Indigenous deaths in prison reach highest levels in 50 years

In the last year, 21 First Nations Australians died in prison, the highest number in more than 50 years.

There were 110 deaths in prison and police custody in 2022-23, including 31 First Nations Australians, according to the Australian Institute of Criminology’s latest report.

The AIC’s National Deaths in Custody Program has tracked the number and nature of deaths in prison, police custody and youth detention in Australia since 1980, following a recommendation made by the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody.

Its latest report on the 2022-23 financial year, found that there were 70 deaths in prison custody and 40 in police custody or custody-related operations, a slight increase from the previous year.

First Nations Australians were significantly disproportionately represented in these figures, with 31 Indigenous people dying in custody in the last year - nearly 30 percent of all deaths. This is despite Indigenous Australians making up 3 percent of the Australian population.

In the last year, 21 First Nations people died in Australian prisons, the most since 1979-80. This represented 30 percent of the total deaths in custody, well above the average recorded over the last 50 years of 18 percent.

Six First Nations Australians died in prison in both New South Wales and Queensland, five in Western Australia, three in Victoria and one in the Northern Territory.

Of these people, 11 were unsentenced and yet to be found guilty of a crime.

There were also 10 Indigenous deaths in police custody, the highest number in nearly two decades and well above the average over the last 50 years.

Since the Royal Commission handed its final report down in 1991, there have been 545 Indigenous deaths in custody.

In total, 70 people died in prisons around the country in the last year. Of these people, just under 40 percent, or 27 people. This was a significant increase from the previous year.

Earlier this month there was a death in custody at Fulham Correctional Centre, the eighth death in a Victiorian prison in this calendar year.