An Indigenous inmate has died after an altercation involving prison guards at a South Australian jail.
Police say the 29-year-old man, who can't be named for cultural reasons, died early on Monday morning at the Royal Adelaide Hospital where he had been in a serious condition since Friday.
It was alleged the man attacked five guards at the Yatala Labour Prison on Friday while waiting for a scheduled court video link appearance, Correctional Services Minister Peter Malinauskas said.
Major Crime Detectives are investigating the incident and police are also preparing a report for the coroner.
Mr Malinauskas says he has not been advised of the exact cause of the man's death.
But he says he has "100 per cent confidence" South Australian police investigators will do everything they can to find out exactly what happened.
"I have already been advised by the police commissioner that SAPOL are putting substantial resources into this so we do find out exactly what did take place," he told ABC radio on Monday.
"I as much as anybody am very keen to make sure that we do that, so that if people have acted in a way that isn't appropriate they can be held to account, and we can do everything we can to make sure we don't see deaths like this into the future."
He said two of the five prison guards involved in the incident suffered serious injuries, including facial fractures, but all had since been discharged from hospital.
"I do, no doubt, feel for them in the fact that they are going to be subject to an enormous amount of scrutiny, as is appropriate, so let's just wait and see what the outcome of these investigations are," he said.
He said there was no information suggesting that overcrowding at the prison contributed to the violent incident.
Greens join calls for inquiry
The Greens have joined calls for an independent investigation into the death of the Aboriginal man.
Major crime detectives are investigating the death of the 29-year-old who was on remand and was being prepared for a court appearance by video link on Friday when the incident occurred.
Police are also preparing a report for the state coroner, who will hold an inquest.
The Aboriginal Legal Rights Movement has already called for an independent inquiry and was joined by Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young on Monday.
Senator Hanson-Young says the case is tragic and demands more than a police investigation.
"What we need is a rigorous independent investigation to get to the bottom of exactly what happened here," Senator Hanson-Young said.
South Australian opposition correctional services spokesman Dan van Holst Pellekaan said he was confident the coroner would examine the death as quickly as possible.
"Everybody who has any interest in this case whatsoever should have complete confidence that the coroner will, as he has in the past, shine a light onto this issue and expose any shortcomings in the system," he said.
But Mr van Holst Pellekaan has raised concerns over the government's selective release of information on incidents in SA prisons.
He says no details of a serious incident, which involved the attempted escape of two inmates from the Port Augusta jail last week, were released.
Sister 'broken' by Aboriginal inmate death
The sister of an indigenous man who died after a violent altercation with five guards at a South Australian prison says she is "broken" by the death.
Police say the 29-year-old, unnamed for cultural reasons, died early on Monday morning at Royal Adelaide Hospital where he had been in a serious condition since the incident at Yatala Labour Prison on Friday.
"We said goodbye to my brother early this morning," his sister Toya Aroha has posted on Facebook.
"I am broken. We are broken."
History of Indigenous deaths in custody
Since the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody 25 years ago, which was conducted to combat an over-representation, there have been nearly 370 more, according to the Australian Institute of Criminology.
Thirty-one of them have occurred in South Australia.
There are still calls for most of the recommendations of the commission to be implemented.
Mick Gooda, the Indigenous Social Justice Commissioner, told NITV on the 25th anniversary of the commission in April: "The formula’s there to stop it [Indigenous deaths in custody]. I don’t know if the political will is.
“Almost every death that occurred in custody after the Royal Commission recommendations, invoked the non-implementation of at least one recommendation."
Source: NITV
Indigenous people are 13 times more likely to be put behind bars than other Australians, yet they comprise 2 per cent of the population.
The rate is even higher for Indigenous youths who are incarcerated at 24 times the rate than their peers despite making up just 5 per cent of Australia's population of young people.
With AAP.
