A grim new record
Indigenous deaths in custody in Australia have reached their highest level since national monitoring began in 1979–80, prompting renewed outrage from families, legal services and advocates who say governments have ignored warnings for decades.
New figures from the Australian Institute of Criminology (AIC) show that in 2024–25 there were 113 deaths in custody, including 33 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
It is the largest number of First Nations deaths in custody recorded in any year since the national program began and comes more than three decades after the landmark 1991 Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody.
Since that royal commission handed down its findings, at least 617 Indigenous people have died in custody, according to the AIC’s real-time dashboard – a number that continues to rise.
For many families, the new statistics confirm what they have been saying for years: that the system remains fundamentally unsafe for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
‘Nothing has changed’: grief and anger from families
For Noongar woman Natasha Ugle, whose husband Wayne Ugle died in Western Australia’s maximum-security Hakea prison in November 2023, the figures are a brutal validation of her worst fears.
She describes seeing constant posts about yet another death behind bars: “another death in custody, another death in custody” – a drumbeat of tragedy that feels, she says, like it happens “every week now”.
“We go and we do all these rallies, we do all these marches, we stand up there, we speak for our people, we try and get change and ask for change but nothing happens,” she told Guardian Australia. “Something really needs to be changed because we are still getting deaths, after deaths, after deaths.”
Her husband’s death is still the subject of a pending coronial inquest. For Ugle and many others, the latest report is not a dry statistical update; it is a reminder that their loved ones are part of a tally that keeps growing.
What the new data shows
The AIC’s latest National Deaths in Custody Program report paints an alarming picture for 2024–25:
- 113 deaths in custody in total
- 33 deaths were Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander people – the highest number since monitoring began
- The year’s toll pushes the total Indigenous deaths in custody since the 1991 royal commission to 600 by 30 June 2025, and 617 as of early December, once more recent cases are included
- Of the 113 deaths, 90 occurred in prisons – the highest number of prison deaths recorded since the early 1980s
- 22 deaths were in police custody or custody-related operations
- One death occurred in youth detention
For Indigenous people specifically:
- 26 First Nations prisoners died in prison custody in 2024–25
- Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people made up 29% of all prison deaths, the highest proportion in over two decades
- It is the third year in a row that the Indigenous share of prison deaths has exceeded the 40-year average of 19%
These figures sit against a broader backdrop in which Indigenous people are massively over-represented in Australian prisons – roughly 3–4% of the general population, but around a third of the adult prison population.
Prisons, police and youth detention: where people are dying
The bulk of deaths occurred in prisons, but the report shows fatalities across multiple types of custody.
- Prisons: 90 deaths in 2024–25, including 26 Indigenous prisoners. New South Wales recorded the highest number of prison deaths overall; Western Australia, Queensland, South Australia, the ACT and Victoria also reported Indigenous deaths behind bars.
- Police custody and custody-related operations: 22 deaths, six of whom were Indigenous. These include deaths in police cells, during arrests, in transport or in hospital following police contact.
- Youth detention: One Indigenous young person died in youth detention during the year; details have been withheld for privacy.
The AIC notes that several further cases are currently classified as “borderline” and may later be added to the official count depending on coronial findings.
Self-harm, remand and hanging points
Perhaps the most disturbing aspect of the data is what it reveals about how people are dying, particularly in prison:
- For Indigenous prisoners where the manner of death is known, more than half (53%) of deaths were due to self-harm, the highest number of self-inflicted deaths among Indigenous prisoners since 1980. The Guardian
- Among Indigenous people on remand – held in custody awaiting trial or sentencing – the proportion is even more shocking: 75% of deaths with a known cause were due to hanging.
The 1991 royal commission explicitly recommended the removal of hanging points from cells as a basic safety measure – a recommendation that, more than three decades later, has still not been fully implemented in many prisons. The Guardian
Earlier this year, the federal attorney general described the continued presence of known hanging points in cells where people have died as “unacceptable”, yet the latest figures show such deaths continue. The Guardian
Advocates say this is not a technical oversight but a profound failure of duty of care.
