Uploaded December 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
One would be forgiven in thinking that mainly Aboriginal people are dying in custody based on recent headlines. (Thank you to the viewer who highlighted this.) The Guardian reported: “‘Deaths, after deaths, after deaths’: Indigenous deaths in custody reach their highest level since 1980.”
They note that 33 First Nations people died over the last year, noting there were a total of 113 deaths in custody. Simple maths would tell us that therefore 80 non-Indigenous people died in custody, but for some reason, that doesn’t make the news. I’ll get to the rates of death soon.
Our favourite taxpayer-funded race-baiter, the ABC, wrote: “‘It’s maddening’: Anger and frustration amid record Black deaths in custody.” Why do they insist on using the word ‘Black’?
They start their article with the obligatory ‘Aboriginal Lives Matter’ photo, as if other lives are less important, and note that more than 600 First Nations people have died in custody since 1991—a period of 34 years. Just to keep things in perspective, according to the latest Deaths in Australia report, 937 First Nations people died from diabetes over the three years 2021–2023. I’m not taking away from these 600 deaths in custody, but it’s far from a leading cause of death. Perhaps the protesters should be fighting against diabetes by encouraging their supporters to focus on preventative health measures like eating fibre-rich foods and choosing healthy fats.
But I digress. The ABC article gets its data from the latest Australian Institute of Criminology (AIC) report. You can download the PDF from the AIC’s website.
Just to be clear, the Australian Institute of Criminology tracks two types of deaths in custody: deaths in prison custody and deaths in police custody. Let’s start with deaths in prison custody.
This is Figure 3: Indigenous deaths in prison custody over the last four decades or so. Our focus is on the death rate per 100 prisoners. As you can see, over the last decade, the rate has been relatively steady at around 0.13 Indigenous deaths per 100 prison population.
Now compare that to the non-Indigenous rate for the same period, Figure 5. Again, using the rate per 100 prisoners, we can see that over the last decade the rate has been relatively steady at around 0.20 non-Indigenous deaths per 100 prison population. Placing them side-by-side, we can see the stark difference: 0.13 for Indigenous prisoners versus 0.20 for non-Indigenous prisoners. So, while the media focuses on the number of Indigenous people dying, the death rate within the prison population is actually lower. If anybody should be protesting deaths in prison custody, it should be non-Indigenous people who are dying at a higher rate.
If we look at Table 1: Indigenous deaths in prison custody, 2024–25, they include the manner of death. You can see that 8 Indigenous prisoners died from natural causes, 10 died from self-inflicted harm, while one died from other non-stated reasons. You can see that none died from homicide, so the idea that Indigenous deaths in prison are largely due to direct third-party violence or foul play is simply not borne out in the statistics.
Now let’s turn to the other category: deaths in police custody, which covers deaths such as ones occurring in police stations or vehicles, or during arrests or police shootings. Figure 4 shows Indigenous deaths in police custody since 2011. For some reason, they don’t go back four decades like their prison data. We can see that in 2024-25, there were six Indigenous deaths in police custody. Table 2 details how they died. Again, under manner of death, one was a justifiable homicide—a police shooting, and two people died from accident or misadventure. There was no information regarding the other three.
For comparison, Figure 6 shows the non-Indigenous data over the same time period. As you can see, 16 non-Indigenous people died in police custody in 2024–25. Table 4 shows the manner of their deaths. These include self-inflicted harm, justifiable shootings, and accident or misadventure.
To be fair to the ABC, although they completely frame this around Aboriginal deaths in custody, they do admit that “Indigenous people were less likely than non-Indigenous people to die in custody as a proportion of their prison population,” as we saw in the data. However, they also note that “they were far more likely to die as a proportion of their total population.” The ABC explains this disparity by stating: “Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander people make up just 3.8% of Australia's population but account for more than one-third of the country’s prisoners.”
So yes, Aboriginal people are dying in custody, but certainly not because they are systematically more likely to be killed by police or prison guards. Rather, it is because their higher rates of crime lead to gross over-representation in the justice system. And yes, that is the core problem that we as a society need to solve.
