Australian Human Rights Commission Report title October 2022 CERD Committee found that they have a ‘racially discriminatory impact on the [First Nations] rate of incarceration’.81 71. The Commission reiterates its concern that funding for National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services is insufficient to meet the legal needs of First Nations communities.82 It emphasises the importance of selfdetermined, culturally safe legal services as a means of protecting against arbitrary arrest and cruel treatment in the criminal justice system, and realising the right to a fair trial for First Nations people. 72. More must be done to work meaningfully with First Nations communities to implement substantial and ongoing solutions. The Commission has called on Australian governments to invest further in diversionary programs for adults, young people and children. Diversionary programs should be designed to effectively address the causes of offending. They should be used to divert people from further interaction with the criminal justice system in circumstances where sentencing is unlikely to be successful in preventing further offending. Resourcing should be available to communities to address the key drivers of criminal behaviour before offending occurs. Examples of successful justice reinvestment programs can be seen around the country.83 73. Governments should also prioritise prison and detention-based rehabilitative programs and invest in creating pathways out of the criminal justice system, such as the provision of throughcare programs and postrelease accommodation. 74. There is evidence that institutional racism within the criminal justice system contributes to high rates of imprisonment and deaths in custody. First Nations peoples experience unequal outcomes in key areas. For example, the Australian Law Reform Commission found that First Nations people are less likely to receive community-based sentences than non-Indigenous offenders, and as a result, may be more likely to be imprisoned for the same offence.84 Death inquests point to concerning instances of racism within the criminal justice system. The ongoing Northern Territory inquest into the police shooting death of Kumanjayi Walker has revealed racist attitudes within the Northern Territory police force.85 When addressing the causes of Aboriginal woman Ms Dhu’s death in 2016, the Western Australia Coroner found that while the individual officers were not consciously motivated by racism, ‘it would be naïve to deny the existence of societal patterns that lead to assumptions being formed in relation to Aboriginal persons’.86 75. The Commission endorses the goal of the National Partnership Agreement – as agreed to by all governments in Australia – to ‘identify and call out institutional racism, discrimination and unconscious bias’ and to ‘undertake 17