Aboriginal youths 25 times more likely to be jailed than non-indigenous counterparts

Melbourne, Mar. 6 (ANI): Aboriginal youths are 25 times more likely to be imprisoned than their non-indigenous counterparts.

They are also much more likely to be the subject of child abuse notifications and protection orders.

ccording to The Age, the Australian Bureau of Statistics figures also show that adult prisoners are 18 times more likely to be indigenous than non-indigenous, more than double the figure 20 years ago.

Aboriginal legal activists have termed this statistic "shameful".

"I think it's shameful that in a 20-year period those figures have actually increased," said Shane Duffy, chairman of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Service Forum.

Duffy said that while governments often had the best of intentions, "they still fail to see the need for rehabilitation and diversionary centres for our people who are addicted to drugs and alcohol. They still fail to adequately fund alternative dispute resolution processes."

In 2010, there were 17 non-indigenous youths in detention per 100,000. In contrast, 429 Aboriginal youths per 100,000 were detained, more than there were 16 years ago, when figures were first collected.

For adults, about 2300 Aborigines per 100,000 of the indigenous population are in jail - more than double the figure in 1992 - as opposed to 130 per 100,000 of the non-indigenous population.

Aborigines in prison for murder or sexual assault are more than twice as likely as their non-indigenous counterparts to have been in prison before. (ANI)

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