LL:PR: The WA Prison 'Killing Fields' claim another two lives

[Deaths In Custody Watch Commitee (WA) Inc.]

media release

DEATHS IN CUSTODY WATCH COMMITTEE (WA) Inc.
119 MATHIESON RD        ASCOT WA 6104

Tel:  61(0)8 9277-1533  Mobile:  041993-0375    Fax:  61(0)8 9478-4204

E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]       URL:    http://www.omen.net.au/~dicwc

Patron: Elder   Dr Jack Davis, AO, MBE

  7 January 1999        

  The WA Prison 'Killing Fields': claim another two lives"

Two deaths in prison custody in one day is tragic and extraordinary, but
not unexpected in this State of high incarceration." said Kath Mallott of
the Deaths In Custody Watch Committee of Western Australia on hearing of
the two deaths in prison custody on Thursday, 6 Jan.

One young man in the C. W. Campbell Remand Centre and an Indigenous man in
Roebourne Regional Prison were each found dead in their cells, yesterday, 6
January 2000.

"With an ever increasing muster, this government, and this Parliament, must
accept responsibility for both its actions and inactions that place Richard
Court's administration at the leading edge of incarceration in the Western
civilised world."

Ms Mallott added,  "The latest figures from the Australian Bureau of
Statistics (ABS) for the September Quarter show again that the Richard
Court's Ministry of Justice is effectively blind to its broadest
responsibilities.

"Victoria puts its citizens in custody, at a rate of about 84 per 100,000
of its population, Western Australia at a rate of 216 per 100,000," she
explained "of course if you are an indigenous citizen of WA the likelihood
of incarceration rises dramatically.  An indigenous woman in Western
Australia can expect to be incarcerated at over six times the rate of her
white sister in Victoria  - and if you are an indigenous man, then you are
imprisoned at about SEVENTY times the rate of your fellow white Victorian
citizen, a staggering rate of 5,666 per 100,000.  Whilst the WA government
claims to support Reconciliation, their 'Lock 'em up attitude" to
indigenous citizens is blatant racism!" she exclaimed.

"High rates of incarceration have thrown our jail system into chaos and the
barbaric regimes imposed on prisoners in this State have contributed to the
increasing number of prisoners who are committing suicide and other acts of
self-harm."

"We have had a decade of missed opportunity to fix some of these problems,
if only the  recommendations of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths
in Custody had been effectively implemented.  This has not occurred and the
deaths continue."  Ms Mallott concluded.        

Media Contact:  Chair:  Murray Jones    08 9265-6934    
  Executive Officer:    Kath Mallott    041993-0375     


Deaths In Custody Watch Committee (WA) Inc)
119 Mathieson Road, REDCLIFFE, Western Australia,  6104

"The beginning of the cause of deaths in custody does not occur within the
confines of police and prison cells or in the minds of the victims.
Initially it starts in the minds of those who allow it to happen."
Elder Dr. Jack Davis (OA, MBE)

* [EMAIL PROTECTED]                 http://www.omen.net.au/~dicwc *



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