A recent inquiry into Aboriginal deaths in custody should have recognised systemic racism in its recommendations, says the Western NSW Community Legal Centre.
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The High Level of First Nations People in Custody and Oversight and Review of Deaths in Custody inquiry recommendations were handing down last week.
There were 39 recommendations made, the first of which was for the NSW government to commit to the "immediate and comprehensive implementation of all outstanding recommendations from the 1991 Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody".
Expanding the drug court program to Dubbo was also listed.
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But WNSWCLC solicitor Hannah Robinson said she had mixed feelings about the recommendations.
"I think they could have gone further in terms of recognising the systemic racism against First Nations communities which occurs in the justice system," Ms Robinson said.
"The statistics unfortunately show that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are much more likely to be refused bail if they're before the court. They're also much more likely to be incarcerated for some low level offending such as the use of offensive language."
Ms Robinson said because of historic issues such as colonisation, there were various tensions between Aboriginal communities and police.
"Often what we do find is that when those minor offences to come up there is sometimes a bit of an escalation. So something that may have started off as an offensive language charge leads to additional charges like resisting arrest or assaulting an officer," she said.
"Something that started off as swearing at police ends up with a person incarcerated and behind jail."
As well as a drug court, Ms Robinson wants to see more early intervention measures implemented that will address the underlying issues around Indigenous incarceration.
The solicitor said a drug court was a "very necessary shift" to ensure drug addiction was dealt with as a health issue, rather than punishing people for having an addiction.
While it was disheartening that there were still recommendations from the 1991 royal commission that hadn't been implemented, Ms Robinson said she was "definitely hopeful" something would come from the recent inquiry.
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