Twenty-two Indigenous people have died in custody in just 11 months, according to national data collated by the Australian Institute of Criminology, with justice advocates saying deaths that should spark a “national outcry” are being met with silence.
That means at least 580 Aboriginal people have died in police or prison custody since 1991 – when the royal commission into the matter handed down its final report – according to the AIC’s National Deaths in Custody database, which tracks Indigenous deaths in prison, police custody and youth detention.
Justice advocacy group Change the Record’s national director, Blake Cansdale, said the figures were devastating and pointed to the “gross overrepresentation” of Indigenous people in the criminal legal system.
“These deaths are not just numbers; they represent lives tragically lost, families grieving, and a national failure to uphold the rights and safety of First Nations peoples in Australia,” the Anaiwan man explained.
Cansdale said while tracking deaths was vital, every death must provoke a public reckoning, and he criticised media silence on the issue.
“Tracking alone is not enough,” he said.
“These tragedies remain largely unknown to the wider public, perpetuating a ‘great silence’.
“The unacceptable number of First Nations deaths in custody should be resulting in a national outcry, yet this devastating reality is largely met with indifference.”
Since January this year, 22 Indigenous men have died in custody. Seventeen men died in Australian prisons, while five men died in police custody.
The latest deaths in custody data comes as the New South Wales Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research (Bocsar) reveals the scale of Indigenous incarceration in that state. Aboriginal people now make up a third of all adults in custody – the highest proportion on record, despite making up just 3% of the NSW population.
As of September 2024, the NSW adult custody population was 12,897, an increase of 625 people or 5% from September 2023. Over a third, or more than 4,000 of these, were Aboriginal people – the highest proportion on record.
The Bocsar executive director, Jackie Fitzgerald, said while the general prison population had shrunk – with about a thousand fewer prisoners than before the pandemic – it was in stark contrast to the Indigenous population, which was increasing.
“The fact that we’ve got a record number of Aboriginal people in custody in a climate where the prison population is actually quite low is really concerning. One in 27 Aboriginal men and one in 280 Aboriginal women in NSW are currently incarcerated,” Fitzgerald said.
Fitzgerald said the rising prison population could be traced to greater numbers of people being remanded in custody, particularly for domestic violence-related offences, with rates up 13% since September 2023.
“Domestic violence offences account for more than half of the increase in the adult remand population and 58% of the increase in Aboriginal remand population,” she said.
Domestic violence-related assaults were up 29%, DV intimidation/stalking offences were up 36%, breaches of apprehended domestic violence orders were up 76% and domestic violence sexual offences jumped 10%.
Fitzgerald said family and domestic violence offending and victimisation disproportionately affected Indigenous men and women, but that more research was needed to better understand the nature of offending and victimisation.
“There’s no doubt that Aboriginal people are unfortunately impacted by violence to a much greater extent than other parts of the community,” she said.
“We’re still in a situation where we’re trying to find the best ways to respond to domestic violence … and reduce perpetration and victimisation for people who have already started to display those behaviours [which is] very difficult.”
Cansdale said the trends were a consequence of colonisation, generational trauma and systemic violence facing First Nations people.
“Genocide, systemic violence, generational trauma, socioeconomic disadvantage, and systemic racism have left First Nations communities disproportionately impacted by poverty, violence and criminal legal systems.”
