Latest news with #deathsInCustody
ABC News
15-07-2025
- ABC News
NT police union raises alarm over death in custody risk in watch houses
The Northern Territory's police union is warning a death or serious incident in custody is only a matter of time under dangerous conditions inside police watch houses. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised that this article contains the name and image of an Indigenous person who has died, used with the permission of their family. Their caution comes amid national attention on Aboriginal deaths in custody, after the NT coroner last week delivered her inquest findings into the 2019 police shooting of Kumanjayi Walker in Yuendumu. It also follows the recent deaths in custody of Warlpiri man Kumanjayi White in Alice Springs and a senior Kardu Rak Kirnmu elder at Royal Darwin Hospital. In a statement, the NT Police Association (NTPA) said 92 detainees were kept in the Palmerston police watch house on Monday, including 76 overflow corrections prisoners. "This is officially out of control," NTPA president Nathan Finn said in a statement. The growing pressure on police comes just four months after the NT government promised to stop housing corrections prisoners at watch houses in Palmerston and Alice Springs. Corrections Minister Gerard Maley told parliament on March 18 that all prisoners had been moved out of the watch houses and into prisons in Holtze and Berrimah. Mr Finn told the ABC he was "extremely concerned" by another spike in corrections prisoners held inside watch houses. "It's going to end up in a situation where a police officer is hurt, or an inmate in that facility is hurt or killed," he said. "We've got no contingencies if someone gets violent. "If someone has a mental health episode inside that facility, it's further placing our staff at unacceptable risk." Former detainee Willis John Carlow, who was released on Tuesday after 10 days in the Palmerston watch house, said the conditions were "horrible". "We had to s**t in front of everyone and there was no space, just 10 other people — 16 other people — in one space," he said. "You've got to eat while they're taking a s**t so it was pretty bad." Another former detainee, who was also released on Tuesday but wished to remain anonymous, said the women's cells were stained with period blood. "We're all in this room with someone else's period blood all over the sheets and it's just pushed into a pile against the wall." She said the female inmates had created a barricade of mattresses around the cell's toilet for privacy from male correctional officers walking past. "You've got one blocked toilet and then one toilet that barely works and we're supposed to be drinking water from bubblers on top of the toilet," she said. "There was a pregnant woman in there who had stomach pains … and for two weeks in a row was asking to see medical [staff]." The NT's prison population has soared in recent months, partly driven by the NT government's introduction of tougher bail laws. Data from the NT corrections department shows 2,847 prisoners were being held at correctional facilities on Tuesday, including 1,492 at Darwin Correctional Centre. About half of those prisoners are people on remand who have not yet been sentenced or found guilty. The overflow of prisoners is playing out in the courts. More than 185 court matters were listed between just two sitting judges at Darwin Local Court on Tuesday, giving judges about three minutes on average to process each matter. Mr Finn said the NT government had failed to support its "tough-on-crime" agenda with appropriate infrastructure to cope with rising prisoner numbers. Mr Finn also claimed overcrowding inside watch houses was preventing police officers from making arrests. "We've heard from a number of members coming through that limitations in watch house space has led to arrests not being made," he said. NT Police and Mr Maley have been contacted for comment. A department spokesperson said correctional staff have not operated out of the Palmerston police watch house since mid-March.
ABC News
11-06-2025
- ABC News
Yuendumu community members gather at third Alice Springs vigil for Kumanjayi White
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised that this article contains the name of an Indigenous person who has died, used with the permission of their family. More than 100 members of Kumanjayi White's family and community have travelled hundreds of kilometres to gather in Alice Springs for the town's third vigil mourning the young Warlpiri man. The 24-year-old died in police custody last month after he was restrained by plain-clothed police on the floor of an Alice Springs supermarket. His death has sparked an outpouring of grief and anger, with rallies and vigils held across the country demanding "justice" and an end to Indigenous deaths in custody. Members from Mr White's home community of Yuendumu travelled to Alice Springs on Wednesday to repeat those calls and his family's demands for an independent investigation into the incident. The vigil began with community members walking from the Alice Springs court house lawns to the Coles supermarket where Mr White died on May 27. Media were asked to stay outside, but a few community members — led by Warlpiri women — went inside the store and ceremonially swept branches in the aisles, in a traditional ceremony called "finishing up". The crowd of about 200 then returned to the lawns, where Mr White's grandfather Ned Jampijinpa Hargraves, a senior Warlpiri elder, was the first to speak. "We want justice, we want justice," he said with anger. "Enough is enough. Say it with me, enough is enough." Mr Hargraves said he wanted witnesses to the incident to come forward and "tell us what happened". "Because [police] won't give us CCTV ... and we are demanding that we do not want police-to-police investigating," he said. "We want the two police that were involved to stand down. The family has also requested that police "cease making public statements that allege criminality and denigrate the character of Kumanjayi". The NT Police Force has said two officers detained Mr White after an alleged altercation with a security guard who accused him of shoplifting. The ABC understands one of the officers was NT police prosecutor Steven Haig. NT Police Acting Commissioner Martin Dole has rejected requests for the investigation to be handed to an external body, saying there are strict procedures regarding "deaths involving police contact with the public". He has also said the "integrity" of evidence, including CCTV, needs to be maintained while police continue their criminal investigation into the incident. Lynette Tasman, one of Mr White's grandmothers, also spoke at the vigil, saying the family was "heartbroken". "We are so sad and hurt, so hurt that our loved one was taken away," she said. "When are we going to get justice? We're humans too, even though we're black." Ms Tasman said many of her family members had worked in the police force, "supporting the law". "Where's that law for us? Where's the truth?" she said. In an emotional address to the crowd, Warlpiri woman Valerie Napaljarri Martin said her community was suffering. "When are we going to have justice for our kids?" she said. "He was only hungry ... why for this, we have to lose another young fella, our family, our young, just emerging. "Shame on Australia. It's a disgrace, how we are living." The vigil comes just days after the death of another Indigenous man in police custody in the Northern Territory. On Saturday, a respected Wadeye elder died at Royal Darwin Hospital while in the custody of federal police, about a week after he was detained at Darwin airport. Arrernte woman Barbara Shaw, who helped organise Wednesday's vigil, reflected on that death as well as she called for action. She also spoke about how Mr White was living in supported accommodation in Alice Springs because of his disabilities. "No one is taking responsibility for our service providers, no one is checking up on our carers," she said. "We're the only people that can care for our people, but we don't have the skills. "Service providers are not giving Aboriginal people a chance to take care of our own."
