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Indigenous detention rate in NSW at worst ever

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Indigenous detention rate in NSW at worst ever

A marked increase in the number of First Nations people in custody last year has seen Indigenous incarceration rates reach their worst levels ever.
The number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in custody appears to have increased by more than 8 per cent in the 12 months from September 2023, according to figures released by the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research (BOCSAR).

As of September this year, there were 4,103 people in custody in NSW who identified as Indigenous; this represented 32 percent of the total detainee population.

First Nations people make up just 3.4 per cent of the province’s population.
BOSCAR said the increase was almost entirely due to a 13 percent increase in the number of detained people over the same period.

It appears that the main reason for the increase in the number of detained people is domestic violence.

Women make up 43 percent of the female population under custody.

Sienna Brown, a specialist Aboriginal worker at Wirringa Baiya Aboriginal Women’s Law Centre, said the figures were particularly discouraging for women.
“Over 43 per cent of the female population in custody is Aboriginal and there is no sign of this slowing down,” the Yuin Bundjulung woman told NITV.
“Most, if not all, of the women we work with have experienced either domestic violence, sexual violence, child sexual abuse or institutional abuse.
“If it’s not one of these, it could be all of these types of violence.”

Ms Brown also confirmed comments from the Victoria Yoorrook Justice Commission, which heard evidence that state police were targeting women as perpetrators of intimate partner violence rather than victims of it.

“We see a lot of misidentification of perpetrators of domestic violence… when in fact they are the primary victim in that relationship.
“In the early days of the new coercive control laws, we had concerns about the continued misidentification of Aboriginal women as perpetrators.

“We want to see increased diversionary options so that fewer Aboriginal women remain in custody in the first place.”

1 in 27 Aboriginal men in prison in NSW

The figures reveal a steady increase over the past four years and mean one in 27 Aboriginal men is now incarcerated.
One in 280 Aboriginal women in NSW is in custody.
NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research Executive Director Jackie Fitzgerald told NITV the dismal new record was “quite concerning”.
“This change that we are seeing in Aboriginal people is even more concerning because it actually contradicts general prison population trends.
“If we look at the total number of people in custody in NSW, it’s actually 1,000 fewer than before the pandemic… but the subset of Aboriginal prisoners actually opposes that.

“So while overall numbers have been falling, we have seen a steady increase in the number of Aboriginal prisoners, which is another point of concern.”

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