Bringing-Them-Home-Report-Web

Even in jurisdictions where summons are used more frequently Indigenous youth donot benefit from the use to the same extent as non-Indigenous youth. In the NT in 1994-95 Indigenous young people comprised 70% of young people proceeded against by wayof arrest and 53% of young people proceeded against by way of summons (NTGovernment Exhibit 38). In SA Indigenous young people are far more likely to bebrought into the system by way of arrest than non-Indigenous youth (41% of Indigenousyouth enter the system by way of arrest compared to 25% of non-Indigenous youth)(Wundersitz 1996 page 204).In Victoria non-Aboriginal young people are more often brought before theChildren’s Court by way of summons than arrest. However, for Aboriginal young peoplearrest is still the favoured police option (Victorian Government final submission page121). Between 1993-94 and 1994-95 there was a 46.4% increase in Indigenous youthformally processed by the Victorian police, compared to a 4.6% increase for non-Indigenous young people in the same period (Mackay 1996a page 6). 5 Improving policeresponses to Indigenous young people is fundamental to lessening the number ofseparations through the use of custody. In Victoria ‘the cycle of arrest of Aboriginaljuveniles has not been broken’ (Mackay 1996a page 4). Relatively effective initiativessuch as the Koori Justice Project which has successfully diverted more Aboriginaljuveniles from detention centres will be undermined if arrest rates are not reduced.As adults, the criminal justice system is not as likely to impose non-custodial sentences on repeatoffenders. Whilst the current generation of Aboriginal juveniles are being processed by police asoffenders at incredibly high rates, the full effects of this phenomenon will not take effect foranother couple of years when many of these juveniles reach adulthood … [The] statistics paint agrim picture of what is likely to be an explosion in the number of young Aboriginals entering theadult prison system in the next few years (Mackay 1996a pages 4 and 14).As a result of legislative and policy changes in WA there has been a reduction in the number of charges andarrests for young people. However, the rate of decrease for Aboriginal young people has been significantlylower than for non-Aboriginal youth (ALSWA submission 127 page 333).Other evidence shows that many Indigenous young people are arrested during theiradolescent years. According to the 1994 survey by the Australian Bureau of Statisticssome 25% of Indigenous youth reported being arrested during the previous five years. Ofthis group, 60% stated that they had been arrested more than once. Some 14% of allIndigenous youth surveyed stated that they had been harassed (‘hassled’) by police (1996page 22).The ABS survey also showed important differences on the basis of both sex andgeographical location. Indigenous male youth reported being arrested (38%) and beinghassled by police (21%) at roughly three times the rate of females reporting arrest (12%)and being hassled (7%). Indigenous youth in capital cities also reported greater arrestsand hassles with police than Indigenous young people in other urban and rural areas(1996 page 22). There were also differences between jurisdictions as to the proportion ofIndigenous youth reporting being arrested or hassled by police. Indigenous youth inVictoria reported both the highest level of being hassled by police (36% of Indigenousyoung people) and being arrested (34% of Indigenous young people). WA and SA also