Australian Human Rights Commission Submission to UN Committee Against Torture, 17 October 2014 45. Targets encourage policy makers to focus on outputs and outcomes, rather than just inputs. It is not enough for governments to continue to report on what they do and spend, especially if that appears to be making little positive difference. Targets move us towards accountability and ensure that tax payer’s money is being spent in a results-focused way. 46. The Commission has recommended that appropriate justice targets would include indicators such as rates of imprisonment, recidivism and victimization. They would also take a more holistic approach and include indicators such as involvement with the child protection system, use of diversionary programs, successful transitions to school and employment. 25 47. The Commission urges all Australian governments to 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. 48. The Commission has also emphasised the benefits of drawing on Aboriginal customary law in relation to dispute resolution, and more broadly.26 The Commission considers there should be recognition of some of the existing and traditional community structures that guide dispute resolutions as well as recognition that customary law practices can assist with the development of justice reinvestment models and other community justice initiatives. 49. In its 2013 Social Justice and Native Title Report, the Commission expressed concern in relation to blanket alcohol bans, such as those imposed in the Northern Territory Intervention, ‘given the disproportionate rate at which Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are imprisoned in comparison to the non-Indigenous population’.27 50. An Alcohol Mandatory Treatment scheme that commenced in the Northern Territory on 1 July 2013 provides that an adult person who has been apprehended three times in two months for public intoxication may be subject to a Mandatory Residential Treatment Order for up to three months. Individuals can be detained for up to four days before being clinically assessed and another five days before the Alcohol Mandatory Treatment Tribunal makes a decision on their case. The majority of those detained have been Indigenous.28 Ward inquest and coronial recommendations 51. The Commission intervened in the Coronial Inquest into the death of Mr Ward in 2009. Mr Ward was an Aboriginal prisoner who died shortly after being transported in the back of a van in conditions of excessive heat. 52. The Commission considered that a range of systemic failures had contributed to Mr Ward’s death and submitted that ‘Mr Ward’s treatment during his transportation from Laverton to Kalgoorlie was cruel, inhuman and degrading.’29 53. The Coroner found that ‘the deceased was subjected to degrading treatment and he was not treated with humanity and with respect for the inherent dignity 15