Following the recent deaths of three Aboriginal detainees within a six-month period, independent MLA Thomas Emerson will bring a motion to the ACT Legislative Assembly backing community calls for the ACT government to launch a Board of Inquiry into the treatment of Aboriginal people in the Alexander Maconochie Centre (AMC).
Emerson said systemic action was needed to address the escalating rate of Aboriginal people dying in custody.
“It’s time for a targeted examination of why Aboriginal people continue to die in our prison,” he said.
“We need a Board of Inquiry to unearth and lay bare the harsh reality of what’s really happening in the AMC.
“We’re failing some of our city’s most marginalised people. Worse than that, they’re dying in a place that’s supposed to rehabilitate them.
“We hear a lot about the government’s commitment to providing culturally safe services, but clearly that commitment isn’t reaching the AMC.
“It’s morally reprehensible to continue ignoring calls from affected families for accountability and action. A prison sentence should not be a death sentence.”
The motion will be debated on Wednesday afternoon with family members of some of the detainees who have died in custody expected to be in attendance.
Julie Tongs, CEO of Winnunga Nimmityjah, has been calling for an independent inquiry into the AMC for many years. Following reports of another Aboriginal detainee being hospitalised after a violent assault over the weekend, Ms Tongs said community voices could no longer be ignored by people in positions of power.
“The ACT has the highest rate of increase in the incarceration of Aboriginal men and women in Australia, and the highest rate of indigenous recidivism,” said Ms Tongs.
“Compounding these disturbing outcomes is the number of Aboriginal detainees who have died while in the AMC.
“A broad ranging and appropriately funded Board of Inquiry into all aspects of the care and treatment of Aboriginal men and women detained in the AMC is long overdue.”
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