Over the past two decades, an average of 6.3 Aboriginal people have died in prison each year, with 17 deaths in 1995, the peak year. Among non-Aboriginal prisoners, 47 percent of deaths have been suicides, and 30 percent were due to natural causes; the remainder were accidental deaths or homicides. Among Aboriginal prisoners, there have been more deaths from natural causes than from suicides over the years, but for the last 4 years suicide deaths have exceeded those from natural causes. In the decade before the Royal Commission, 12.1 percent of deaths in prison were of Aboriginal people. In the decade since, that has increased to 17.2 percent. In June 1998, Aboriginal people comprised 18.8 percent of the prison population; in 1988 this figure was 14.7 percent. Although the average age of Aboriginals at death has not changed, the proportion of Aboriginal men aged 20-24 who died in prison has increased from 7.7 to 27.5 percent of all Aboriginal deaths. Aboriginal women rarely die in prison; one death occurred during the 1980's and three deaths occurred during the 1990's. 4 tables and 4 figures