By Ruth
Skilbeck
Australian incarceration figures have more than tripled in the past three decades, the group at highest risk of imprisonment now is Indigenous women (the vast majority of whom are mothers) and in
recent years Indigenous mothers many with traumatic mental health and cognitive
disorders – often as result of violence – have been increasingly imprisoned rather
than treated in the health system.
Since the start of the Northern Territory
Intervention in 2007 there has been a 70% increase in incarceration figures in
the Northern Territory in Australia. The Indigenous rate of imprisonment is now 14 time higher than the non-indigenous rate, according to Australian Bureau of Statistics (2010).
The old
colonial-style policies of incarceration are not working as a deterrent to
crime and are causing more social problems and enormous costs to the State in
‘postcolonial’ decolonising societies around the world, of which Australia is a
prime example, according to current research conducted in Australia.
Over the
past 20 to 30 years the number of people imprisoned in Australia has tripled,
and the majority of these are from disadvantaged social background with a
disproportionate number of Indigenous people in prison, and amongst these a
disproportionate number of Indigenous women the majority of whom are mothers.
Even more
worryingly in recent years there has been an increasing rate of imprisonment of
Indigenous women with mental health and cognitive disorders- including brain
injuries resulting from violence. Rather than receiving effective health care
they are being incarcerated – and meanwhile their children of incarcerated
mothers are very often left to fend for themselves. A large percentage of the
children of incarcerated mothers end up in the juvenile justice system, thus
perpetuating a vicious cycle, which has been almost impossible for the majority
from these disadvantaged backgrounds to escape.
Australian Research Council funded research
conducted in Australia, led by Professor Eileen Baldry professor of criminology
at the Social Policy Research Centre at the University of New South Wales shows that
once an indigenous person enters the juvenile justice system at an early age
the statistics show a very high chance that they will continue to be imprisoned
repeatedly throughout their entire lives
Even more
alarmingly the statistics in the new research show that almost all of the
children and youth who are picked up in the juvenile justice system had parents
who were affected by the ‘Stolen Generations’ policies, which saw the separation
of children from parents by the State in an attempt to assimilate Aboriginal
peoples under the white Australia policy that was in effect from 1909-1967.
This only ended when Aboriginal people finally won the right to vote after much
voicing and protesting resistance and a referendum that showed the majority of
Australians wanted Aboriginal people to be equal citizens.
New
creative and humane solutions are needed to address the complex problems
eventuating from the impacts of the 'Stolen Generations' policies as the old
'solution' of mass incarceration has been shown not to work.
©Copyright
Ruth Skilbeck 3 December, 2012
Baldry, Eileen and Cunneen, Chris (2012)
‘Contemporary Penality in the Shadow of Colonial Patriarchy’ in Coventry, Garry
& Shincore, Mandy (Eds.). (2012) Proceedings of the 5th
Annual Australian and New Zealand Critical
Criminology Conference July 7 and 8, 2011. James
Cook University, Cairns Campus. Townsville, Queensland: James Cook University.
ISBN 978-0-9808572-4-5.
Baldry, Eileen, Dowse, Leanne, Clarence, Melissa
(2012) “People with Mental and Cognitive Disabilities: Pathways into Prison.”
Background Paper for Outlaws to Inclusion Conference, February 2012.
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