Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #deathsincustody, aggregated by home.social.
John Makai was unresponsive when dragged from a Victoria police van. Just one of many ‘shortcomings’ inquest has heard so far
By Nino Bucci
The 58-year-old died two days later in hospital after being left in a suburban police station cell for five hours
#Deathsincustody #Victoria #Australianpoliceandpolicing #Australianews #TheGuardian #NinoBucci
Victoria police apologise over death of injured man taken to cells instead of hospital https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/sep/28/victoria-police-apologise-over-makai-death-in-custody-ntwnfb #Victoria #DeathsInCustody #AustralianPoliceAndPolicing #AustraliaNews
Victoria police apologise over death of injured man taken to cells instead of hospital
By Nino Bucci
Inquest into 2023 death shown footage of John Makai struggling to stand after suffering serious head injury from being punched in head by son
#Victoria #Deathsincustody #Australianpoliceandpolicing #Australianews #TheGuardian #NinoBucci
A teenage mother died in a Melbourne prison yard just days after leaving youth detention. A coroner is examining why
By Nino Bucci Justice and courts reporter
Coroner’s court hears it took corrections officers nearly two hours to find body of Tarsha Golightly, 18, on 27 July
#Prisons #Victoria #Deathsincustody #TheGuardian #NinoBucciJustice #courtsreporter
A record number of First Nations people died in NSW prison custody last year. Advocates fear this year will be worse
By Jordyn Beazley
Exclusive: Karlene Whitton says her son Matthew Roberts took his own life three months into his jail term. ‘I keep picturing it every night’
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/aug/03/rising-indigenous-deaths-custody-nsw-ntwnfb
#IndigenousAustralians #Deathsincustody #Australianews #NewSouthWales #Prisons #TheGuardian #JordynBeazley
A record number of First Nations people died in NSW prison custody last year. Advocates fear this year will be worse https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/aug/03/rising-indigenous-deaths-custody-nsw-ntwnfb #IndigenousAustralians #DeathsInCustody #AustraliaNews #NewSouthWales #Prisons
Family of Indigenous man who died in custody launch legal action over decision not to charge police
By Australian Associated Press
Kumanjayi White died after being restrained by plain-clothes police in the lolly aisle of an Alice Springs supermarket
#Deathsincustody #Australianews #IndigenousAustralians #Australianpoliceandpolicing #NorthernTerritory #Indigenousincarceration #TheGuardian #AustralianAssociatedPress
Family of Indigenous man who died in custody launch legal action over decision not to charge police https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/jul/27/family-of-indigenous-man-who-died-in-custody-launch-legal-action-over-decision-not-to-charge-police-ntwnfb #DeathsInCustody #AustraliaNews #IndigenousAustralians #AustralianPoliceAndPolicing #NorthernTerritory #IndigenousIncarceration
We have survived! Forty years of Aboriginal protest posters – in pictures
By Sam Miers from the Penrith Miers Archive; Emma O'Neill and Seb Henry-Jones from Numbers; and Emma Joyce
Wiradjuri elder Ray Jackson was a prominent activist in Australia. He was the founding secretary of the New South Wales Aboriginal Deaths in Custody Watch Committee in 1987 and a regular face at the Redfern Aboriginal Tent Embassy up until his death in 2015.
#Australianart #Indigenousart #Culture #Artanddesign #IndigenousAustralians #Australianews #Protest #Deathsincustody #Race #Indigenousincarceration #TheGuardian #SamMiersfromthePenrithMiersArchive #EmmaONeill #SebHenryJonesfromNumbers # #EmmaJoyce
“Prisons are our new asylums. There’s no two ways about it.” #australia #nswgov #ruok #mentalhealth #polydipsia #schizophrenia #deathsincustody #policenegligence #systemfailure
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-06-06/tammy-shipley-prison-death-psychosis-mental-health/106727812
#Australia - National #Indigenous Times
"The National Indigenous Times is a multi-award winning Indigenous affairs news organisation set up by Owen Carriage which first appeared in newspaper form on February 27, 2002, and produces a monthly newspaper which is read by around 1 million Australians each month across the country.
"In 2016, following a period of administration, the publication was purchased by prominent #Indigenous businessmen #WayneBergmann and #ClintonWolf, as well as the late respected journalist, #TonyBarrass, who became the newspaper’s editor.
