After devastating recent news of four Aboriginal death in custody in three weeks, we ask five experts about what needs to change
The royal commission into Aboriginal deaths in custody was established by the Hawke government in August 1987 because manifold deaths had fomented common suspicions that foul play was endemic in police stations and prisons across the land. As the commission would report in April 1991, the reality was less eventful: Aboriginal people were dying in custody so frequently – but at rates no higher than the non-Aboriginal population – simply because they were being jailed in such disproportionate numbers.
