Disgracefully, Victorian authorities took more than a week to confirm the death in custody of another on January 2. Veronica Nelson was being held at a maximum-security prison in Melbourne for a minor crime when she died.
The grieving family was told they may have to wait up to three months to learn what caused Nelson鈥檚 death, even though inmates reported hearing her screaming for help. told The Age that her sister was taken into custody last December 30 and, the next day, was refused bail after facing court without legal representation.
Nelson鈥檚 family and prison inmates indicate that Nelson, who was withdrawing from methadone at the time, was allegedly . Atkinson told NITV News: 鈥淚鈥檝e heard that cellmates in other parts of the jail heard her go down to medical and ask for help, but the guards grabbed her and took her back. I want the whole world to know what has happened.鈥
Lawyers reported that their clients at the Dame Phyllis Frost centre, a maximum security prison, were traumatised and feared for their own lives after hearing Nelson鈥檚 screams for help.
Cousin Shaurntae Lyons asked: 鈥淲hen Aunty Donna went in to ID the body, there were bruises all over her eyes and ears, so what鈥檚 happened in there? Why wasn鈥檛 she checked every hour like she was supposed to be?鈥
鈥淲hy didn鈥檛 they give her what she wanted in medical? 鈥淲hy was she locked up for two days in those cells 鈥 she was refused bail just for shoplifting. Why did they put her in maximum security?鈥 .
This new tragic death in custody comes a few weeks after the into the death in custody in 2017 of Yorta Yorta woman Tanya Day. Day died from catastrophic brain injuries in a police cell in Castlemaine in Victoria.
Activists say it raises serious questions about the state鈥檚 spending on prisons, discriminative policing and the onerous bail conditions placed on Indigenous women which helps maintain the sexist and racist status quo. Nelson had been refused bail on New Year鈥檚 eve.
It should not be deemed normal that a staggering 34% of the female prison population are Indigenous Australians when they only make up just 2.2% of the population, according to the .
Studies show that most of these women are mothers and survivors of family and other violence. And, as these mothers are being taken away from their children for mostly victimless crimes, their children are being locked up for months at a time in youth justice centres, some for the 鈥渃rime鈥 of
This is a human right鈥檚 disaster: it is possible that we will lose another generation of Indigenous Australians to incarceration, traumatising younger people.
As governments have systematically failed to follow their own recommendations, including those outlined in the 1991 Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody, the imprisonment rates of Indigenous women have increased by
Three decades on, Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander women are now in the world.
As these preventable deaths in custody continue to rise, so too are the billions of dollars being spent by the Victorian Labor government.
Instead of addressing the reasons for over-representation of Aboriginal people in the criminal justice system, Premier Daniel Andrews has committed to build another prison. His government is also hell-bent on delivering the biggest police recruitment drive in history.
State-sanctioned violence and racist abuse means that First Nation鈥檚 people are being locked up an alarming rate of 2.5%, higher than that of
Nelson was swept up by this unjust system. her sister was a talented poet and loved her family. 鈥淛ustice needs to be served. I want to know how she passed away in jail.鈥
Nelson died because of the system鈥檚 deep injustices. Unless governments abandon their racist 鈥渢ough on crime鈥 approach and the criminal justice system is urgently reformed more lives will be lost.