Warning: this article refers to self-harm, and may be distressing for some readers.
The Northern Territory government has confirmed the death of an Aboriginal man in a Darwin prison on Saturday.
The 26-year-old was found unresponsive by Darwin Correctional Centre staff around 7:50am.
"The death has been reported to the NT Coroner and will be subject to an independent investigation," a spokesperson for the Department of Corrections said in a statement.
"The cause of death is a matter for the Coroner to determine, but the Department is treating it as a suicide."
Northern Territory police said a report is being prepared for the coroner.
"Medical assistance was provided but the man was declared deceased at the scene," a spokesperson said in a statement.
More than 600 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have died in custody since a landmark royal commission into the matter was established in 1987.
No jurisdiction has fully implemented the recommendations made in its 1991 final report in the more than three decades since.
The latest Closing the Gap figures, released by the Productivity Commission earlier this month, reveal worsening rates of both incarceration and self-harm.
Up to June 2025, the rate of Indigenous incarceration was 2.5 per cent of the adult population, an increase on the previous year and a severe deterioration from the baseline set in 2019 (1.9 per cent).
The Northern Territory showed the steepest increase off the baseline in adult incarceration.
It follows the introduction of so-called 'tough on crime' laws by the CLP government in recent years.
The rate of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who took their own life in 2024 increased to 33.9 per 100,000 people.
"This is the highest rate over the period from the baseline in 2018," the report notes.
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