Experiences of First Nations people with disability in justice system examined in national first report

Posted Wed 2 Sep 2026 at 5:57amWed 2 Sep 2026 at 5:57amWed 2 Sep 2026 at 5:57am

In short:

A new study has found First Nations people with disability are spending extended periods in custody, and some fail to receive appropriate healthcare.

The researchers conducted interviews with people with lived experience, family members, legal aid practitioners, solicitors and academics.

What’s next?

The team will now investigate how the findings can drive reform.

First Nations people with disability are spending extended periods in remand without convictions, and some fail to receive appropriate healthcare, a new national first Indigenous disability-led study has found.

The Barriers Within Bars report examined the experiences of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people with disability in Australia’s justice system.

The research was led by the University of Melbourne’s BlakAbility team, Associate Professor Sheelagh Daniels-Mayes, research fellow Sharon Kerr, and academic Aunty Roslyn Sackley.

Associate Professor Daniels-Mayes said she had been hearing “more and more” from across the country that recent Indigenous deaths in custody were people with disability.

“These are not just Aboriginal people with disability going into the prison system, the remand system, the prison and the police cells,” the Gomeroi woman said.

“These are turning up also in our deaths in custody numbers.“

The researchers conducted interviews with people with lived experience of incarceration, family members, legal aid practitioners, solicitors and academics.

In focus groups, Dr Kerr said legal representatives told researchers they were unable to obtain sign language interpreters for their clients who are deaf.

“So therefore, they had to remain in remand for longer,” she said.

The team also heard that individuals with serious mental health conditions had spent months in prison for minor offences before charges were withdrawn or overturned.

The Barriers Within Bars report found disability can go undiagnosed or unsupported due to a lack of culturally safe health services and different cultural understandings of disability.

It found those factors increased the risk of contact with the justice system and continue to disadvantage people once they enter it.

“For example, someone experiencing a disabling mental health condition may behave in a way that brings them into contact with police,” Associate Professor Daniels-Mayes said.

“Instead of being connected with appropriate healthcare and support, their behaviour can be treated as a criminal matter.”

The report also reviewed 177 studies and found only 18 specifically examined the intersection of Indigenous identity, disability and incarceration.

Dr Aunty Sackley said other scholars had told the team that there was no need to further investigate the topic.

“We were basically advised not to do any more research because it had all been done and basically there was nothing new to learn,” the Ngiyampaa and Wiradjuri woman said.

The landmark Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody made 339 recommendations in 1991.

“Out of those 339 recommendations, none had to do with women, none had to do with disability, and none had to do with LGBTIQ+ communities,” Associate Professor Daniels-Mayes said.

“Just to think about that for a moment; none of those groups were actually represented in that,” she said.

‘Over-represented at every stage’

Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service represents First Nations clients with a disability as well as several families who have lost loved ones whilst in custody.

“People with disability, particularly our mob, are over-represented at every stage of the criminal legal system,” the service’s chief executive Nerita Waight said.

“Being in prison is a punishment but refusal to provide health and wellbeing should not also be a part of that,” she said.

The proud Yorta Yorta and Narrandjeri woman with Taunggurung connections said First Nations people with disability in prison experienced periods of isolation and solitary confinement.

“That’s the system’s way of assisting them with that wellbeing or mental health crisis,” she said.

“All that does is increase trauma. It punishes trauma.“

Ms Waight said the current system denied “people their dignity and their humanity”.

“The significant over policing and criminalisation of people with a disability must be replaced with well-resourced and evidence-based health responses,” she said.

The study found there were no national datasets on the prevalence of disability among Indigenous prisoners.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander prisoners accounted for 37 per cent of all prisoners, according to Australian Bureau of Statistics June 2025 data.

There were 17,432 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander in prison, up 10 per cent from the previous year.

“There’s no national register of an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander person with a disability going into the criminal justice system,” Dr Kerr said.

“There’s nothing there that we can track.”

‘If we don’t document it, then nothing changes’

For Associate Professor Daniels-Mayes and Dr Aunty Sackley, the study was personal.

Both academics are First Nations and have a disability, as well as having had family members who have been in and out of the prison system.

Associate Professor Daniels-Mayes said she has a family member who has been in and out of the system for short to long periods since they were 16 years old because of bipolar disorder that went undiagnosed until she pushed for it.

Neither of the researchers were surprised by what the study found.

“We hear this stuff from families, from friends, from community all the time,” Associate Professor Daniels-Mayes said.

“Oftentimes we’ve got to document what we already know because if we don’t document it, then nothing changes,”

she said.

The study, funded by the National Disability Research Partnership, is set to be presented at the 2026 National Indigenous Black Deaths in Custody Conference being held in Brisbane this week.

The team has now secured further funding to investigate how the findings can drive reform.

A federal government spokesperson said it takes issues relating to First Nations incarceration, including First Nations people with disability, “very seriously”.

“Every death in custody was a tragedy,” the spokesperson said in a statement to the ABC.

“It is the responsibility of all governments to improve justice outcomes for First Nations people, in line with their commitments under the National Agreement on Closing the Gap.”

The spokesperson said while states and territories have primary responsibility for justice systems, the federal government was coordinating a range of measures to ensure a shared commitment to reduce First Nations incarceration rates and, therefore, deaths in custody.

That included more than $120 million for justice reinvestment as part of a wider First Nations justice package to improve justice outcomes and address the drivers of contact with the criminal justice system.

The spokesperson said the government was also actively working with states and territories, the Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services Sector and other First Nations stakeholders to respond to the recommendations of the National Review of First Nations Health Care in Prisons.

They said those recommendations aimed to improve health care for First Nations people in places of detention, including First Nations people with disability.