WGAR News: Custody Notification Service will continue in NSW - but please hurry it up for WA: Gerry Georgatos, The Stringer

Newsletter date: 10 March 2015

Contents:

* Audio Interview: Let's Talk's Tiga Bayles interviews Marianne Mackay, campaigner for First Nations rights within the WA criminal justice system

* Analysis / Opinion: Gerry Georgatos, The Stringer: Custody Notification Service will continue in NSW - but please hurry it up for WA
* Audio: Gerry Georgatos, NIRS: Family of Ms Dhu calls for Custody Notification Service [Featuring mother Della Roe & grandmother Carol Roe]
* Analysis / Opinion: Gerry Georgatos, The Stringer: Family of Ms Dhu applaud Scullion in urging Western Australia to implement Custody Notification Service

* Analysis / Opinion: Gerry Georgatos, The Stringer: Death in Custody rally - "some meaningful changes can occur overnight"
* Analysis / Opinion: Gerry Georgatos, The Stringer: Western Australia urged to stop jailing fine defaulters
* Analysis / Opinion: Gerry Georgatos, The Stringer: Labor hypocrisy backs Liberal mandatory sentencing laws
* Analysis / Opinion: Gerry Georgatos, The Stringer: Australia; locking up its First People for 200 years

* WGAR Background: Justice Reinvestment, Aboriginal imprisonment and Aboriginal deaths in custody
* WGAR Background: Aboriginal Peoples and the impact of the Federal Budget

WGAR News Public Google Group: https://groups.google.com/forum/?hl=en-GB#!forum/wgar-news
WGAR News - Working Group for Aboriginal Rights (Australia)

- Audio Interview

98.9 FM: Let's Talk: Marianne Mackay
http://www.989fm.com.au/podcasts/lets-talk/marianne-mackay-3/
4 Mar 15: "Marianne Headland Mackay, Campaigner for First Nations rights within the Western Australia criminal justice system."

- Analysis / Opinion

The Stringer: Custody Notification Service will continue in NSW - but please hurry it up for WA
http://thestringer.com.au/custody-notification-service-will-continue-in-...
6 Mar 15: "" ... The CNS [Custody Notification Service] will not be defunded. It will continue," said Senator Scullion. ... " ... I know the value of the CNS. You know that I am pushing to get it implemented in Western Australia. ... " ... The CNS was a recommendation from the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody. The CNS would enable the ALSWA, as it does ALSNSW/ACT, to provide a 24/7 phone service for First Peoples detained in police custody. ... Their [NSW/ACT ALS] CEO, Phil Naden said that the CNS "is more than a phone line." "It is a lifeline." "Significantly, there have been no Aboriginal deaths in police custody (watch houses) since the phone line began."" By Gerry Georgatos. The author of this article, Gerry Georgatos, declares an impartiality conflict of interest. He is a long-time custodial systems and deaths in custody researcher.

- Audio

NIRS: Family of Ms Dhu calls for Custody Notification Service
http://nirs.org.au/NEWS/Family-of-Ms-Dhu-calls-for-Custody-Notification-...
5 Mar 15: "The family of 22-year-old Yamatji woman Ms Dhu, who died in a police cell in regional Western Australia, has called for a Custody Notification Service to be rolled out across the state. ... They say the service can save lives and should be implemented in WA without delay." Gerry Georgatos, Correspondent

- Analysis / Opinion

The Stringer: Family of Ms Dhu applaud Scullion in urging Western Australia to implement Custody Notification Service
http://thestringer.com.au/family-of-ms-dhu-applaud-scullion-in-urging-we...
26 Feb 15: "The Federal Minister for Indigenous Affairs, Nigel Scullion for several months has been urging the Western Australian State Government to implement the Custody Notification Service. This urging comes in response to the deaths of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander detainees in police lock ups. Last August, a 22 year old Yamatji woman needlessly died in the South Hedland Police lockup 48 hours after her arrest. The mother of the late Ms Dhu, Della Roe, and the grandmother, Carol Roe, both applauded Senator Scullion’s commitment to a prospective roll out of the Custody Notification Service in Western Australia. ... " By Gerry Georgatos, a life-long human rights and social justice campaigner, a multi-award winning investigative journalist

- Analysis / Opinion

The Stringer: Death in Custody rally - "some meaningful changes can occur overnight"
http://thestringer.com.au/death-in-custody-rally-some-meaningful-changes...
28 Feb 15: "Last year, on August 4, a 22 year old Yamatji woman who had committed no crime, died needlessly but also in the worst of circumstances in a police lockup in regional Western Australia. Ms Dhu died 48 hours after her detainment on unpaid fines. South Hedland Police had been called to an alleged disorderly and instead of helping Ms Dhu into crisis care arrested her and her boyfriend. A background check found Ms Dhu had $1000 worth of unpaid fines. Western Australia’s draconian laws took effect and the police officers arrested the physically unwell and shocked Ms Dhu. ... " By Gerry Georgatos

- Analysis / Opinion

The Stringer: Western Australia urged to stop jailing fine defaulters
http://thestringer.com.au/western-australia-urged-to-stop-jailing-fine-d...
28 Feb 15: "One quarter of the Western Australian prison population is comprised of fine defaulters - criminalised because of their poverty. 1,300 of the State’s 5,300 inmates are doing jail time for not being able to pay their fines. But jail time makes no sense for this majorly poverty related civil offence. In Western Australia, people jailed for unpaid fines has soared 600 per cent in the five years from 2009 - in NSW the practice of jailing fine defaulters was outlawed in 1988. ... Of the 1,300 fine defaulters who are in jail, nearly 600 are Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islanders." By Gerry Georgatos

- Analysis / Opinion

The Stringer: Labor hypocrisy backs Liberal mandatory sentencing laws
http://thestringer.com.au/labor-hypocrisy-backs-liberal-mandatory-senten...
28 Feb 15: "The Western Australia Labor Party sells itself at just about every coalface rally as opposed to the incumbent Government’s draconian sentencing laws. It constantly blames the Liberal Government for the record high prison population, for the world record high arrest and jail rates of the State’s First Peoples, for overcrowded prisons and for preventable deaths in custody. Just the other day, Labor parliamentarians were out in force at a stop deaths in custody rally ... But apparently what Labor touts to the coalface is just a stitch, because in Parliament they are right behind the Liberal Government’s draconian policies. ... " By Gerry Georgatos

- Analysis / Opinion

The Stringer: Australia; locking up its First People for 200 years
http://thestringer.com.au/australia-locking-up-its-first-people-for-200-...
21 Feb 15: "Australia is the mother of all jailers of its First Peoples. When one in 13 of Western Australia’s Aboriginal adult males are in prison then we know that their jailing is racialised. Half the Western Australian prison population is comprised of First Peoples, more than a quarter of them for poverty related fine defaults and more than half of them for poverty related offences. Western Australia effectively interns First Peoples in what others could argue as concentration camps. How else can one explain the world’s highest racialised jailing rates? ... " By Gerry Georgatos

- Background

WGAR Background: Justice Reinvestment, Aboriginal imprisonment and Aboriginal deaths in custody
https://indymedia.org.au/2014/12/24/wgar-background-justice-reinvestment...
(last updated: 9 March 2015)

- Background

WGAR Background: Aboriginal Peoples and the impact of the Federal Budget
https://indymedia.org.au/2014/12/24/wgar-background-aboriginal-peoples-a...
(last updated: 9 March 2015)

- - -

WGAR: Working Group for Aboriginal Rights (Australia)

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WGAR: Working Group for Aboriginal Rights (Australia)