Legal bid on jail figures

GOLD Coast lawyers are being asked to provide details on the jailing of indigenous prisoners as a push begins for a royal commission.

The Queensland Law Society is lobbying for a nationwide inquiry and, as part of a short-term solution, wants the extension of the Murri Court to include areas such as Beenleigh.

Southport lawyer Bill Potts, as QLS president, said he had written to federal AttorneyGeneral George Brandis requesting a royal commission into indigenous incarceration.

In his Closing the Gap statement in Federal Parliament in February, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull spoke about the “vicious cycle of young indigenous people being placed into prison, reof- fending and then returning to prison”.

Mr Potts called on the Government to offer more than “excellent rhetoric” and take concrete steps.

“It is 25 years since we held the commission of inquiry into black deaths in custody and the rate of incarceration of indigenous First Australians is getting worse,” he said.

Indigenous people were almost 11 times more likely than non-indigenous people to be in prison in Queensland. The inquiry could address the causes of the incarceration rates and consider the “practical process by which indigenous people are dealt with both by the courts and corrective services”.

Attorney-General Yvette D’Ath, in the June State Budget, announced the rollout of the Murri Court, which enables Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders to have more input into sentencing.