"At that time the National Indigenous Times also pivoted to online for the first time, and today has a rapidly growing digital reach across Australia and worldwide through www.nit.com.au and social media channels.
"#NIT is now 100 per cent owned by Mr Bergmann, who serves as Executive Chairman, and Mr Wolf, the company’s Managing Director.
"Core editorial focuses for the NIT include Indigenous business, justice for Stolen Generations survivors, fashion and the arts, sport, Voice, Treaty and Truth, and deaths in custody."
#VoiceTreatyAndTruth #IndigenousNews
#FirstNationsAustralia #FirstNations
#NoMoreStolenChildren #Australia #RegionalNewsAustralia #DeathsInCustody #NationalIndigenousTimes
Man dies in Sydney prison unit that watchdog wanted shut down because it ‘cannot provide a safe environment’ https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/may/14/man-dies-long-bay-sydney-prison-watchdog-wanted-shut #Prisons #AustraliaNews #Sydney #NewSouthWales #DeathsInCustody #IndigenousIncarceration #NewSouthWalesPolitics
‘Profoundly distressing’: record number of deaths in custody and police operations in NSW https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/may/01/nsw-deaths-custody-record-number-ntwnfb #DeathsInCustody #IndigenousAustralians #NewSouthWales #AustraliaNews
Victoria police called to give evidence into Indigenous man’s death in custody seek protection from self-incrimination https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/mar/30/indigenous-death-custody-victoria-police-seek-protection-self-incrimination-ntwnfb #DeathsInCustody #IndigenousAustralians #AustralianPoliceAndPolicing #Victoria #AustraliaNews
Coroner to investigate after Northern Territory records two deaths in custody in a week https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/mar/29/northern-territory-police-coroner-investigating-darwin-two-deaths-in-custody-one-week-ntwnfb #NorthernTerritory #DeathsInCustody #AustraliaNews
NSW coroner ‘very troubled’ by health policy change after Stolen Generations member dies in custody https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/mar/06/nsw-coroner-troubled-health-policy-change-after-stolen-generations-member-dies-in-custody-ntwnfb #IndigenousAustralians #AustraliaNews #DeathsInCustody #NewSouthWales #Prisons #Health
Tammy Shipley drank 67 glasses of water before her death in custody from water intoxication, inquest hears https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/feb/23/tammy-shipley-drank-67-glasses-of-water-before-her-death-in-custody-from-water-intoxication-inquest-hears #IndigenousAustralians #AustraliaNews #NewSouthWales #DeathsInCustody #AustralianPoliceAndPolicing #IndigenousIncarceration
A rare conviction shows justice is possible, but the crisis remains. Since 1991, 618+ First Nations people have died in custody. Policies, neglect and racism kill, not “medical episodes”. Accountability delayed is justice denied.
#DeathsInCustody #FirstNations #Justice #Australia https://www.greenleft.org.au/2026/1445/news/first-nations-activists-keep-fight-stop-murders-custody
2025: 32 “deaths in - ICE - custody”
2026: 5 deaths already
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2026/jan/04/ice-2025-deaths-timeline
Aboriginal mother of five identified after death in NT police watch house
WARNING: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised this story contains…
#NewsBeep #News #Australia #assaultarrest #AU #blackdeathincustody #deathincustody #deathsincustody #indigenouswoman #KumanjayiDempsey #KumanjayiDempseydeath #MsDempsey #nt #policecustody #policewatchhouse #rheumaticheartdisease #tennantcreek #tennantcreekdeath #tennantcreekdeathincustody #watchhouse
https://www.newsbeep.com/au/394497/
Aboriginal woman’s death in custody in NT prompts calls for independent investigation https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/jan/02/aboriginal-woman-death-in-custody-nothern-territory-tennant-creek-independent-investigation-ntwnfb #IndigenousAustralians #NorthernTerritory #DeathsInCustody #AustraliaNews
Ten years since David Dungay Jr died in jail, a rally to protest deaths in custody could test NSW’s new laws https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/dec/30/david-dungay-jr-protest-deaths-in-custody-nsw-new-laws-ntwnfb #IndigenousAustralians #AustraliaNews #Protest #LidiaThorpe #DeathsInCustody
https://www.europesays.com/uk/646978/ Scotland FAI backlog passes 300 amid calls for ‘urgent overhaul’ of system #Britain #CrownOffice #DeathsInCustody #FatalAccidentInquiries #GreatBritain #InquirySystem #Scotland #ScottishLiberalDemocrats #UK #UnitedKingdom #UrgentOverhaul
