Analysing over 500,000 bail decisions, BOCSAR found that legal factors had the most effect on police and court decisions to refuse bail, including offence seriousness, concurrent charges or prior offending or imprisonment.

“This study confirms that bail decisions are overwhelmingly based on legal factors related to offending. However, it remains possible that Aboriginal people are disadvantaged in police bail decisions and that this is contributing to their overrepresentation in custody,” said BOCSAR Executive Director Jackie Fitzgerald.

“A new study is planned to determine definitively whether the Aboriginal bail result reported here is due to bias or a factor not controlled for in this research.”

“While knowledge is always a good thing, we need much more than research — we need action,” Crellin said.

ALS NSW/ACT is calling for Aboriginality to be a standalone provision within the Bail Act 2013 (NSW). This means courts and police would have to consider factors around someone’s Aboriginality previous to bail decisions.