Doubling of indigenous in prisons alarms leaders Aboriginal leaders have warned of a crisis in the justice system with an explosion in the black prison population, a spike in the number of juveniles being detained and continuing high numbers of deaths in custody. A report released on Friday by the federal government has confirmed the number of indigenous Australians in prisons and police custody over the past two decades has more than doubled to almost 8000. The Australian Institute of Criminology report details more than 325 additional indigenous deaths in custody since a royal commission on the problem reported in 1991. It also shows 97 per cent of juveniles in custody in the Northern Territory are Aborigines, a doubling of 2007 figures. In Western Australia, Aborigines comprise more than two-thirds of juveniles in detention. Two in every five deaths in juvenile justice custody since 1980 have been indigenous prisoners. Figures gathered by the University of Technology, Sydney, indicate young Aborigines are placed in detention at 31 times the rate of non-indigenous youth. Australian of the Year and ANU law professor Mick Dodson said it was "absolutely shocking" blacks were 11 times more likely to be imprisoned than whites across the mainland, and 18.3 per cent more likely in Western Australia. Professor Larissa Behrent of the University of Technology, Sydney, said the high indigenous imprisonment rates, and particularly the increasing numbers of juveniles and women being detained, was cause for national alarm. She said the problem was being made worse by tough state "law and order" campaigns and the continuing effect of the federal government's 2007 emergency intervention in the Northern Territory. "The royal commi4ssion showed what needed to be done to fix this but its recommendations are not being followed," she said. The Institute of Criminology report claimed progress in the management of deaths in custody, with figures indicating indigenous prisoners were "no more likely to die in prison custody than non-indigenous persons," and that there was a decline in the number of suicides in custody, particularly by hanging. Federal Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus said the report confirmed indigenous "death-in-custody rates have decreased significantly in the past decade." "These encouraging findings are the result of efforts across governments, police and prison authorities to address deaths in custody and minimise risk of self-harm, but there is still more to be done," he said. But the report said the 14 indigenous deaths in prison recorded in 2009-10 equalled the highest annual death rate on record. There were another 12 prison deaths in 2010-11. "While it is important to place the number of deaths in the context of the number of people in prison, it should not be overlooked that the number of indigenous deaths in prison custody in recent years has again started to rise," it said. It said indigenous prisoners were dying at younger ages than non-indigenous prisoners and predominantly from natural causes, reflecting the poorer health and lower life expectancy of black Australians. The royal commission, which spent almost four years and more than $40 million investigating 99 cases of Aboriginal deaths in custody, found there were "too many Aboriginal people in custody too often." The Institute of Criminology report echoed the commission's view: "At the heart of the problem is the over-representation of indigenous persons at every stage of the criminal justice system."