A week after the massive rejection of a referendum aimed at giving more rights to Aboriginal people, a 16-year-old Aboriginal boy died on October 20 in a hospital in Perth, western Australia. Eight days earlier, he had attempted to end his life in a prison where conditions of detention are particularly harsh.
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With our correspondent in Sydney, Grégory Plesse
It is known as Unit 18: a section set up last year for minors within a maximum security prison, where failings and abuses have been repeatedly reported. Detention conditions were too harsh for a 16-year-old Aboriginal boy; his lawyers had unsuccessfully requested his transfer barely two weeks ago, pushing him to commit suicide.
Just three days ago, while he was between life and death in the hospital, his grandmother denounced his conditions of detention on ABC News: “ This is a place where we were supposed to take care of him. And he left him in an ambulance. It’s negligence “.
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This Unit 18, set up a year ago after riots in a juvenile detention center, already triggered because of the drastic conditions of detention, is considered one of the worst prisons in Australia. Since its opening, at least 20 minors have attempted to end their lives and there have been more than 350 cases of self-harm.
A case which also illustrates one of the two main problems affecting young Aboriginal people: in a country where you become a criminal adult from the age of 10, 49% of juvenile prisoners are Aboriginal, while they represent less than 4%. Population. Furthermore, suicide is the leading cause of death among Aboriginal miners.
Inequalities, vis-à-vis the rest of the Australian population, that the Aboriginal Voice, rejected by more than 60% of voters in the referendum held last week, could have reduced.
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