Family fights for change ahead of prison death inquest
The family of an Aboriginal man who died in custody in 2022 hopes his inquest will bring about change in the justice system.
Clinton Austin, a 38-year-old Gunditjmara and Wiradjuri man, died at Loddon Prison in Victoria on September 11, 2022.
Mr Austin's brother Shaun delivered an emotional statement outside the Coroners Court of Victoria on Monday, ahead of the inquest.
"I will not stop fighting for you," he said.
"I will fight to make a change, any change possible, not only for Aboriginal people going through the justice system, but anyone who has to go through it.
"I know that's what Clinton would want."
His family has said he was a proud father and artist who had a big heart and wanted to be an art teacher.
"His heart was for his son and his art," the family said in a statement in 2022.
Mr Austin had already served his two-year non-parole period in prison when he died, he was the second Indigenous person to die in custody in Victoria within the space of a month.
Almost 600 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have died in police or prison custody since the Royal Commission into Indigenous Deaths in Custody handed down 339 recommendations in 1991.
Many of these recommendations have not been fully implemented.
Shortly after Mr Austin's death, the Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service, which is helping the family in the coronial process raised concerns about the quality of healthcare provided to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in prisons in the state.
On Monday, flanked by family and supporters wearing shirts featuring a photo of Mr Austin, Shaun Austin said he hoped his brother's inquest would lead to "meaningful and significant change".
"I believe that my brother deserved better from the justice system and it failed him," he said.
The inquest is scheduled to continue for three weeks.
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