Indigenous jail rates up as Closing the Gap targets lag
Indigenous incarceration rates across Australia are rising steadily; This is the latest example of how Close the Gap targets fall short of expectations.
Of the 17 socio-economic outcome areas identified, only three are on track to meet the government’s 2031 Closing the Gap targets, while four are deteriorating, according to data updates published by the Productivity Commission on Wednesday.
Goals such as improving child education development rates, life expectancy, infant health and housing, as well as social and emotional well-being and family security have all stalled or begun to progress below expectations.
The key aim of Closing the Gap is to reduce the proportion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander adults incarcerated by at least 15 per cent over the next five years.
But by June 2025, the rate of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander prisoners had risen to just over 2,500 people per 100,000 adults, roughly 2.5 per cent of the over-18 population.
This represents an increase from 1,925.4 per 100,000 adults (1.9 percent) in the base year 2019.
Compared to Australia’s total imprisonment rate of 216 inmates per 100,000 adults, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are still vastly over-represented.
With 17,432 Indigenous Australians behind bars, the group made up more than 35 per cent of the total adult prison population as of June 2025, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
Meanwhile, youth detention rates are thought to be unchanged from nearly a decade ago; The number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people aged 10-17 behind bars on an average day is 25.7 per 10,000 young people in the population.
“Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander adults are being incarcerated at the highest rate in history,” said Nerita Waight, acting chief executive of the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Service.
“National progress towards reducing the detention rate of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children remains unchanged.”
Ms Waight said the majority of young people in custody on any given day were in custody and not found guilty of any offence, with the rate sometimes exceeding 90 per cent.
“This is completely unacceptable,” he said.
“Governments must do everything they can to improve the lives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and achieve true equality.”
By other measures, child development rates have also fallen; Only 33.9 per cent of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children entering school were assessed as being on track developmentally.
Ros Moriarty, chief executive of the Indigenous-run Moriarty Foundation, said getting the early education years right was the key to unlocking a future where Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children thrive.
Addressing Parliament last month, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the government was “not considering failure” and remained committed to addressing inequality between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians.
But Ms Moriarty said it was vital to invest more in early childhood interventions to put young Indigenous Australians on the right track to succeed.
“The Prime Minister has stated that he is ‘not thinking about failure’ but national data shows that as a nation we are failing our most vulnerable children,” he said.
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