The number of Aboriginal young people being jailed in NSW is declining. 

New data from the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research (BOCSAR) shows there were 121 Aboriginal people aged 10 to 17 years held in custody each day during 2019,  down 25 per cent from the 161 people remanded in 2015.

BOSCAR says fewer Aboriginal youths are being charged by police (a fall of around 10 per cent in 4 years), leading to fewer Aboriginal people receiving court sentences (almost halving over four years).

Aboriginal people are also accounting for a smaller percentage of all people receiving a court sentence, down from 14 per cent of all youth convictions in 2015 to 10 per cent by 2019.

But Aboriginal young people still make up about 40 per cent of young people in detention.

Executive director of BOCSAR Jackie Fitzgerald says more work is needed. 

“The result allows for cautious optimism that Aboriginal over-representation in custody can be shifted,” she said.

“Unfortunately, despite improvements, we still have a long way to go.”

Young Aboriginal people remain significantly over-represented in custody across Australia. 

The incarceration rate in New South Wales in 2019 was 19.7 per 10,000 persons, which is about 20 times higher than the rate for non-Aboriginal young people.

NSW Greens MP David Shoebridge said reducing over-policing works.

“This proves what advocates have been saying for years, it is the NSW criminal justice system that is responsible for gross incarceration rates, not the behaviour of Indigenous young people,” he said. 

“First Nations elders and activists have been telling governments this for decades. It's time we listened.

“It is no revelation that less aggressive policing and fewer prosecutions means less First Nations kids in detention.”