A 22-Year-Old Noongar Man Has Died In A Western Australian Prison
There have been five deaths in custody this year.
A young man has died in a Perth prison on Friday, marking the fifth Indigenous death in custody this year.
The 22-year-old Noongar man was found in his cell at Hakea Prison just before 7.30pm by corrective officers and passed away overnight in hospital. The state Department of Justice Corrective Services said in a statement that the man was provided first aid, and an attempt at resuscitation was made before paramedics arrived in an ambulance.
“Preliminary reports indicate there are no suspicious circumstances,” they said. The death will be investigated by the WA Police Force before a report is prepared for the state Coroner.
The National Indigenous Times revealed earlier this month that a taskforce formed two years ago to tackle suicide and self-harm in WA prisons hadn’t met in six months.
In February, the ABC reported that only 65 percent of inmates had received more than one dose across the state, and at the time, Hakea had not had a vaccine clinic visit since November. Hakea also made the news last week after the Department of Justice was fined nearly a million dollars after a drug detection dog attacked a handler at the prison back in 2018.
Between 2019 and 2020, an average of 12,5000 Indigenous people were imprisoned on across Australia, and there have been over 500 Indigenous deaths in custody since the 1991 Royal Commission.
As pointed out by journalist and researcher Sophie McNeill from the Human Rights Watch, there were at least 11 deaths in custody last year across Australia, on top of seven deaths the year beforehand.
— Update: Wednesday March 30 2pm
Statement from Angela Howell via GoFundMe: