Imprisonment becoming ‘a normal life event for Indigenous Australians’

Shadow Assistant Minister for Charities Andrew Leigh says “incarceration is increasingly becoming a normal life event for Indigenous Australians”. Mr Leigh told Sky News 2.5 per cent of Indigenous Australians were currently behind bars which was “a higher share behind bars than African Americans in the United States”. “We do need to see this as a core priority for Australia to bring down the Indigenous incarceration rate through better early intervention, better prison programs and through ensuring that we have smarter policies that get up less crime and less punishment,” he said. “We ought to have Indigenous targets as part of the Closing the Gap targets. “We ought to recognise that Indigenous overincarceration isn’t in the long-term interests of anyone.”

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