In their darkest moments, too many Australians are being met with lethal force instead of love and care | Lorena Allam https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/nov/04/mental-health-first-response-callouts-police-lethal-force #Australianpoliceandpolicing #IndigenousAustralians #Deathsincustody #Law(Australia) #Australianews #Mentalhealth
Edinburgh vigil held for Scottish people who died in custody as families plea for FAI abolishment
The families of victims who died in custody while in Scottish prisons have urged the First Minister to…
#Edinburgh #UnitedKingdom #UK #GB #Scotland #Headlines #News #Europe #EU #AllanMarshall #Britain #ButeHouse #deathsincustody #FatalAccidentInquiry #GreatBritain #theUnitedFamiliesandFriendsCampaign
https://www.europesays.com/uk/527503/
https://www.europesays.com/uk/527503/ Edinburgh vigil held for Scottish people who died in custody as families plea for FAI abolishment #AllanMarshall #Britain #ButeHouse #DeathsInCustody #Edinburgh #FatalAccidentInquiry #GreatBritain #Scotland #TheUnitedFamiliesAndFriendsCampaign #UK #UnitedKingdom
Kumanjayi Walker is one of almost 600 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to have died in custody since the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody in 1991. This list also includes Warlpiri man Kumanjayi White, who was killed by police in #Mparntwe in June 2025.
Slavery, massacre and the fight for community control
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-07-17/kumanjayi-walker-yuendumu-black-deaths-inquest-take-back-control/105539366
'Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children are subjected to cruel and inhuman treatment and losing their lives at the hands of the criminal legal system. They are segregated from society and excluded from their communities and culture.'
#Australia #auspol #Blak #FirstNations #IndiginousRights #DeathsInCustody #ChildrenOfColour https://independentaustralia.net/life/life-display/systemic-cruelty-against-first-nations-children-not-confined-to-history,19901
Here in Australia, my beautiful but blinkered home, our limp Labor government is morally and ethically gutless. If Prime Minister Elmo Easy back-peddles any faster he'll pop a feckin' hernia. #Australia #auspol #Blak #FirstNations #IndiginousRights #DeathsInCustody https://nit.com.au/01-07-2025/18861/pm-rules-out-convening-national-cabinet-over-indigenous-deaths-in-custody
#Auspol #PolicingInAustralia #DeathsInCustody
the first thing that comes to mind whenever i hear the name #KumanjayiWalker is Senator Briggs’ observation that constable rolfe shot walker “three times in the back, in self-defence”
coroner’s inquests in this country are severely limited in scope by the legislation that governs them, but nonetheless often provide real details about what has happened in the cases they investigate. like parliamentary inquiries, inquest reports often make useful recommendations which are then ignored by the people who could address systemic racism but never actually do.
meanwhile, police in each state continue to kill people in custody, then investigate themselves, prior to long, drawn out go-nowhere-inquests. nothing ever changes. we can tut-tut all we like at trump’s america, but for Indigenous people in this country, there isn’t much difference. then, when someone radical like Lidia Thorpe enters parliament, we shake our heads and criticise her lack of good manners, as if predominantly white australia systemically destroying Blak lives is somehow polite.
We (white people) have replaced traditional systems that were knowable, certain and swift with a lot of talk but no real listening, yet manage to take offence when Indigenous people reject our demands for assimilation. (we might say the policy of assmilation has been abandoned, but that is the biggest, fattest and most blatant of all our lies)
constable rolfe epitomises every bad stereotype of policing, and proves that even if ✌🏻not-all-cops-are-bastards✌🏻 they all have the *potential* to be, and must all therefore be avoided where possible, and at least can never be trusted. rolfe is proof that white australia accepts and protects arseholery.
———-
“…Mr Rolfe’s lawyer, Luke Officer, told the coroner racism could not be considered under the Coroner’s Act, which only permits her to investigate the cause of death.
“There’s no need to inquire into whether racism played a part … there is no direct evidence of that. It has no relevance to cause of death,” Mr Officer said.”
