Stark picture revealed on Indigenous deaths in custody
Australia has recorded the highest number of Indigenous deaths in custody in more than 40 years.
Official figures show 33 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people died in custody across the country in 2024/25.
This is the highest number since 1979/80 and brings the total since the 1991 Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody to 617.
Australian Institute of Criminology research manager Samantha Bricknell said this was largely due to NSW recording nine deaths in 2024/25.
State coroner Teresa Harding noted that the number of Indigenous deaths in NSW prisons by 2025 reached 12 in October, describing it as a “deeply saddening milestone”.
Dr Bricknell also said the ACT had recorded a higher number of deaths than usual.
“Most years we usually have no Indigenous deaths, maybe one (in the ACT) but this year we have three,” he told AAP.
The report examines 113 deaths in prisons and police custody in 2024/25, as well as youth detention.
During this period, 90 people died in prison custody, including 26 Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander people.
One death occurred while the youth were in custody.
Six of the 22 people who died in police custody were locals.
More than 40 percent of those who died in prisons were among people who had not been sentenced.
29 percent of all deaths in custody involved indigenous people; In the previous 12 months the rate was 23 percent, an increase from the highest rate since 2002/03.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people make up around four per cent of Australia’s total population, but represent more than a third of people in prison.
Dr Bricknell said the death rate for Indigenous people in custody had been higher over the past three years, but the death rate among Indigenous prisoners had not changed dramatically.
He said it’s important to see these statistics in the context of over-incarceration of Indigenous people.
“It probably hasn’t changed because the prison population has increased,” he said.
“Three years is not enough to suggest a trend, and we’ve had some significant year-to-year differences that could decline.”
Dr Bricknell said cause of death was available for 19 of the 26 deaths in prison custody, with an equal number of natural causes and self-inflicted deaths.
This is the highest number of self-inflicted Indigenous deaths in prison custody since 1979/80.
“That’s pretty clear when you look at what the model is,” he said.
“We have seen an unfortunate increase in self-inflicted deaths, and these deaths are occurring predominantly, but not exclusively, among individuals who are currently incarcerated.”
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