Since 1992, the National Deaths in Custody Monitoring and Research Program at the Australian Institute of Criminology, in cooperation with all State and Territory Police, Correctional Services and Juvenile Justice/Welfare Departments, and State Coroners or equivalents, has prepared and disseminated regular reports.1 These reports have covered deaths across both calendar and financial years, thus responding to the need to provide policy makers, the managers of custodial facilities and the public with timely and up-to-date information which will enable them to remain aware of trends in custodial deaths, both nationally and at the State and Territory level.2
This Trends and Issues paper provides data on the 103 deaths in police and prison custody which occurred in 1997, the highest number of deaths on record. It also identifies the trends in the number of deaths in custody-related police operations and, more specifically, the number of people dying as a result of injuries received in the course of, or immediately following, police pursuits.
Seventy-three per cent of the 103 deaths during 1997 occurred in prison custody. A fuller discussion on trends of deaths in Australia’s prisons can be found in the Trends and Issues in Crime and Criminal Justice report No. 81, Prison Deaths 1980-97: National Overview and State Trends.