WGAR News: WA Minister Tells Parliament He's 'Proud' Of World-Beating Juvenile Jailing Rate: Amy McQuire, New Matilda

Submitted by WGAR - Working ... on Tue, 23/06/2015 - 7:58pm

Newsletter date: 24 June 2015

- News Analysis

New Matilda: WA Minister Tells Parliament He's 'Proud' Of World-Beating Juvenile Jailing Rate
https://newmatilda.com/2015/06/23/wa-minister-tells-parliament-hes-proud...
23 Jun 15: "WA has the highest Indigenous jailing rate on earth, and a black juvenile rate 53 times greater than the non Aboriginal population. Amy McQuire reports. The WA Corrective Services minister says he is "proud" of the Barnett government’s record on juvenile detention, despite plans to toughen mandatory sentencing laws, which experts say will only lead to more Aboriginal children in jail. Western Australia currently jails the highest proportion of Aboriginal men, women and children in the country. ... " By Amy McQuire, a Darumbul woman from central Queensland. Amy McQuire is the former editor of the National Indigenous Times and Tracker magazine

- News Analysis

New Matilda: NT Corrections Commissioner Stands By Statement Praising Staff After Aboriginal Death In Custody
https://newmatilda.com/2015/06/23/nt-corrections-commissioner-stands-sta...
23 Jun 15: "The statement flies in the face of a recommendation made by the Royal Commission into Deaths in Custody. Amy McQuire reports. The NT Corrections Commissioner has stood by his comment that prison offers did an "outstanding job" following the most recent Aboriginal death in custody in the Northern Territory. A 40-year-old Aboriginal man died at around 11 pm last Friday, according to a statement issued by NT Police. ... " By Amy McQuire

- News Analysis

New Matilda: Calls For Aboriginal Juvenile To Be Shot For Target Practice After Public Shaming By NT Police
https://newmatilda.com/2015/06/18/calls-aboriginal-juvenile-be-shot-targ...
18 Jun 15: "Legal experts have criticised the policy of public shaming, saying it ignores the complex factors that lead to youth offending. Amy McQuire reports. Social media users have called on Aboriginal youth who have escaped from the Don Dale Detention centre to be ‘shot’, used for target practice, or fried on electric fences after NT Police uploaded pictures of juvenile offenders on their official social media accounts, calling into question the NT’s controversial ‘name and shame’ laws. ... About 97 per cent of the NT’s juvenile detention population is Aboriginal. ... " By Amy McQuire

- News Analysis

New Matilda: Defunding Of Tasmanian Aboriginal Legal Service Provider Criticised As 'Political Decision'
https://newmatilda.com/2015/06/17/defunding-tasmanian-aboriginal-legal-s...
17 Jun 15: "The Federal government says it is concerned about compliance issue, but a leader of the group responsible for the program says they're being punished for its history of political advocacy, Amy McQuire reports. Members of the Tasmanian Aboriginal community may boycott a new Aboriginal legal body set up in the state after the Abbott government’s “political decision” to strip funding from the 40-year-old community-controlled service and hand it to Victorian Aboriginal legal aid. Although only making up around four per cent of the population, Aboriginal people make up 17 per cent of those incarcerated in Tasmania. ... " By Amy McQuire

- Bio

Amy McQuire - New Matilda
https://newmatilda.com/users/amy-mcquire

- About

About Us - New Matilda
https://newmatilda.com/about-us
"New Matilda is independent journalism at its best. The site has been publishing intelligent coverage of Australian and international politics, media and culture since 2004. You'll find new stories on the homepage daily. ... The New Matilda news digest is the best way to keep up to date with our coverage. We publish three times a week - it lands in your inbox at lunchtime on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and in the evening on Sundays. ... It's free!"

