has offices at Fitzroy, Morwell, Bairnsdale, Shepparton, Swan Hill, Mildura, Heywood and Ballarat. VALS is a Statewide Legal Service for Indigenous 3 Victorian Department of Justice ‘Who returns to prison? – patterns of re-offending among prisoners released from custody in Victoria in 2002-2003, Corrections Research Paper Series Paper no 1 June 2007, P14. 4 VALS Submission in response to the ‘Systemic Racism as a Factor in the Over-representation of Aboriginal People in the Victorian Criminal Justice System’ Report - sent 17 October 2005 5 Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody (1991) Volume 2 para 21.1.2 6 Dr Anna Stewart, Dr Susan Dennison, Ms Elissa Waterson Final Report: Pathways from Child Maltreatment to Juvenile Offending ( School of Criminology and Criminal Justice Griffith University) October 2002, p. 97 as in Australian Institute of Criminology Trends and Issues Paper in Crime and Criminal Justice no: 241. 3 Presentation to Youth Work Students at Victoria University re things to know about the Indigenous Australian community – October 2007