CANBERRA
Australia’s New South Wales (NSW) state has recorded its highest-ever number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders deaths in custody this year, causing outcry in the country, local media reported on Wednesday.
The state has so far recorded 12 deaths in custody this year, ABC News reported, citing NSW State Coroner Teresa O’Sullivan.
In a rare public statement, O’Sullivan described the situation as a “profoundly distressing milestone,” highlighting the ongoing and “entrenched over-representation” of Indigenous Australians in the state’s prison system.
“They are individuals whose deaths demand independent and careful scrutiny, respect and accountability,” she said.
According to NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research, as of March this year, there were 4,244 Aboriginal adults in custody, which is 32.4% of the adult custody population.
“In the past five years, the number of Aboriginal inmates increased by 18.9% (up 676 individuals from 3,568 in March 2020 to 4,244 in March 2025) while non-Aboriginal prisoners decreased by 12.5% (from 9,877 in March 2020 to 8,644 in March 2025),” it said.
The Aboriginal Legal Service (NSW/ACT) Limited, a community-run organization, in a statement called the report a “horrifying record.”
“This is a crisis and a preventable tragedy that should deeply alarm everyone in NSW. A prison sentence should not be a death sentence,” said Karly Warner, the CEO of the organization.
In May, a 24-year-old Indigenous man also died after being restrained by two plainclothes police officers during an altercation with a supermarket security guard in Alice Springs of Northern Territory.
According to ABC, 594 Indigenous people have died in custody since 1991, including nine so far this year.