ABC News
29-05-2025
- Health
- ABC News
Demands for answers after ninth First Nations person dies in custody this year
First Nations leaders and advocates are calling for accountability and justice following the death in custody of a young Warlpiri man in Alice Springs this week. The 24-year-old from the remote community of Yuendumu, whose family says was disabled and lived in supported accommodation, died on Tuesday after being restrained by police in a supermarket. Australians "need to be outraged by this," Worimi man Damian Griffis from the First Peoples Disability Network told the ABC's Indigenous Affairs Team. "If you are a First Nations person you are far more likely to end up in the back of a police paddy wagon, or worse, than in a supported disability system." Independent senator Lidia Thorpe accused governments of "empty words with no action" when it comes to deaths in custody. "These police officers who have ultimately ended this young man's life should be held accountable," the Gunnai, Gunditjmara and Djab Wurrung woman said. "We've just lost another innocent Aboriginal person to the system, the system that commits everyday ongoing violence against our people." Northern Territory Assistant Commissioner Travis Wurst told reporters security guards initially approached the young man because he was placing items down the front of his clothes, leading to an altercation. He alleged the man assaulted one of the guards and two plain clothes officers intervened to restrain him. The man lost consciousness and was later pronounced dead at hospital. His grandfather, respected Warlpiri Elder Ned Jampjinpa Hargraves, has rejected the police account, saying in a it is "disgraceful that police are already putting out stories that portray my jaja (grandson) as a criminal." "We demand they stop spreading stories and show some respect." He said he was devastated by the death and the community was demanding answers. "He was very vulnerable. He needed support and not to be criminalised because of his disability." Damian Griffis said tragic incidents like this could be avoided with more targeted training of first responders. "Community members with disability — who have intellectual disability, hearing impairment, acquired brain injury for example, or even when English is not a first language — may not understand directions, and this is why things like this can escalate rapidly and get out of hand." Senator Thorpe said she wanted to see people held responsible over the young man's death. Thirty-eight years ago, an historic Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody began interrogating the disproportionate number of Indigenous people impacted. Decades later, its recommendations are yet to be fully implemented. Five hundred and ninety-four First Nations people have now lost their lives in custody since the report was released in 1991. Nine have died this year. Senator Thorpe said the key to reducing the number of First Nations people dying in police custody were in those recommendations. "We have governments who basically are complicit in the ongoing genocide of our people because they won't implement the recommendations," she said. "Now that in itself is an act of ignorance and deliberate denial that there is even an issue that needs to be talked about or an issue that needs be prioritised." Senator Thorpe said every death in custody caused fear across Indigenous communities. "Right across this country, every family who's lost a loved one is still reeling in the trauma and the loss, and every death in custody only re-traumatises our people," she said. Nerita Waight, deputy chair of the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Service, told ABC News Breakfast governments must also implement the recommendations of numerous coronial inquests into deaths in custody. "It's their choice to fail to invest in their systems. It's their choice to continue to fail Aboriginal people. It's their choice to make sure this is a recurring issue for our community." On Thursday, Minister for Indigenous Australians Malarndirri McCarthy told the ABC the Territory should consider having a body separate to the NT Police investigate the death. "Calls for an independent investigation may be warranted. It may be important to do that, given there is such tension," she said. Shadow minister Kerrynne Liddle said she was saddened by the man's death and sent condolences to his family "who are right to seek answers". "It is also important to understand any factors that have contributed to this terrible outcome," she said in a statement. The findings of a coronial inquest into the 2019 death of Kumanjayi Walker in Yuendumu at the hands of police is due in the coming weeks. Thalia Anthony, a law professor at the University of Technology Sydney, who researches deaths in custody, believes an independent investigation outside the NT is vital to give reassurance to the family. She said the royal commission found the high number of Aboriginal deaths in custody was due to the high level of police surveillance and apprehension of Aboriginal people, often for minor offences. She urged police to use de-escalation techniques. "The fact that this was a very minor matter (that) could have been dealt with in so many ways and resulted in a death of a young Aboriginal man shows that there are endemic problems with how police engage Aboriginal people." For Ned Jampijinpa Hargraves and his family, there remain too many unanswered questions. "I am angry and frustrated that yet another one of our young men has lost his life at the hands of the police. "Why was he there alone, where were the carers who were supposed to be responsible for him? "We are demanding answers and justice."
