Yesterday Senator Lidia Thorpe gained the support of the Senate to require the Attorney-General to provide quarterly reports on deaths in custody, coronial inquests, and incidents of self-harm, miscarriages and stillbirths in prisons.
Despite Labor opposing the motion, it passed with the support of all non-government Senators.
Quarterly statements, to be tabled in the Senate by the minister representing the Attorney-General, will detail by state and territory, the number of:
- deaths in custody, including breakdown by age groups and cause of death
- ongoing coronial inquests;
- incidents of self-harm in custodial settings; and
- miscarriages and stillbirths in custodial settings.
While deaths in custody are reported by the Australian Institute of Criminology, there is currently no publicly available systematic data on self-harm, pregnancy, childbirth, or pregnancy-related outcomes including live births, stillbirths, and miscarriages in prisons.
In July this year, authorities discovered evidence of a pre-term miscarriage at Dillwynia women’s prison in Sydney, while a recent Victorian review of the corrections system heard that women have frequently been handcuffed while in labour, and in 2018 an investigation was established after an Aboriginal woman was left to give birth alone in a prison cell.
Similarly, incidents of self harm, while highly prevalent in prisons, are not publicly reported.
Thorpe has been pushing the federal government to take a stronger role in reforming the criminal legal system, gaining the support of an alliance of crossbenchers in March for stronger federal action on deaths in custody.
She says the federal government needs to take more accountability on human rights abuses occurring in prisons, and that transparent reporting and oversight is important for driving reform.
Quotes attributable to Lidia Thorpe, Gunnai, Gunditjmara and Djab Wurrung independent Victorian Senator:
“We know that horrific things are happening in prisons, but these human rights abuses are kept hidden from public view. People are dying preventable deaths, women are being denied proper care during pregnancy and childbirth, and self-harm is widespread.”
“We need a strong, decisive federal response and nation leadership on these critical issues. Transparent reporting and oversight is a crucial part of this.”
“Yesterday Labor senators were alone in opposing this motion. The entire crossbench and the Coalition are united on this. We want to see the federal government finally start taking responsibility for what is happening in this country’s criminal legal system.”
“Labor will make the excuse that these are just ‘state issues’, but we should not accept this weak cop-out. The Attorney-General meets regularly with the states and territories, he can and should require them to provide this data.”
“This is not about a few bad jurisdictions or a few bad facilities. This is a national human rights and public health crisis. It needs national attention.”
“It was shameful that Labor voted against this motion. I was particularly disappointed to see the new Minister for Indigenous Australians vote against it.”
“I expect that Labor will come up with an excuse to not provide these reports, despite the Senate mandate, but I’m not going to back down on this. Labor needs to listen to the majority of the parliament who support this.”
“I am calling on the Prime Minister, the Indigenous Australians Minister, the Attorney General and the Health Minister to start leading positive change on these important issues.”