In light of this, the Albanese government has launched a new dashboard to provide up‑to-date information on all deaths occurring in police and prison custody as well as in youth detention. The dashboard will be monitored by the Australian Institute of Criminology (AIC), which has monitored deaths in custody since 1992, in response to recommendation 41 of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody.

This means that all deaths in custody will now be reported in real time and will result in additional transparency and accountability, according to Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus.

“National real-time reporting of deaths in custody enables greater public transparency of deaths in custody and accountability of all governments for their criminal justice systems. The dashboard will record data for every death in custody, not just Indigenous deaths,” he said.

“Consistent with the central finding of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody and the National Agreement on Closing the Gap, the government is committed to reducing the over-incarceration of First Nations people.”

This measure is part of the government’s $99 million First Nations Justice Package announced in its 2022–23 budget to reduce the over-representation of First Nations people in the criminal justice system.

The real-time reporting of deaths in custody has been welcomed by the Aboriginal Legal Service — but chief executive Karly Warner said there was still more to be done.

“No one should die alone, in pain and fear, and forcibly separated from their loved ones. There is nothing natural about dying in custody, yet a shamefully disproportionate number of Aboriginal people continue to die in prisons and police operations each year,” she told Lawyers Weekly.

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“We welcome up-to-date reporting to bring more transparency and accountability to this issue. This is a positive step, but there is much more that governments can do to stop deaths in custody, from implementing the remaining royal commission recommendations to ensuring Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services are adequately funded to keep our people out of prison wherever possible.”

Similarly, Law Council of Australia president Luke Murphy said that while this is a positive step, the country has not yet implemented a “cohesive national response” to combat deaths in custody.

“The Law Council welcomes this positive step to improve transparency on deaths in custody but underlines that more needs to be done in this area. In particular, more than 30 years after the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody, which recognised that fundamentally, ‘too many Aboriginal people are in custody too often’, Australia has not implemented a comprehensive national response to address the disproportionate incarceration of First Nations people,” he said.

“The Law Council remains concerned that the incarceration rate of First Nations adults is worsening nationally, and recommendations to address over-incarceration, including recommendations of First Nations peoples, have not been fully implemented.”

The new Real-Time Deaths in Custody Dashboard provides “aggregate information on all deaths in custody at the national level”, according to a government statement. Information is provided on custody type (police or prison), Indigenous status (including unknown), and sex and age group of the deceased.

Additionally, the AIC will continue to provide verified information on deaths in custody on a quarterly and annual basis.