The prison population in New South Wales has exploded to 14,070 people, the highest in the state’s history, under the Minns Labor Government, with advocates warning the system is collapsing under the weight of punitive policy, mass remand, and institutional neglect.
In just five months, the remand population has increased by 13 per cent and now makes up almost half of the entire prison population. More than 60 per cent of new people entering NSW prisons are First Nations people.
‘These figures expose a government escalating incarceration at a rate not seen in decades, with the prison population growing more in the last four months than it did in the previous four years combined,’ said Debbie Kilroy.
‘The sharp rise in imprisonment is now colliding with worsening prison conditions, chronic staff shortages, lockdowns, and the effective isolation of incarcerated people from their families and communities,’ said Debbie Kilroy.
Families across NSW are reporting repeated cancellations of visits and AVL video calls, often with little or no explanation.
‘For many families, particularly those living regionally, living with disability, illness, poverty, or caring responsibilities, AVL calls are the only realistic way to maintain contact with loved ones inside. Instead, people are being shut out,’ said Debbie Kilroy.
‘Families are taking time off work, travelling for hours with children, rearranging medical appointments, and emotionally preparing for rare moments of connection, only to have visits cancelled at the last minute because of lockdowns, staffing shortages, or operational failures. The impact is devastating,’ said Debbie Kilroy.
‘For people in prison, contact with family is often the only tether to the outside world: a reminder that they are still loved, still connected, still human. When those connections are severed, the psychological harm is immense,’ said Tabitha Lean.
‘For families, the uncertainty becomes its own form of punishment. Partners, parents, children and loved ones are left panicked when calls do not come through, terrified something has happened inside,’ said Tabitha Lean.
Many families already carry the enormous emotional and financial burden of supporting incarcerated loved ones, and are now being forced to navigate a prison system unable to facilitate even basic human contact.
‘This is occurring in a system already marked by extreme psychological distress. Nearly half of prison entrants report high or very high levels of psychological distress, yet instead of decarcerating and investing in community supports, the NSW Government continues to funnel more people into cages,’ said Tabitha Lean.
The surge in remand numbers is particularly alarming.
‘Thousands of people are being warehoused before conviction, many legally innocent, trapped in overcrowded prisons because they cannot access bail, stable housing, transport, legal support, or the resources needed to survive criminalisation,’ said Tabitha Lean.
‘This is not about community safety. It is about the expansion of a prison system that disproportionately targets Aboriginal people, poor people, disabled people, and those already pushed to the margins,’ said Tabitha Lean.
The fact that more than 60 per cent of new prison entrants are First Nations people is not incidental, it is the direct outcome of a colonial system built on policing, surveillance, dispossession and incarceration.
‘The Minns Government is presiding over the largest prison population in NSW history while people inside are being cut off from the outside world. You cannot claim rehabilitation while systematically destroying the human relationships people need to survive,’ said Debbie Kilroy.
‘A prison system growing at this rate is not a sign of safety. It is a sign of social and political violence,’ said Debbie Kilroy.
‘Every cancelled visit, every unanswered AVL, every family turned away at the gate is a reminder that prisons punish entire communities, not just the people inside them,’ said Tabitha Lean
For further comment, please contact Debbie Kilroy on 0419 762 474 or Tabitha Lean on 0499 780 226.
