New South Wales Law Reform Commission Report 96 Sentencing: Aboriginal offenders October 2000 New South Wales. Law Reform Commission. Sydney 2000 ISSN 1030-0244 (Report) National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-publication entry New South Wales. Law Reform Commission. Sentencing: Aboriginal offenders. Bibliography ISBN 0 7313 0446 2 1. Discrimination in criminal justice administration – New South Wales. 2. Community-based corrections – New South Wales. 3. Alternatives to imprisonment – New South Wales. 4. Aboriginal Australian prisoners – New South Wales. 5. Customary law – New South Wales. 6. Sentences (Criminal procedure) – New South Wales. I. Title. (Series : Report (New South Wales. Law Reform Commission) ; 96). 345.0772089915 ii New South Wales Law Reform Commission To the Honourable Bob Debus MLC Attorney General for New South Wales Dear Attorney Sentencing: Aboriginal offenders We make this final Report pursuant to the reference to this Commission dated 12 April 1995. This is the second Report published by the Commission under this Reference. The first, Report 79 entitled Sentencing, was published in December 1996. The Hon Justice Michael Adams Chairperson His Honour Judge Bob Bellear The Hon Justice John Dowd AO, Deputy Chairperson (until December 1999)† The Hon Justice Greg James Her Honour Judge Angela Karpin October 2000 † Justice Dowd has continued to participate in the finalisation of the Report as a consultant. iii Contents Terms of reference.............................................................................ix Participants ........................................................................................ x List of recommendations....................................................................xi Executive summary..........................................................................xiv 1. INTRODUCTION........................................................................... 1 BACKGROUND ................................................................................. 2 TERMINOLOGY................................................................................. 3 BACKGROUND TO SENTENCING OF ABORIGINAL OFFENDERS.. 4 Explaining over-representation .......................................................... 6 Unique position of Indigenous Australians......................................... 8 International obligations ................................................................... 10 OTHER RELEVANT INQUIRIES ..................................................... 11 Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody..................... 12 Implementation of Royal Commission recommendations....... 13 1997 Ministerial Summit ......................................................... 14 Other inquiries.................................................................................. 15 Bringing Them Home.............................................................. 17 THE INTERNATIONAL SCENE....................................................... 18 The relevance of the international scene................................ 19 STATEMENT OF COMMITMENT TO ABORIGINAL PEOPLE ....... 20 Delivery of programs for Aboriginal people............................. 21 NATURE AND CONDUCT OF THE COMMISSION’S INQUIRY ..... 22 THE COMMISSION’S APPROACH ................................................. 23 The role of the Aboriginal community .............................................. 23 Recommendations as to sentencing................................................ 24 Structure of the Report..................................................................... 25 Beyond sentencing .......................................................................... 25 Reconciliation................................................................................... 26 2. SENTENCING PRINCIPLES...................................................... 27 INTRODUCTION.............................................................................. 28 GENERAL SENTENCING DISCRETION ........................................ 28 Imprisonment as a sanction of last resort ........................................ 30 Limits on the principle of imprisonment as a last resort ................... 32 Mandatory sentencing ............................................................ 32 Lack of non-custodial options ................................................. 34 Factors relevant to sentencing generally ......................................... 34 SENTENCING PRINCIPLES AND ABORIGINAL OFFENDERS..... 36 iv Relevance of Aboriginality to sentencing..........................................36 Cases which have applied the Fernando principles .........................40 SPECIFIC FACTORS CONSIDERED IN SENTENCING ABORIGINAL OFFENDERS........................................................43 Factors relating to Aboriginal law, tradition and culture....................43 Factors relating to Aboriginal communities.......................................43 Opinions of the offender’s and/or victim’s community .............44 The effect of the sentence on the community .........................45 The effect of the sentence on victims......................................45 Factors relating to the lives of Aboriginal offenders..........................46 Offenders with substance dependencies ................................48 Offenders with an intellectual disability or mental illness ........50 Lower life expectancy..............................................................51 The limitations of sentencing............................................................52 THE NEED FOR LEGISLATIVE PROVISIONS................................54 3. ABORIGINAL CUSTOMARY LAW..............................................55 INTRODUCTION ..............................................................................56 “Urbanisation” of New South Wales’ Aboriginal population..............57 Self-determination ............................................................................59 DEFINING ABORIGINAL CUSTOMARY LAW.................................60 BACKGROUND................................................................................65 DEFINING THE ISSUES ..................................................................67 RECOGNITION OF ABORIGINAL CUSTOMARY LAW BY THE GENERAL CRIMINAL LAW – AN EVALUATION................69 Arguments and Recommendations of the ALRC..............................69 Further arguments in favour of recognition.......................................73 Further argument against recognition...............................................75 Report of RCIADIC...........................................................................76 Submissions and judicial response ..................................................76 Survey of New South Wales District Court Judges and Local Court Magistrates......................................................80 Conclusion........................................................................................81 RECOGNITION OF CUSTOMARY LAW ON THE BASIS OF MABO.83 RECOGNITION OF CUSTOMARY LAW ON THE BASIS OF THE OFFENDER’S CULTURAL BACKGROUND......85 Precedents for the exercise of judicial discretion .............................87 R v Wilson Jagamara Walker..................................................87 R v Minor.................................................................................88 R v Miyatatawuy......................................................................89 R v Shannon ...........................................................................89 v Munungurr v The Queen......................................................... 90 R v Bara Bara ......................................................................... 91 R v Burton............................................................................... 91 R v Rogers and Murray........................................................... 92 R v Juli.................................................................................... 92 CONCLUSION ................................................................................. 93 EVIDENCE AND PROCEDURE ...................................................... 96 VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN ..................................................... 104 4. THE ABORIGINAL COMMUNITY’S ROLE IN SENTENCING. 107 INTRODUCTION............................................................................ 108 RATIONALE FOR COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT ........................ 108 Broad acceptance of the concept .................................................. 109 The Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody .. 109 Other inquiries ...................................................................... 110 Government policy................................................................ 111 International experience ....................................................... 112 Views of the judiciary............................................................ 112 TYPES OF COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT ................................... 113 General community-based initiatives ............................................. 114 AJAC and community involvement ................................................ 116 Conferencing.................................................................................. 117 Conferencing generally......................................................... 117 Youth conferencing in New South Wales ............................. 118 Youth conferencing and Aboriginal offenders......................