———
to suggest racism cannot be a cause of death is, well… it’s phukt.
like all discussions of australian racism, this newspaper report is offensive — it can’t not be, because the truth is offensive.
an episode of Redfern Now (on ABC iview) provides an interesting look at deaths in custody. (season 1 episode 6 Pretty Boy Blue). dare i say it, cops are the “human” factor in the police system, and whenever humans are part of a system, system outcomes vary: the outcomes most often reflect the attitudes of the system’s agents.
the primary question is “did this person die of natural causes, or was there human involvement?” in cases of human involvement, who we are as people and what we tolerate as a people is always relevant to cause of death.
sadly, the “let’s get tougher on crime” narrative is still winning elections
https://citynews.com.au/2025/long-wait-over-for-kumanjayi-walker-inquest-findings/
https://www.democracynow.org/2025/7/2/ice_jail_alligator_alcatraz_florida
Detention Watch Network (DWN) is a national coalition building power through collective advocacy, grassroots organizing, and strategic communications to abolish immigration detention in the United States.
https://www.detentionwatchnetwork.org/
#DeathsinCustody #Florida #Incarceratedworkers #MigrantWorkers
About 597 First Nations people have died in police 'custody' since the 1991 Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody. If these deaths were the result of terrorism the entire country would be hyperventilating. Instead, we have... crickets. #Australia #racism #FirstNations #Blak #IndigenousRights #deathsincustody https://www.megaphone.org.au/petitions/justice-for-kumanjayi-white?source=bluesky-share-button&share=ca6d6f97-eaca-4391-a664-47cc0e83ec9b
More than 30 years after the royal commission, why are Indigenous Australians still dying in custody? | Thalia Anthony and Eddie Cubillo for the Conversation https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/jun/16/more-than-30-years-after-the-royal-commission-why-are-indigenous-australians-still-dying-in-custody #Australianpoliceandpolicing #Indigenousincarceration #IndigenousAustralians #Australianpolitics #NorthernTerritory #Deathsincustody #Australianews #Prisons
Tonight I learned about the story of Kumanjayi White, who died during police action in Alice Springs.
It's quite disturbing.
The NT police failed this man in life just as they now intend to fail him in death.
The perpetrators have been put in charge of investigating their own crimes.
(There have been almost 600 First Nations people killed in custody since the 1991 Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody, including at least 10 this year. Only one of the 339 recommendations handed down by that commission has been implemented:)
Statistics ?
https://www.aic.gov.au/statistics/deaths-custody-australia
In an emotional vigil in Alice Springs, Warlpiri elders say now is the time for truth, encouraging witnesses of a young man's death in custody at a local supermarket to come forward.
An eyewitness told the ABC the restraint "looked pretty violent".
Another, who didn't want to be identified, said they saw a plain-clothed officer tackle the man and pin him to the ground with his knee on his neck.
"He was pinned down and he was told to stop resisting," the witness said.
https://amymcquire.substack.com/p/an-aboriginal-man-has-been-killed
A disabled aboriginal man was murdered by police during an arrest outside a Coles in Mparntwe.
#aboriginalDeathsInCustody #abolishThePolice #deathsInCustody #blackLivesMatter
just when you think another article about Indigenous people in australian prisons can’t be more disgusting than the last…
https://citynews.com.au/2025/urgent-need-to-throw-light-on-prisons-dark-secrets/
Impossible to imagine the depths of despair and emptiness that could make a teenager suffer like this.
But never mind, two old white men, who helped to set this youth up to fail are meeting to see how far under the carpet they can sweep this.
Until next time.
It is horrible what happened to #LukeandJesse in #Sydney. It really is. But am so conflicted on this. Where is the community outrage about ongoing #DeathsInCustody, reason enough I would have thought to question police participation, where is the community outrage about what is happening to #Queer people in #Gaza and our government's pathetic responses. I am left to conclude that white, middle-class, victims hold more value and creates more shock waves. And that is an awful conclusion to come to.
Prosecutors have charged a Metropolitan Police officer with murder after he shot rapper Chris Kaba in London last year.
https://www.vice.com/en/article/jg5v9g/chris-kaba-metropolitan-police-murder
#Crime #police #murder #London #deathsincustody