MUSIC
Allégro by Emmit Fenn
One would be forgiven in thinking that mainly Aboriginal people are dying in custody based on recent headlines. (Thank you to the viewer who highlighted this.) The Guardian reported: “‘Deaths, after deaths, after deaths’: Indigenous deaths in custody reach their highest level since 1980.”
They note that 33 First Nations people died over the last year, noting there were a total of 113 deaths in custody. Simple maths would tell us that therefore 80 non-Indigenous people died in custody, but for some reason, that doesn’t make the news. I’ll get to the rates of death soon.
Our favourite taxpayer-funded race-baiter, the ABC, wrote: “‘It’s maddening’: Anger and frustration amid record Black deaths in custody.” Why do they insist on using the word ‘Black’?
They start their article with the obligatory ‘Aboriginal Lives Matter’ photo, as if other lives are less important, and note that more than 600 First Nations people have died in custody since 1991—a period of 34 years. Just to keep things in perspective, according to the latest Deaths in Australia report, 937 First Nations people died from diabetes over the three years 2021–2023. I’m not taking away from these 600 deaths in custody, but it’s far from a leading cause of death. Perhaps the protesters should be fighting against diabetes by encouraging their supporters to focus on preventative health measures like eating fibre-rich foods and choosing healthy fats.
But I digress. The ABC article gets its data from the latest Australian Institute of Criminology (AIC) report. You can download the PDF from the AIC’s website.
Just to be clear, the Australian Institute of Criminology tracks two types of deaths in custody: deaths in prison custody and deaths in police custody. Let’s start with deaths in prison custody.
This is Figure 3: Indigenous deaths in prison custody over the last four decades or so. Our focus is on the death rate per 100 prisoners. As you can see, over the last decade, the rate has been relatively steady at around 0.13 Indigenous deaths per 100 prison population.
Now compare that to the non-Indigenous rate for the same period, Figure 5. Again, using the rate per 100 prisoners, we can see that over the last decade the rate has been relatively steady at around 0.20 non-Indigenous deaths per 100 prison population. Placing them side-by-side, we can see the stark difference: 0.13 for Indigenous prisoners versus 0.20 for non-Indigenous prisoners. So, while the media focuses on the number of Indigenous people dying, the death rate within the prison population is actually lower. If anybody should be protesting deaths in prison custody, it should be non-Indigenous people who are dying at a higher rate.
If we look at Table 1: Indigenous deaths in prison custody, 2024–25, they include the manner of death. You can see that 8 Indigenous prisoners died from natural causes, 10 died from self-inflicted harm, while one died from other non-stated reasons. You can see that none died from homicide, so the idea that Indigenous deaths in prison are largely due to direct third-party violence or foul play is simply not borne out in the statistics.
Now let’s turn to the other category: deaths in police custody, which covers deaths such as ones occurring in police stations or vehicles, or during arrests or police shootings. Figure 4 shows Indigenous deaths in police custody since 2011. For some reason, they don’t go back four decades like their prison data. We can see that in 2024-25, there were six Indigenous deaths in police custody. Table 2 details how they died. Again, under manner of death, one was a justifiable homicide—a police shooting, and two people died from accident or misadventure. There was no information regarding the other three.
For comparison, Figure 6 shows the non-Indigenous data over the same time period. As you can see, 16 non-Indigenous people died in police custody in 2024–25. Table 4 shows the manner of their deaths. These include self-inflicted harm, justifiable shootings, and accident or misadventure.
To be fair to the ABC, although they completely frame this around Aboriginal deaths in custody, they do admit that “Indigenous people were less likely than non-Indigenous people to die in custody as a proportion of their prison population,” as we saw in the data. However, they also note that “they were far more likely to die as a proportion of their total population.” The ABC explains this disparity by stating: “Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander people make up just 3.8% of Australia's population but account for more than one-third of the country’s prisoners.”
So yes, Aboriginal people are dying in custody, but certainly not because they are systematically more likely to be killed by police or prison guards. Rather, it is because their higher rates of crime lead to gross over-representation in the justice system. And yes, that is the core problem that we as a society need to solve.
MUSIC
Allégro by Emmit Fenn
