The committee found the detention rate for indigenous juveniles was 397 per 100,000, which is 28 times higher than the rate for non-indigenous juveniles at 14 per 100,000. Indigenous juveniles account for 59 per cent of the total juvenile population in jail.
The imprisonment rate in the adult indigenous community was just as dire, with a 55 per cent increase in men in prison in the past decade and a 47 per cent rise of women in custody.
20 years on, black kids still fill jails, parliamentary committee finds
Forty percent of female juveniles in custody report being victims of sexual abuse.
2009 NSW Inmate Health Survey
Two thirds (66%) of [women in prison] reported having been involved in at least one violent relationship.
2009 NSW Inmate Health Survey
Females [in prison] were substantially more likely than males to report that since the age of 16 years, they had been subjected to at least one form of sexual violence (29% versus 2%). Women were also more likely to report that they had been subjected to such sexual violence on more than one occasion (22% versus 2%).
Twenty two percent of women reported having engaged in vaginal or anal sexual activity with a partner who threatened violence (compared with <1% of men); 21% of women reported having been subjected to actual violence during sexual activity (versus 1% of men); and 18% of women reported having had a partner who used their weight or size to immobilise the participant during sexual activity (versus 2% of men).
2009 NSW Inmate Health Survey
Twenty three percent of [people in prison], including 30% of women and 22% of men, reported a history of having “overdosed or become unconscious as a result of taking drugs.”
2009 NSW Inmate Health Survey
45% of [imprisoned] women reported that a partner or spouse had engaged in at least one form of abuse or control in the year preceding their current incarceration.
2009 NSW Inmate Health Survey
Forty percent of women [in prison] reported having had at least one miscarriage.
2009 NSW Inmate Health Survey
The indigenous imprisonment rate surged from 1248 for every 100,000 Australian adults in 2000 to 1892 by 2010, marking a 52 per cent increase, an Australian Institute of Health and Welfare report has found.
Indigenous people now make up 26 per cent of the prison population despite making up just 2.5 per cent of the Australian population.
In Western Australia and South Australia, indigenous people were 20 times more likely to be jailed. Almost 7600 indigenous Australians were behind bars in June 2010, 91 per cent of them male.
Indigenous prison rates jump by 52 per cent
The health and welfare of Australia’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people: an overview 2011
