Abstract:

The National Deaths in Custody Program (NDICP) has monitored the extent and nature of deaths occurring in prison, police custody and youth detention in Australia since 1980. The Australian Institute of Criminology has coordinated the NDICP since its establishment in 1992, the result of a recommendation made by the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody the previous year. This report contains detailed information on the 113 deaths in custody in 2018–19 (89 in prison custody and 24 in police custody or custody-related operations), and compares these findings to longer-term trends.