Incarceration rates for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women have soared 18% in the past year as the government moves to effectively cut funding to Indigenous legal and family violence prevention services.



The Human Rights Law Centre’s senior lawyer, Ruth Barson, criticised Tony Abbott, who is spending a week in Arnhem Land, for not doing enough to prevent Indigenous women being jailed.

She said it was impossible to attribute the increase in Indigenous women’s incarceration rates to one specific factor, but law and order policies of federal and state governments should be examined.

“The fact there is an increase suggests we need to look at why it has happened,” she said. “What policies are specifically impacting Aboriginal and Torres Strait woman? Is it a ‘tough on crime’ approach? Or are there other factors they are exposed to, such as sexual and family violence, increased rates of homelessness, which are increasing the likelihood of incarceration?”

Barson said the federal government’s changes to funding for Indigenous program and groups meant support would be cut for every state’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander legal service, and the family violence prevention service was waiting to see if its tender for funding had been accepted.

“We know there’s an increase in the rates, and the disproportionate rates suggest something is having a huge impact to have them increased,” Barson said.

The rate of non-Indigenous women going to jail also increased, by 13%, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders make up 28% of the prison population and 2% of the general population.

New South Wales, Queensland and Western Australia hold 75% of the Indigenous prison population.

Barson said more than 85% of the people locked up in the Northern Territory were Indigenous.

“This week the prime minister is staying at Yirrkala and visiting remote parts of the Northern Territory … [he] will no doubt hear about the devastating impacts of over-incarceration when speaking to people and communities on the ground; this should be a wake-up call that his government needs to do more, not less, to stop so many people being removed from their families, communities and culture,” Barson said.

“One thing this government can do is to commit to properly funding gender and culturally specific legal services – this will ensure that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women get equal access to justice.”

Barson said an increased police presence and judges imposing harsher sentences could both be factors in the increase in Indigenous women in jail.

“Women are disproportionately the primary caregivers to children so it’s taking mothers away from children, and exposing children to the protection system at a very young age,” she said.

“There is also the impact on the women – prison isn’t necessarily a therapeutic environment and we’re taking a traumatised woman and putting her in a criminogenic environment.”

Barson said the Human Rights Law Centre took the view that community based sentences were “far more appropriate” than jail sentences.

The deputy chairwoman of the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Service, Priscilla Collins, said there were “unique socioeconomic” reasons Indigenous people came into contact with the criminal justice system.

“Investing in early intervention strategies and tackling the root problems will yield better and fairer results, and these statistics are a wake-up call to governments at all levels to get serious about such programs,” she said.