The death in custody of Yamatji woman Ms Dhu in WA in 2014 brought to public attention the ugly reality of law and policy that allow the jailing of those who default in payment of their fines.
Ms Dhu was picked up by police in 2014 with unpaid fines of $3622 and jailed. She was suffering from a broken rib at the time of her arrest, but a medical examination deemed her fit for custody.
Her condition worsened, but a second examination also declared her fit. While her health continued to deteriorate, police officers ignored her pleas for help until she died. An inquest into her death is presently underway.
There are many layers of injustice that play out in this case. One is the treatment of Aboriginal people in custody, in a justice system that is wracked with racism. If Ms Dhu were treated with appropriate care in custody, her life may have been saved.
Treatment of victims of domestic violence is also in issue in this case. It has been put to the inquest that Ms Dhu should not have been treated as a criminal, but as a victim of domestic violence. This too may have saved her life.
But at the root of this case, and so many other cases of incarceration of Indigenous Australians, is the issue of imprisonment for non-payment of fines.
Fines are usually levied as punishment for less serious offences that are not themselves worthy of jail. However jail may be a consequence of failing to pay a fine. For those who are able to afford the fines, jail might seem inevitable.
The WA corrective services minister, Joe Francis, has made it clear that fine defaulters are to be punished. He has proposed that the WA government garnishee offenders' welfare payments to recoup unpaid fines, and to increase jail time where they remain unpaid.
In his view, those who do not pay fines are shirking their responsibility, and many are taking what he calls the 'soft option' of spending four days in prison instead of paying their fines.
His comments fail to appreciate how fines operate to entrench disadvantage. Fines that cannot be paid are an inappropriate and discriminatory form of punishment.
"Whatever Francis may say, prison is not a 'soft option'. It is a dangerous, even life threatening, option for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians."
There are three key problems with the way in which fines function in the criminal justice system.