Australian Deaths in Custody and Custody-related Police Operations, 2000

• NCJ Number: 190940
• Author(s): Lisa Collins; Jenny Mouzos
• Date Published: October 2001
• Length: 6 pages
• Sale Source: Australian Institute of Criminology
• Publication Format: Document
• Publication Type: Statistics
• Language: English
• Country: Australia
• Note: Australian Institute of Criminology Trends & Issues in Crime and Criminal Justice, No. 217, October 2001; downloaded October 8, 2001.

Annotation

This paper provides the latest information on deaths in custody in Australia for the year 2000, including the circumstances and characteristics of such deaths.

Abstract

The first section of the paper presents a general overview of deaths in all forms of custody, including an examination of long-term trends. There were 91 deaths in police, prison, and juvenile custody. The second section examines deaths that occurred specifically in police custody. This includes deaths in close police contact as well as deaths during other custody-related police operations. There were 25 police custody deaths; 17 occurred during the course of custody-related police operations, and 8 occurred in "close police custody" (the lowest figure recorded in over 10 years). The last section examines deaths that occurred in prisons and juvenile detention centers. The majority of deaths in custody occurred in prison (n=64), where self-inflicted injury remained the leading cause of death. There were two juvenile detention deaths, and 17 of the 91 deaths involved Indigenous persons in custody. Self-inflicted injury was the leading cause of death for both Indigenous and non-Indigenous persons in custody during 2000. 5 tables, 3 figures, and 19 references