Title: Paid to jail
By Stephen Robson
PERTH - A study released by the Aboriginal Legal Service (ALS) has focused
on the town of Wiluna, in Western Australia's mid-west. Police in the town
of 250 people made 1071 arrests in the year to August. On an average night,
10% of the town are occupying the cells at the back of the police station.
Those jailed are mainly the once nomadic Mardu people. Only 1% of those
jailed were non-Aboriginal residents. Documents obtained by ALS under the
Freedom of Information Act indicate that a Sergeant Taylor received $41,000
above his salary just in the first five months of 1994 in prisoner meal
allowances.
Taylor is paid a tax-free $13.53 per day per prisoner. He is not obliged to
detail his subsequent spending on food for the prisoners.
Allegations have been made that Taylor has been feeding the prisoners
kangaroo meat shot in hunting expeditions by police.
The ALS study explains that the mainly Aboriginal residents are four times
more likely to be jailed in 1994 than they were in 1991. This rate is three
times higher than other Aboriginal communities in WA. The incarceration rate
for Aborigines in WA is 27 times that of non-Aborigines.
First posted on the Pegasus conference greenleft.news by
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