MEDIA RELEASE
Wednesday 15 October 2025
The Aboriginal Legal Service extends its condolences to families and communities who have lost loved ones to deaths in custody, following news from the NSW State Coroner that 12 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have died in Corrective Services custody in the state so far this year – a horrifying record. An additional four Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have died in police operations.
“This is a crisis and a preventable tragedy that should deeply alarm everyone in NSW. A prison sentence should not be a death sentence,” said Karly Warner, CEO of the Aboriginal Legal Service (NSW/ACT) Limited.
“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.”
Ms Warner said the record-breaking number of Aboriginal deaths in custody follows increases over consecutive years in Aboriginal people being sent to prison.
“NSW is driving more Aboriginal women, children and men into prison than ever before through punitive laws and policing practices.
“Despite committing to reduce the mass incarceration of Aboriginal people under the National Agreement on Closing the Gap, the NSW Government continues to double down on laws and policing which guarantee increased imprisonment – instead of preventing people from entering prison in the first place by meeting their needs and investing in vital community-based supports.
“Prisons are dangerous places. The Aboriginal Legal Service has represented families of people who died behind bars of simple and treatable health conditions, and people whose deaths involved hanging points that should have been removed long ago. Yet in October 2022, a United Nations subcommittee was denied access to NSW prisons for an inspection aimed at assessing the treatment of people held in custody. The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention is again visiting Australia in December. It would be an international embarrassment if the NSW Government again failed to allow the UN access to places of deprivation of liberty.
“We have solutions to reduce deaths in custody but too many are sitting on the shelf, gathering dust. We call on the Government to stop passing laws which contradict its obligations to reduce Aboriginal over-representation in police cells, courts and prisons, and instead work in partnership with Aboriginal communities to implement evidence-based, community-led solutions to reduce imprisonment.
“We also call on the Government to ensure independent investigations of all deaths in police operations,” Ms Warner said.
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Media contact:
Bart Denaro 0427 950 312 [email protected]
Alyssa Robinson 0427 346 017 [email protected]
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