Indigenous prison population reaches record high

The latest NSW prison data shows the number of Indigenous Australians in custody has reached a record high.

Data released on Thursday shows the state’s overall prison population has remained steady in the past three months.

But a record number of Indigenous Australians are in custody, mostly because of an increase in alleged domestic abusers waiting for a court hearing, the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research said.

Indigenous adults now represent a record high 32 per cent of the NSW prison population.

“To put that in perspective, one in 27 Aboriginal men and one in 280 Aboriginal women in NSW are currently incarcerated,” bureau director Jackie Fitzgerald said.

Indigenous Australians make up about 3.4 per cent of NSW’s general population, but 60 per cent of the youth prison population are Indigenous.

Overall in September, there were 12,897 adults in custody in NSW, essentially the same number as three months ago, but up 5 per cent from this time last year.

“People waiting for their court date on remand for domestic violence make up an ever-increasing proportion of the NSW prison population,” Ms Fitzgerald told the National Indigenous Times.

The number of adults on remand has spiked by 660 – to 5763 – in the past year. The majority of that increase is made of people facing domestic violence charges.

An alleged domestic assault is the leading cause of those people sitting on remand. Allegedly breaching an apprehended domestic violence order has increased at the highest rate among the general remand population.

The state has cleared a significant amount of youths from detention facilities though.

The number of youth in detention peaked at the highest levels since the pandemic in June, but has now fallen by 15 per cent to 209 youths in detention.

Since June, 43 youths were released from custody – specifically remand – a 22 per cent reduction.