The risk of deaths in custody in New South Wales remains as high as ever, the state's peak Indigenous legal body says, as new data shows a record number of First Nations people behind bars.
On Thursday, as the federal government released its annual Closing the Gap report — which showed incarceration levels are continuing to rise nationwide — the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research revealed a record 4,452 Aboriginal adults are in the state's prisons.
Aboriginal adults now make up 33.9 per cent of the total adult prison population; the highest proportion on record.
Aboriginal Legal Service NSW/ACT Principal Legal Officer Nadine Miles said the legal system is under strain from rising incarceration rates.
"We are seeing increasing delays between our clients being arrested by police and being brought before a court. People have been spending more time in police and court cells due to a shortage of beds in prisons," she said.
Overall, the NSW prison population reached 13,133 in December 2025, up 8.5 per cent — or 1,026 people — over the past two years. BOSCAR said the increase is largely driven by a sharp rise in the number of people held on remand.
"The incarceration rate for Aboriginal adults is now an alarming 15 times higher than for non-Aboriginal adults," said BOSCAR Executive Director Jackie Fitzgerald. "In December 2025, around one in 25 Aboriginal men living in NSW was in prison.
"These record numbers show that we are still not seeing the reductions needed to address Aboriginal overrepresentation in custody or to meet Closing the Gap targets. This remains one of the most persistent and pressing challenges facing the criminal justice system."
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The Minns Government has introduced youth bail laws — later mirrored in Victoria — that have drawn criticism from legal groups and some NSW Labor MPs. However, BOSCAR data shows a 14.8 per cent reduction in Aboriginal youth on remand over the past year.
Nonetheless, remand numbers in December 2025 are up 70.4 per cent compared with five years ago.
Ms Miles described the trend as "shameful", arguing, "when you force greater numbers of people into prison, you increase the risk of deaths in custody".
"When you force young children into contact with police and courts, you increase the likelihood they will go on to reoffend and become trapped in cycles of imprisonment as adults," she said. "The NSW Government knows this too, but continues to pursue a tough-on-crime agenda instead of investing in solutions that actually work."
She argued Aboriginal communities already have solutions to reduce incarceration, including greater community investment, strengthening Aboriginal Community-Controlled Organisation-led services focused on prevention, and creating therapeutic pathways for children at risk of entering the justice system.
"If the Government is serious about community safety, it needs to stop doubling down on failed policy and start listening to the evidence," she said.
The BOSCAR figures follow a year in which NSW recorded the highest number of Indigenous deaths in custody ever reported by a single state in one year. Additional deaths have already been confirmed this year.
In October, ALS chief executive Karly Warner called the record number of deaths in custody a "horrifying record," blaming the NSW Government and its "punitive laws and policing practices".
"This is a crisis and a preventable tragedy that should deeply alarm everyone in NSW. A prison sentence should not be a death sentence," she said.
"Every one of these people had a name, a story, a family. They were loved and their families and communities will carry the scars of their loss."
