Australia has recorded its largest number of Indigenous deaths in custody in over 40 years.
Official figures show 33 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people died in custody across the nation in 2024/25.
It is the highest number since 1979/80 and brings the total to 617 since the 1991 Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody.
Australian Institute of Criminology research manager Samantha Bricknell said this was largely driven by NSW recording nine deaths in 2024/25.
State coroner Teresa Harding pointed out the number of Indigenous deaths across NSW prisons in 2025 had reached 12 in October, calling it a “profoundly distressing milestone”.
Dr Bricknell said the ACT also recorded a larger number of deaths than usual.
“Most years there’s usually no Indigenous deaths or maybe one (in the ACT) but this year there’s three,” she told AAP.
The report examines the 113 deaths which occurred in prison and police custody as well as youth detention in 2024/25.
Ninety people died in prison custody during this period, of which 26 were Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander people.
One death was in youth detention.
Six of the 22 deaths in police custody were Indigenous people.
Over 40 per cent of deaths in prison were among people who had not been sentenced.
Indigenous people accounted for 29 per cent of all deaths in custody, an increase from 23 per cent in the previous 12 months and the highest proportion since 2002/03.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people make up about four per cent of Australia’s total population, but represent more than a third of people in prison.
Dr Bricknell said over the past three years there has been a larger proportion of Indigenous deaths in custody, but the death rate among Indigenous prisoners has not changed dramatically.
She said it was important to view these statistics in the context of the over-incarceration of Indigenous people.
“It probably hasn’t changed because there’s been increasing prison population size,” she said.
“Three years is not enough to suggest a trend and we have had some considerable inter-year differences – it may well drop down.”
Cause of death was available for 19 of the 26 deaths in prison custody with an equal number due to natural causes and self-inflicted, Dr Bricknell said.
This is the highest number of self-inflicted Indigenous deaths in prison custody since 1979/80.
“That’s quite stark in terms of when you look at what the pattern has been,” she said.
“We have seen an unfortunate increase in self-inflicted deaths and they are predominantly, but not exclusively, of those who are on remand at the time.”
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