Indigenous disability study reveals prolonged remand and inadequate care for First Nations inmates

A national Indigenous disability-led investigation called Barriers Within Bars, conducted by the University of Melbourne’s BlakAbility team, has documented that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander individuals with disability spend prolonged periods on remand and often do not receive appropriate medical treatment. Researchers interviewed people with lived incarceration experience, relatives, legal aid workers and scholars, uncovering issues such as the inability to secure sign-language interpreters for deaf clients and months-long detention of those with serious mental health conditions for minor offences.

The report attributes these problems to a lack of culturally safe health services and differing cultural understandings of disability, which increase contact with police and the justice system. It also highlighted that only a handful of studies have examined the intersection of Indigenous identity, disability and incarceration, and that no national database tracks Indigenous prisoners with disability. Advocates, including the Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service, argue the system denies dignity and calls for evidence-based health responses. The team has secured additional funding to translate findings into policy reform and will present the report at a conference in Brisbane.