Thirty-five years after the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody handed down its landmark final report, First Nations people continue to die in police and correctional custody at rates that advocates describe as a national disgrace.
Official figures show 33 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people died in custody across Australia during 2024/25 – the highest annual toll since 1979/80. More than 630 First Nations deaths in custody have been recorded since the commission’s 1991 report.
William Tilmouth, co-chair of First Nations child advocacy group Children’s Ground, said “There’s nothing to celebrate even though it is the 35th anniversary.”
The royal commission, led by Justice James Muirhead QC, made 339 recommendations to address the drivers of Indigenous deaths in custody and the over-representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in the justice system. At the time of the inquiry First Nations people made up 14 per cent of the adult prison population. The figure now sits at 37 per cent.
Australian Bureau of Statistics data shows Indigenous adults are 17 times more likely to be imprisoned than non-Indigenous Australians. Indigenous children are 26 times more likely to be held in detention.
Independent Senator Lidia Thorpe argues the majority of the commission’s recommendations were never properly implemented. Senator Thorpe said “Ending deaths in custody is not complicated. We know exactly what needs to be done. The solutions have been there for 35 years.”
She called on the federal government to fund and empower the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner to track implementation of the recommendations.
Amnesty International Australia has condemned what it describes as a persistent failure of governments to act. Palawa Elder and Amnesty International Australia Indigenous Rights Advisor Uncle Rodney Dillon said “This ongoing massacre would not have occurred had the Commission’s recommendations been fully implemented.”
State and territory governments have continued to introduce tough-on-crime laws and have lowered the age of criminal responsibility to 10 in some jurisdictions. Indigenous young people represent 95 per cent of children in detention in the Northern Territory.
Minister for Indigenous Australians Malarndirri McCarthy has acknowledged that too many First Nations families have lost loved ones in custody, pointing to government funding for community-led justice reinvestment initiatives as part of the Closing the Gap framework.
Children’s Ground co-chair Evelyn Schaber argues the social conditions driving over-incarceration – insecure housing, poor health outcomes, and lack of access to essential services – have changed little since 1991.
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