The use and abuse of prone restraint in Australian deaths in custody

Prone restraint is when a person is held face down on the ground or another surface. It is a restraint technique used by law enforcement officers and, in some cases, it is a contributing factor to deaths in custody. This paper analyses 42 publicly available coroners’ reports where prone restraint was implicated in a death in custody in Australia. From these reports, we collected data on the characteristics of deceased persons, the circumstances of the restraint, other force used, findings by coroners about the role of the restraint in causing death, and recommendations made. Our most significant finding was that Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander peoples were more likely to be held in the prone restraint position for longer periods of time than non-Indigenous people prior to their death. Considering the underreporting of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander status in coronial reports, this finding could be more significant than what our results depict.