- Subs Deal

New Matilda: World's Worst Pitch Of World's Most Ethical Subscription Offer!
https://newmatilda.com/2015/06/23/worlds-worst-pitch-worlds-most-ethical...
23 Jun 15: "Our last subscription offer was a disaster. So we thought re-writing it a bit and re-publishing might help. Last week, we unveiled a new subscription deal which, if we were to be honest, we considered our most genius offer yet. Readers who subscribe to New Matilda at the Keen level or above can nominate an Aboriginal business or not-for-profit, who would then receive free advertising on New Matilda. To put it frankly, the offer bombed. While we greatly appreciate the limited support we did get, it’s by some margin our worst response to a subscription deal since New Matilda changed ownership a year ago. So we thought we’d put it out there one last time… because we believe strongly in the offer.... " By New Matilda

- Audio

ABC RN Breakfast: Custody Notification Service assisting Indigenous prisoners faces closure
http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/breakfast/custody-notificat...
17 Jun 15: The Custody Notification Service operates 24 hours a day, every day of the year. It is, quite literally, a lifesaver, but faces closure - unless urgent funding can be found. Run by the New South Wales Aboriginal Legal Service, the phone line provides advice and checks on the welfare of Indigenous Australians taken into police custody. New South Wales Police are required to give Indigenous prisoners access to the phone service, and since the phone line began, there have been no Aboriginal deaths in custody in that state. But as Cathy Van Extel reports, funding for the service runs out at the end of the month."
Reporter: Cathy Van Extel; Presenter: Fran Kelly
"Guests:
* Nathan Kennedy, President, Australian Lawyers for Human Rights
* Kane Ellis, Acting CEO, Aboriginal Legal Service NSW/ACT
* Eugene Schofield-Georgeson, Lawyer and PHD Candidate, Macquarie University Law School"

- News Analysis

Red Flag: Life-saving custody notification facing closure
https://redflag.org.au/article/life-saving-custody-notification-facing-c...
22 Jun 15: "One of the few implemented recommendations of the 1991 Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody is about to be demolished. The Custody Notification Service (CNS) in NSW and the ACT will cease to exist at the end of June. The CNS requires that police notify the NSW Aboriginal Legal Service (ALS), within one hour, if an Indigenous person is taken into custody. The ALS offers advice to the detained person and checks on their welfare. It operates 24 hours a day and has contact with around 15,000 Aboriginal people taken into custody each year. ... " Dave Clarke

- About

Red Flag: Who we are?
https://redflag.org.au/content/about-0
"Red Flag is a non-profit left wing newspaper established by Socialist Alternative in 2013. We do not receive corporate or government funding. We rely instead on our members, supporters and readers to sustain this project by subscribing to our print publication and by donating time and money to the cause. The editorial committee consists of Ben Hillier, Corey Oakley and Steph Price. ... "

- Fact Check

Fact Check: ABC News: Amnesty International claim on 'shocking' Indigenous child incarceration rates checks out
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-06-17/fact-check-indigenous-children-inc...
19 Jun 15: " ... Amnesty International's secretary general Salil Shetty said the incarceration rates for Indigenous children in Australia were much higher than for non-indigenous children. "It's truly shocking, because it's 24 times higher for Indigenous children compared to non-indigenous children in Australia," he told ABC's Lateline. "I mean, it's even higher in some parts of Australia, like Western Australia. And this is much higher than even the rate at which black people are incarcerated in the United States, which is, as you probably know, the highest in the world." ... "

- News Analysis

Green Left: Amnesty report exposes Aboriginal child detention
https://www.greenleft.org.au/node/59280
20 Jun 15: " ... The report said: "In Western Australia, the situation is significantly worse than the national picture. Between July 2013 and June last year, Indigenous young people were on average 53 times more likely" to be jailed than their non-Indigenous peers. About 6% of young people aged between 10 and 17 in WA are Indigenous, but they make up almost 80% of offenders in the state's juvenile prison system, up from an also appalling 50% in 2005. The report said Aboriginal children who break the law in Western Australia are less likely to get off with just a caution than non-Aboriginal children, less likely to receive bail and proportionally less likely to be referred to diversionary programs. ... " By GLW author Kathy Fairfax

- Bio

Kathy Fairfax - Green Left Weekly
https://www.greenleft.org.au/taxonomy/term/841

- About

About GLW - the need for alternative media
https://www.greenleft.org.au/about
"In these days of growing media concentration, Green Left Weekly is a proudly independent voice committed to human and civil rights, global peace and environmental sustainability, democracy and equality. By printing the news and ideas the mainstream media won't, Green Left Weekly exposes the lies and distortions of the power brokers and helps us to better understand the world around us. ... "

- 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: 21 June 2015)

WGAR Background: Intervention into Northern Territory (NT) Aboriginal communities by the Federal government
https://indymedia.org.au/2015/06/08/wgar-background-intervention-into-no...
(last updated: 20 June 2015)

- - -

WGAR: Working Group for Aboriginal Rights (Australia)

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