A "looming crisis" in the Northern Territory's justice system requires immediate action, Australia's largest Indigenous legal organisation has said.
The latest Closing the Gap numbers for the NT, reveal life expectancy for First Nations women has gone backwards, as well as targets around employment, birthweight, early childhood education, child development, employment, youth engagement, adult incarceration, and youth detention.
Concerningly, the North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency (NAAJA) says this data doesn't even reflect the "significant rise in the prison population" after the new CLP government enacted several 'tough on crime' reforms since August last year.
These include lowering the age of criminal responsibility to 10 - amidst criticism from Indigenous, human rights and legal groups - as well as introducing laws to strengthen bail eligibility, criminalising public drinking and removing the floor price for alcohol.
In less than three months since reforms known as Declan's Law came into force, the number of adults on remand has increased by 18 per cent, from 1,136 to 1,338; simultaneously, the number of adults on bail has dropped by 5 per cent.
NAAJA said of the 2700 people in the NT in custody, 1,253 are on remand for an average of 90 days for adults and 71 days for young people for Local Court matters. In the Supreme Court, 179 people are on remand for an average of 350 days before their matter goes to trial.
In some cases, NAAJA says they only have 15 minutes to speak to their client before they go to court.
"The presumption of innocence until proven guilty and the right to adequate legal representation are at serious risk in the Northern Territory, if we have not already lost them," a NAAJA spokesperson said.
An average of 40 Aboriginal people have been taken into custody every day since August 2024.
Since signing the National Agreement on Closing the Gap, which called for a 15 per cent reduction in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander adults in incarceration by 2031, the number has increased in the NT by almost 40 per cent.
Over 88 per cent of all prisoners in the NT are Indigenous and more than one per cent of the NT population is incarcerated, with the government refusing to apologise for what they say is "keeping Territorians safe".
Earlier this month, the NT's Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Steve Edgington, told the ABC said the CLP government remained committed to the National Agreement on Closing the Gap.
NAAJA chairperson Theresa Roe said the NT government's approach to justice was "failing Aboriginal people" as well as "causing profound and long-term harm to our communities".
"The time for empty promises is over. Real action is needed now," she said.
"Without real change, our people will continue to suffer, and the justice system will continue to limp towards complete failure."
In January, Independent politician Yiŋiya Mark Guyula said he had written to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, calling for them to visit the NT due to the appalling conditions in prisons.
The government has announced extra beds for prisons in the NT, but NAAJA said this is not enough.
"Without urgent reform, the system will remain in crisis," the spokesperson said.
"NAAJA is forecasting that all of the additional prison beds brought on in March 2025 will at current rates be full by July 2025."
They urged "all levels of government to work in genuine partnership with Aboriginal communities to end this crisis and take meaningful action to close the incarceration gap".