‘Racist policing practices and harmful systems’
Legal services and community advocates reacted to the new data with fury and despair.
Nerita Waight, CEO of the Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service, said many deaths were clearly preventable and pointed to “racist policing practices and harmful systems built on oppression”. She argued that police and prison custody “is not a safe place for Aboriginal people” – a conclusion already reached by the royal commission in 1991. The Guardian
Menang Noongar woman and social justice advocate Megan Krakouer called the death toll a “predictable outcome” of governments failing to provide proper support, oversight and culturally informed services for First Nations people in contact with the justice system. The Guardian
Their criticisms echo findings from coronial inquests across the country, which have repeatedly identified:
- failures to provide adequate medical and mental-health care in custody
- lack of culturally appropriate support, particularly for people in crisis
- overuse of remand and imprisonment for minor offences
- systemic racism influencing policing, bail decisions and sentencing The Guardian
Yet, they say, these lessons rarely translate into systemic reform.
From royal commission to 2025: recommendations left on the shelf
The 1991 Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody made 339 recommendations, many of them focused on keeping Indigenous people out of custody wherever possible and improving safeguards for those detained.
Key reforms included:
- using imprisonment as a last resort
- ensuring health services, not police cells, manage intoxicated people
- removing hanging points and other obvious risks from cells
- better oversight, transparency and accountability for deaths in custody
More than thirty years on, numerous reviews have found that many recommendations remain only partially implemented or ignored, even as the total number of Indigenous deaths in custody continues to climb.
In some jurisdictions, policy has moved in the opposite direction: tougher bail laws, punitive youth detention practices and mandatory sentencing regimes have driven up Indigenous imprisonment, particularly among young people.
Advocates argue the latest AIC report should bury any suggestion that the problem is confined to “a few tragic incidents”. Instead, they say, it reveals a systemic pattern of state failure and racial injustice.
Governments on the defensive
Federal and state governments have acknowledged the new figures are “deeply concerning”, but insist reforms are under way.
The federal government points to justice-reinvestment trials, plans to reduce incarceration rates and work on implementing national Closing the Gap targets relating to justice. State and territory governments list investments in prison health, suicide-prevention initiatives and upgrades to some custodial facilities.
Yet families and legal services say these steps are piecemeal and too slow.
They note that, in the same week the AIC data was released, Victoria delivered a historic parliamentary apology to First Nations people for the “rapid and violent” impact of colonisation – a symbolic gesture that many say rings hollow when Indigenous people continue to die in cells at record rates.
What advocates say must change
First Nations organisations and justice advocates are calling for a suite of urgent actions, including:
- Full implementation of royal commission recommendations, with transparent reporting on progress
- Justice reinvestment and community-controlled alternatives to imprisonment, especially for low-level offending and unpaid fines
- Removal of known hanging points and other obvious hazards from all cells, with strict timelines and independent oversight
- Expansion of culturally safe health and mental-health services in prisons, police cells and youth detention
- Stronger independent bodies with real power to investigate deaths, compel evidence and enforce change
Some also argue for more radical steps: raising the age of criminal responsibility, ending the incarceration of children in punitive youth units, and rewriting bail and sentencing laws that disproportionately funnel Indigenous people into custody.
‘A national emergency, not a statistic’
For those on the frontline, the language of data and percentages can obscure the reality that every death represents a family, a community and a story cut short.
Advocates say the latest report shows Indigenous deaths in custody are not an historical problem but a current national emergency.
As Natasha Ugle puts it, the feeling in many communities is that “no one listens and no one cares”.
Whether the shocking record set in 2024–25 finally forces governments to act on long-standing recommendations — or simply becomes another line in a growing statistical ledger — will be a defining test of Australia’s willingness to confront the systemic harms that continue, year after year, to cost Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander lives in custody.
7 years in the field, from local radio to digital newsrooms. Loves chasing the stories that matter to everyday Aussies – whether it’s climate, cost of living or the next big thing in tech.
