Australian Human Rights Commission Submission to UN Committee Against Torture, 17 October 2014 Recommended actions: That Australian governments: 34. • Adopt justice reinvestment approaches and justice targets, such as a target to halve the gap in rates of incarceration for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. • Develop and implement a Disability Justice Strategy to ensure people with disabilities have access to justice in the criminal justice system. • Review mandatory sentencing laws in view of the disproportionate impact on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and children. • Raise the minimum age of criminal responsibility to an internationally acceptable level. The Commission’s jurisdiction does not extend to investigating the compliance of state and territory prisons with the CAT (in particular, the prohibition on cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment). The Commission is concerned about the overrepresentation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, people with disabilities and the situation of juveniles as well as issues such as mandatory sentencing, overcrowding and police use of force. Disproportionate incarceration of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples 35. The Commission remains concerned about high and increasing incarceration rates of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and adults. • Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are currently imprisoned at a rate of 2,208 per 100,000 which is over 11 times higher than the rate of imprisonment for non-Indigenous people.16 • Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people are 35 times more likely to be in criminal detention than non-indigenous young people almost 3 in 5 (59 per cent) of those in detention are Indigenous.17 • The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander imprisonment rate has increased by 51.5 per cent between 2000 and 2010. At the same time, the non-Indigenous imprisonment rate has increased only marginally.18 • The rate of imprisonment for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women has grown by 58.6 per cent between 2000 and 2010. 36. The overrepresentation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as both victims and offenders in the criminal justice system remains one of the most glaring disparities between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians and non-Indigenous Australians. 37. The Commission has advocated that the solution to this issue lies in focusing on creating safer communities where violence is not tolerated, where victims have access to the entire spectrum of support services and where the 13