Stop Aboriginal deaths in police custody by saving the Custody Notification Service (CNS)
By Aboriginal Legal Service NSW/ACT
There have been no Aboriginal deaths in police custody in NSW and the ACT since the Custody Notification Service, a 24-hour legal advice phone line began in 2000.
WE NEED YOUR HELP TO KEEP IT RUNNING!
HOW?
Show how MASSIVE the support is for the government to fund this service by signing this petition and keeping a vital service alive.
Every time our lawyers speak to an Aboriginal person being detained, they check upon the welfare of the person by asking RU OK? Often people aren't OK.
Threats of self- harm or suicide are common. Our lawyers are skilled at hearing ideation or real threats of self-harm or suicide. The lawyer talks carefully with the person, notifies the Police and the vulnerable person in custody is made safe.
The CNS is an extremely SUCCESSFUL program assisting vulnerable people with fair and equitable access to justice and welfare.
IT'S NOT JUST A PHONE LINE, IT'S A LIFELINE.
Since July 2012, when the government stopped funding it, ALS staff have covered the costs of the phone line however we are struggling and cannot afford to continue funding the service.
The CNS will cease to exist on the 30th of June 2013 unless government funding is urgently found.
The phone line costs the same to operate as holding two juveniles in detention for one year - $500,000 per annum.
The ALS is urgently calling on the NSW and/or Australian government to fund this essential service. Aboriginal incarceration rates are already too high. It is likely they will increase if the CNS does not exist.
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DID YOU KNOW:
- The police must contact the ALS every time they take on an Aboriginal person into custody. It was a recommendation from the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody and is now legislated under NSW law.
- In the NSW Attorney-General's Second Reading Speech (2013) on the revised Right to Silence legalisation, the A-G stated the ALS 24-hour legal advice phone line WILL be available for Aboriginal people taken into custody, thereby removing none of the protections afforded to vulnerable Aboriginal people.
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Comments
Funding cuts means more Aboriginal peoples incarcerated
More here too: http://thestringer.com.au/funding-cuts-means-more-aboriginal-peoples-inc...
Show Government how massive the support is for the CNS
Please click here to share the Petition http://chn.ge/15DYOrx
We now have 23,811 signatures on our petition to Government to save the Custody Notification Service (CNS) and help prevent Aboriginal deaths in police custody.
In six weeks time the CNS will cease to exist because of a funding battle between the Australian and NSW Government. Both agree the CNS is necessary, but both want the other to fund it.
Where do we sit? At the coal-face. Every week, at least 300 Aboriginal men, women and children in police custody are given legal advice. They are also asked, RU OK?
Every day, Aboriginal men, women and children are counselled, diverted from self-harm, and assisted with medical intervention, and with police cooperation are made safe, because of the CNS.
With your help, we can show Government how massive the support is for the CNS.
Can you please share this petition again with your friends and colleagues? Click here http://chn.ge/15DYOrx
Thank you, ALS
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Argument between governments puts lives at risk
http://www.thewire.org.au/storyDetail.aspx?ID=10347
An argument between state and federal governments over who should pay for a legal hotline could be putting lives at risk. The Custody Notification Service was recommended by the Royal Commission into Aboriginal deaths in custody, but it is now at risk of being left unfunded due to a disagreement of whether it is a state or federal funding responsibility.
The disagreement between the O'Farrell and Gillard governments over who should pay for the legal hotline for Indigenous people arrested by police could be putting lives at risk. The Custody Notification Service allows all Indigenous people in custody access to a lawyer to provide legal aid and welfare support, and has been in place since 2000. But last year the federal government cut its funding, and the two tiers of government can't seem to come to any agreement about who should fork out for the scheme.