ESSAY
Essay question
How well do prisons in Australia meet the needs of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander prisoners OR female prisoners? Should prisons be managed to meet the specific needs of your chosen group? If so, why? If not, why not?
In writing the essay, students may refer in part to the Required Readings. However, students are also expected to draw – to an appropriate extent – on texts not reproduced in these readings (i.e., from texts beyond the Required Readings). Students can of course draw from texts listed under Further Readings but the best essays will usually make use of materials additional to those mentioned in the Topic Guide. Students are permitted to make reference to a comment or discussion occurring in seminars but under no circumstances should the essay reproduce or rely on seminar material as the basis for the essay.
What are the needs of prisoners?
This essay discusses how well do prisons in Australia meet the needs of Aboriginal prisoners and should prisons be managed to meet the specific needs of this group. Changes needs to be made to cater more for their needs because According to Australia Beaur statistic majority of the prisoners are indigenous. They make up majority of the prison population. Some of their needs are different from other prisoners. In this essay I will be discussing the issues faced by the indigenous people in the prison system, the cause of the treatment and recommendation on how it can be resolved
The most common basics need from none indigenous prisoners includes education, psychological needs, health needs, food, shelter and safety needs. Whereas for the indigenous people their needs are different from other prisoners. In this essay I will be discussing the issues faced by indigenous people in prisons and how well do prisons in Australia meet their needs and recommendation of this needs such as how prisons should be managed to meet their needs
Each prisoner has different needs. The most basic needs of all prisoners from indigenous prisoners includes, education, psychological needs, health needs, food, shelter and safety needs. However indigenous prisoners do not have the same needs as every other prisoners. They value visiting rights, culture, space and language.
Statistics also show that the deaths custody of indigenous people is also very. The reason for this is because they are discriminated and abuse of power is used on them. They are also more likely to get arrested than a none indigenous Australian. For example a law was implemented in northern territory that forbid public drinking and places with signs. This was specifically aimed at the indigenous community because they drink in public places. This law gives police officers authority over indigenous people. Therefore Indigenous people are more likely to get arrested and creates problems between the indigenous community and police officers. This gives police officers the authority to abuse their power and take advantage of the indigenous people (Federal Register of Legislation, 2016). There are reports that shows that indigenous are treated
There are evidences and reports that shows that indigenous people are dying secretly and custody and in cells (Korff, 2017). According to the institution of criminology the death custody annual report for indigenous people in Australia in 2001 were 87 deaths in custody. 56 of them were in prison custody and 36 of them died under police custody. This shows is a high number of police abuse in custody due to the amount of deaths in custody in 2001 (Australian Institute of Criminology, 2017).
This law creates problems between the law system and the indigenous.
`According to the Australia bureau statistics the prison rate for indigenous people is higher than the prison rate for none indigenous Australian. Dr Eggleston study indicated that in 1965 in western 24 percent Australia 11 percent of the Indigenous population convicted of different minor offences in western Australia such as public drunkenness and public offences that are less serous. 11 percent of indigenous prison rate made up off 24 percent of western Australia prison rate. This shows that the indigenous people are been arrested and sent to jail without a fair trial and sentencing practice` and they have been taken advantage of. The reason for this is because they are overrepresented in the criminal justice system.
In the Australian criminal justice system, indigenous people have the highest population rate compared to any other population race in the prisons. The Australian criminal statistic indicates that the conviction rate and rates of imprisonment of indigenous people are over-represented in the Australian criminal justice system. In the study of Dr Eggleston, she indicated that in Western Australia
Majority of this arrest are minor offences that doesn’t involve jail time. However they still get sent to jail and this show abuse of power. This is the reason the prison population of indigenous people are very high. According to the New South Wales Anti-discrimination board majority of the indigenous people in the indigenous community are charged with minor offences such as fines etc. this often led to jail time because they do not pay their fines, and this is due to unemployment. Majority of the indigenous population do not have jobs therefore they do not have the money to pay for their fines. This leads to jail time. A study was conducted that shows that indigenous people who got caught for minor offence and public drunkenness are more likely to get arrested and sent to jail than none indigenous person due failing to apply for bail and not paying fines. According to the national prison census 1984 majority of the indigenous prisoners are arrested for minor offences such as behavioural offences. In 1983 30 to 34 percent of indigenous people are arrested for public drunkenness and minor street offences. This is an example of indigenous people been over represented in the criminal justice system and the prison system does not meet the needs of indigenous prisoners
In the Australian legal system, indigenous health is one of the main concern as it is an epidemic crisis around the whole criminal system of Australia. Also, in the Australian criminal system, the population of prison over-represent indigenous people with mental health, substance abuse problems and histories of sexual abuse. As cited in the Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander: Health Performance Framework 2014 reports, Putt et al. (2005) found that during an arrest, 69% of male indigenous prisoners have consumed alcohol which is higher than that of non-indigenous people with only 27% of alcohol consumption during an arrest. Indigenous people consume alcohol regularly compared to non-indigenous as indigenous people are vulnerable and also due to socio-economic disadvantages. The Aboriginal Peak Organisation of the Northern Territory (APON NT) indicated that the study of international and Australian research showed that the abuse of alcohol and mental health affects the social and structural factors such as education, housing, and employment (The National Health and Medical Research Council, 2015).
In terms of heath wise indigenous prisoners are not well looked at after in prisons. Indigenous Prisoners with mental health sexual abuse, and substance abuse are not well looked after. Health performance framework 2014 reports found that 69 percent of males indigenous prisoners arrested are alcoholic and 27 for none indigenous prisoners (Putt et al. 2005)
Indigenous health is also another problem that is becoming a difficult to address. They are more likely to get checked than a none indigenous Australia is because they are more likely to get sick. In 2012 statistics when tested indigenous prisoner have a higher chance of getting hepattis B antibodies whereas none indigenous prisoners have a higher chance when tested of positive hepatitis C antibodies. Statistics from 2012 shows that 92 percent of the indigenous prisoners are smokers, 59 percent are alcohol and drugs abusers. Additional another study shows that in northern territory 94 percent of indigenous prisoners has earing infection which leads to hearing problem. This is one of the reasons why they get into trouble with the law and other prisoners because they can not hear properly and cannot understand people and misunderstanding with the criminal justice system. Because they cannot communicate properly (Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, 2014)..
There are different reasons why indigenous Australian are overrepresented in the criminal justice system. One of the reasons is due to dysfunctional families, lost of parent to prison, exposed to violence and drug activities. They have been arrested so many times that it has become normal to them now to the point where they do not see it as an embarrassment but source of happiness. The reason for this is because most of them do not have a home, do not have a job and do not have free access to health. Therefore been arrested gives them advantage to access free health, accommodation and food (Weatherburn, 2014).
Another reason to why they are also incarcerated is because it is expensive to run indigenous imprisonment. The daily annum cost to keep a prisoner cost 275 dollars per annum and there are 7929 indigenous inmates in June 2012. It cost tax payers 795 million dollars to maintain prison. If prisons are managed to meet the needs of indigenous Australian the prison rate would decrease such health and educational purposes (Weatherburn, 2014). Majority of the indigenous prisoner are uneducated, alcohol and drug users. If their needs are taken care of the prison rate will decrease. They are socially disadvantage and economically disadvantage because they are overrepresented. This is due to colonial era. The Social and economic disadvantage indigenous people experience has led to high imprisonment rate because they are jobless and traumatize. According to the data collected by the national (NATSISS) in 2012 aboriginal and Torres strait islander shows that indigenous Australian who did not finish high school are more likely to end in prison because they were unemployed and living in terrible condition where drug and alcohol abuse normally happens
