.Language is a significant disadvantage for Aboriginal people caught up in the justice system. The Northern Territory has, thanks to efforts by Russell Goldflam and others, good Interpreter Services. The issues arising from linguistic disadvantage were analysed by Forster J in R v Anunga, resulting in the Anunga Rules, discussed in the blog post Problems within the law.
There have been several cases where people actually convicted of a lesser offence have served significantly more extended periods in prison than they would have served if they had been convicted of the offence with which they were charged. Two of the most publicised of
those cases involve Aboriginal people, one of whom is a young woman from Alice Springs.
The Community Affairs References Committee of Senate conducted an inquiry in 2016 into the indefinite detention of people with cognitive and psychiatric impairment. It recommended that the FASD diagnosis tool be provided as a support and resource to police, courts, Legal Aid, and other related groups.; and that COAG ensures a consistent legislative approach
concerning limiting terms for forensic patients in all Australian jurisdictions. It also recommended that the Australian government work closely with the Northern Territory government to: “plan, fund, and construct nonprison forensic secure care facilities and acquire supportive accommodation options in communities, and ensure that all forensic facilities are appropriately staffed; and ensure that its operating procedures for forensic patients have clear objectives of transitioning a forensic patient from prison to secure care, and where appropriate, from secure care to the community”: and specifically aimed at the
Northern Territory, to transition forensic patients held in prison to relevant secure care facilities as a matter of urgency. It seems pertinent that we should extend these recommendations to all Aboriginal young people in custody.
Unless we improve the services dramatically, the rate of Aboriginal imprisonment will continue to increase, and much of our resources will be spent imprisoning Aboriginal men, women, and children. There is something that is neither costly nor difficult that we all can, and need
to do; that is, to work in a genuinely collaborative way with Aboriginal people who continue to tell us that nothing will change otherwise.
Aboriginal people come before the court suffering from disabilities caused by no fault of their own: disabilities caused even before they are born, exacerbated by adverse childhood experiences, and/or anti-social behavioural patterns associated with chronic substance abuse, which is associated with the inter-generational trauma visited upon Aboriginal people.
The law does not discriminate because of race, but it is still somewhat blind to disadvantage.
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