Being Black is a crime in this country.
The Jesuit Social Services analysis of the ABS Prisoners in Australia reports shows that the number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in Australian prisons has increased by 74 percent over the past decade. Nearly two in every five 18-24 year olds in prison are Aborigines or Torres Strait Islanders. Indigenous people are 15 times more likely to be in prison than non-Indigenous people.
To put this in perspective, Indigenous people make up just 3 percent of the population. Yet they represent more than a quarter (27 percent) of the prison population. In the Northern Territory, the rate is much higher: an astounding 85 percent of prisoners are Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander.
Australia’s incarceration rates of Indigenous people are the highest in the world.
Indigenous people die in Australian jails at a rate higher than that experienced by Black South Africans under apartheid.
