NSW records highest number of Indigenous deaths in custody in a single year

The NSW state coroner has made rare public comment as the state records the highest number of Indigenous deaths in custody in a single year.

Transcript

00:00Well, Gemma, it's a very rare move for the state's top coroner to pen an open letter

00:06quite like this one.

00:08But in it, State Coroner Theresa O'Sullivan confirms the deaths of 12 people in the state's

00:13jails over the past year.

00:14We're only 10 months into the year, and she says that statistic is already highly disturbing.

00:21This is, of course, the highest number ever recorded.

00:24She has blamed this on an overrepresentation of Aboriginal people in our legal system.

00:28Recently, the New South Wales Crime Bureau statistics confirmed that 33.4% of our jails

00:33are made up by First Nations people, compared to just 3% in society.

00:38Theresa O'Sullivan went on to say that over the past five years, there's been an 18.7%

00:43increase of black people in the state's prisons, compared to a decline of 12.5% of non-Aboriginal

00:50people.

00:51She concluded her message by writing that the state remains committed to investigating every

00:56Aboriginal death in custody in an open and transparent way.

01:00Courtney, what are experts saying about this?

01:03Well, the New South Wales Aboriginal Legal Service has labelled this development as absolutely

01:07horrifying.

01:08They've also added that this statistic does not take into account a further four people

01:12who have died during police operations in 2025 alone.

01:16The organisation's CEO, Carly Warner, slammed the state government, blaming the increase

01:22on an overrepresentation, saying that this has to do with the recent introduction of stricter

01:27bail laws in the state, and that this is despite their commitment to reducing numbers in custody.

01:33The New South Wales government should be absolutely ashamed of this record, but they also can't

01:41say that they didn't know.

01:44We warned them, and have continued to warn them, that as a result of the New South Wales government

01:50deriving increases in incarceration of Aboriginal women and children and men through punitive

01:58laws and policing practices, that it would lead to tragic consequences, and of course, we

02:05are seeing those tragic consequences.

02:07Well, as you heard there, Gemma, experts are echoing this sentiment, saying that jails in

02:14New South Wales, and the country for that matter, still remain very unsafe places for Aboriginal

02:18and Torres Strait Islander people.