Criminal Justice System Videos

Following a 12-month inquiry, the ‘Yoorrook for Justice: Report into Victoria’s Child Protection and Criminal Justice Systems’ details extensive systemic injustice, racism, discriminatory laws and policy failures that have, and continue to, cause harm to First Peoples. The report and a full list of recommendations can be found here: www.yoorrookforjustice.org.au

Yoorrook for Justice: Report into Victoria’s Child Protection and Criminal Justice Systems makes 46 recommendations for reform, including clarifying and strengthening the charter of human rights and responsibilities act. The report and a full list of recommendations can be found here: www.yoorrookforjustice.org.au

On behalf of Victoria Police, Chief Commissioner Shane Patton APM apologised “unreservedly” to First Peoples for police actions since colonisation and continuing to the present day. In a hearing at the Yoorrook Justice Commission, the Chief Commissioner said that “as a result of systemic racism, racist attitudes and discriminatory policies of police,’ injustices had “gone undetected, unchecked and unpunished.” He

Since this Yoorrook hearing less than two weeks ago, another First Peoples man has died in custody in Victoria. There have now been 34 deaths in custody in Victoria since the 1991 Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody. Each of those people was loved by their family, friends and community. They are deeply missed. During questioning by Commissioner Travis

Yoorrook Senior Counsel Assisting and proud Wirdi man Tony McAvoy SC questioned Victoria’s Minister for Police, the Hon. Anthony Carbines MP, in hearings this month about injustices experienced by First Peoples at the hands of police. Minister Carbines accepted that, for many Aboriginal people, their experience of policing is one in which they are the subject of racial profiling and

Watch the Minister for Police the Hon. Anthony Carbines MP speak about the challenges of tackling racial discrimination and police profiling of Aboriginal people in Victoria.

“Police investigating police especially in areas of Aboriginality – I don’t see how we will ever be able to gain the confidence of the Aboriginal community and the faith in the system” Listen to Chief Commissioner of Victoria Police Shane Patton APM discuss what has led him to move positions on independent police oversight at a hearing of the Yoorrook

In the year ending 2022, 89% of First Peoples in prison in Victoria were on remand, meaning they in custody but unsentenced. Yoorrook heard that many of those on remand may not have received a custodial sentence if found guilty. Most were refused bail due to changes to Victorian bail laws in 2018, which meant repeat non-violent offenders had to

At a Yoorrook hearing, Secretary of the Department of Justice and Community Safety, Kate Houghton, acknowledged that one of the primary drivers of overrepresentation of First Peoples in the criminal justice system is the existence of systemic racism.

“I understand this uniform can be a symbol of fear… I am deeply and truly sorry for this impact.” Chief Commissioner of Victoria Police Shane Patton APM told Yoorrook Commissioners in a hearing on May 8, 2023. Chief Commissioner Patton apologised to First Peoples in what he described as a “watershed moment.”