34 years after the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody, First Nations people continue to be "disproportionately represented" in Australia's prison system.
Tuesday marked the 34th anniversary of the Royal Commission (RCIADIC) bringing down its findings.
At least 590 Indigenous people have died in custody since the Royal Commission with governments across the country—Labor and Liberal/National/Country Liberal alike—continuing to implement policies in direct contradiction to the recommendations.
So far, no one has been found criminally responsible for any of the deaths.
The latest data revealed that young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are being locked up at 27 times the rate of non-Indigenous people, whilst out-of-home (OOHC), so often a direct precursor to contact with the youth justice system, sees Indigenous children removed from their families at 10.4 times the rate than non-Indigenous children.
"This is an appalling abuse of both children and the systems meant to protect them. It now costs an average of $1.1 million each year to imprison a single child in Australia. This funding is not preventing harm; it is entrenching it," Children's Ground chief executive Jane Vadiveloo says.
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The RCIADIC called for Indigenous people to be incarcerated as a last resort, as well as for better alternatives to prison, better access to healthcare and legal support, and action on the root causes of incarceration – poverty, racism, and systemic neglect.
However, in the past 12 months, Queensland has introduced laws that could see children as young as ten sentenced to life in prison; the NT lowered the age of criminal responsibility to ten; and Victoria and NSW introduced "tough" bail laws which the Victorian premier accepts will see more children incarcerated on remand.
On an average day last year, 65 per cent of children imprisoned by state and territory governments were First Nations.
In the same period, Indigenous children between the ages of 10 and 13 were imprisoned at a rate of 45.5 per 10,000—45.5 times more than their non-Indigenous cohort.
"We are seeing more and more state and territory governments prioritising looking tough rather than implementing evidence-based policy that will make communities safer," National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services (NATSILS) chair Karly Warner said earlier this year.
"How many lives will be destroyed before Premiers and Chief Ministers across the country realise that locking up children has never worked anywhere?"
In the last financial year, 24 Indigenous people died in custody, which prompted Change the Record's national director, Blake Cansdale to say: "These deaths are not just numbers; they represent lives tragically lost, families grieving, and a national failure to uphold the rights and safety of First Nations peoples in Australia."
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In the NT, more than one per cent of people are incarcerated—almost 90 per cent of them Indigenous. The government has also reintroduced spit hoods in youth detention and reversed the decriminalisation of public drunkenness reforms.
It resulted in the Police Association's president arguing it was only a matter of time before someone died in custody.
In Queensland, children are housed alongside violent adults in watch houses, sometimes for more than 30 days. The government has admitted new laws to give life imprisonment to some non-violent crimes will disproportionately impact Indigenous children and are "incompatible with human rights".
Gomeroi woman and Amnesty International Indigenous Rights campaigner Kacey Teerman said: "Every child in a watch house, in youth detention, every adult in a cell, is part of a system that continues to disproportionately harm Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people."
Last week, a report found crisis care units in WA's prisons are not meeting the needs of inmates suffering acute mental health issues. It came after two Indigenous deaths in custody in the state in the past five weeks.
In 2023, 16-year-old Cleveland Dodd took his own life in the Unit 18 wing of the adult Casuarina Prison after a litany of failures across the system.
When Victoria introduced its new bail laws, it reversed reforms that were implemented after the death of Veronica Nelson. The Gunditjmara, Dja Dja Wurrung, Wiradjuri, and Yorta Yorta woman died in custody in 2020 in a "vomit-ridden" prison cell, having been arrested and denied bail for alleged shoplifting.
The former president of Liberty Victoria, Michael Stanton, said of the new laws: "This will result in deaths in custody. It's a disgrace."
In February, two Aboriginal people died in custody in the ACT in less than one week, with Winnunga Nimmityjah Aboriginal Health & Community Services chief executive Julie Tongs saying, "...until the government acknowledges that there's a problem, we're never going to change anything".
Across the board, highlighting the decisions by the CLP government in the NT, Ms Vadiveloo said: "This is what a broken system looks like."
"Governments continue to advance harmful laws while ignoring proven solutions that support and protect communities."
She added: "The Anniversary of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody is a powerful reminder of the cost of inaction—and the responsibility governments have to ensure that justice is not delayed any longer."
