The number of Aboriginal adults and young people in New South Wales prisons is at the highest level in history, new figures released on Tuesday show.
The NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research (Bocsar) said the number of Aboriginal adults in prison was at a “record high” in March. Aboriginal adults make up 31% of the prison population.
“To put this in perspective, 3.2% of adults in NSW are Aboriginal and one in 29 Aboriginal men in NSW are currently incarcerated,” Bocsar chief executive Jackie Fitzgerald said.
“Worryingly, NSW is no longer on track to meet its Closing the Gap target of reducing the proportion of Aboriginal adults in prison.”
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NSW’s target was to reduce the proportion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander adults in custody by at least 15% by 2031.
Of the 12,456 adults in prison in March, 3,841 were Indigenous. But the increase isn’t just specific to adults, Fitzgerald said.
Two-thirds (66.4%) of the youth detained population are now Aboriginal young people, a new record in NSW.
The overwhelming majority of Aboriginal youth in custody (78.4%) are detained primarily for break-ins (29.3%) and car theft (22.4%).
“This is a crisis we should all be outraged about,” said Nadine Miles, chief legal officer of the Aboriginal Legal Service (NSW/ACT).
“Mass incarceration of Aboriginal people in NSW is the direct result of government policies developed without community input that have given the green light to continued discrimination against Aboriginal people in the legal system.”
NSW premier Chris Minns said the statistics represented a “significant problem” facing the state.
“We want to work with Capo [the NSW Coalition of Aboriginal Peak Organisations] “There are also concerted efforts by other indigenous indigenous organizations to reduce the incarceration rate,” Minns said.
“This means reducing the crime rate in our community.”
Asked whether the province’s proposed knife-and-staff laws would increase the number of Aboriginal people in custody, he said it was “hard to say” but he hoped it would lead to a cultural change.
“Ironically… I hope that the incidence of knife detection in the community will drop as a result of the legislation that has been introduced because there is a cultural change,” he said.
But Miles said the NSW government was resorting to “tough on crime” measures that would not work.
“This includes extraordinary new laws that have done nothing to reduce violent crime in other places where they have been tried. Just weeks ago, despite record numbers of Aboriginal children being held in custody, the government chose to pass the toughest bail laws in the country. “The Prime Minister himself has admitted the laws will imprison more Aboriginal children, so we can expect this shameful record to go even higher.”
On the subject of tougher bail laws regarding youth crimes being “broadcast and bragged about” on social media, Minns said a longer tenure in the youth justice system, “while not ideal”, was preferable to catastrophic car crashes.
“I believed it was important to make the change because I was concerned that we would run into a situation pretty quickly where a young person would wrap a car around a tree and kill themselves or a family member,” he said.
“This is much worse than being brought into the juvenile justice system.”
Michael Daley, a spokesman for the attorney general, said it was clear “more needs to be done.”
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“We are investing to reduce offending and reoffending, including Justice Reinvestment initiatives to address the causes of crime and expanding the youth Koori court.”
But the spokesman said new legislation addressing domestic violence, knife crime and youth crime was needed to “ensure our laws in NSW can protect all members of our community, including women and children”.
The NSW Civil Liberties Council said the new blade and bail proposals were “weak”.
“These laws are a sign of a weak prime minister, beholden to right-wing shock jocks, who continues to make illegal policies by misleading the public by saying that he could eliminate violent crime by passing these laws. This is simply not true,” council leader Lydia Shelly said.
“The Prime Minister has allowed NSW to be transformed into a state where police will have extraordinary powers to search members of the public without cause and where the prison population will continue to grow with new presumptions against bail.”
Bocsar found the record number of all adults detained in NSW was largely driven by an increase in recorded incidents and legal proceedings for domestic violence, sexual assault, intimidation and stalking.
“Domestic violence and incarceration remain significant current concerns,” said Fitzgerald.
In March 2024, there were more than 3,000 adults in custody for domestic violence offenses in NSW; This figure was higher than ever before. More than half are in custody, Fitzgerald said.
– Additional reporting by Tamsin Rose