Freeman's life was book-ended by milestones in indigenous incarceration in Australia - he was born within a year of the Royal Commission's report, and died, in the lock-up, a quarter of a century old.

A quarter of a century later and the Aboriginal community continues to wait for more concerted action on the high indigenous incarceration rate, which has gone significantly backward since the report was released.

In the ACT alone, the inquest was told this week the number of indigenous inmates may be as high as one in three.

A telling statistic, but one that should not blind the community to the reality that these, like Freeman, are real people.

They are brothers, sons, fathers and mothers and daughters too.

The inquest, to some extent, is investigating the events leading up to Freeman's death, with the notable exception of his 'bashing' in the penitentiary around a year before he died.

It is examining the specific cause of death and direct factors, but it has been only the first week of hearings - conclusions are yet to be made, and more hearings are expected later this month.

But it has examined the nature of prescribing methadone within the prison's walls and the seeming ease with which inmates "get on" the program.

It has examined the rigor of the checks required of prison guards on inmate health and welfare and changes made since - if in evidence currently suppressed.

Freeman's death has already resulted in some changes, and there are more to come, we are told.

But, an inquest, a legal allocation of causality and process aiming help prevent similar future deaths, will not resolve the loss and grief suffered by his immediate family, nor the broader community.

Freeman's death, and the community's grief, must not be in vain.

The best method of stopping people from dying in prison is, surely, to help keep people out of prison.

And for those who must be incarcerated, to ensure they can at least live in some degree of health inside the system.

There is some hope, if a long way off, for the government's justice reinvestment trial and its aim of a 25 per cent fall in recidivism rates in the ACT by 2025.

Criminal behaviour should be penalised, and rehabilitation offered, but detention is not an excuse for abrogation of the duty of governments to protect those people in its care.

The government will continue its response to Freeman's tragic death, as is its responsibility.

His passing was just one of many who met a similar fate during his short life, since what was believed to be a landmark report, but which has not engendered enough real change.

It is little wonder many First Australians still refer to the justice system as the "just us system".

It was, for at least one of them, a lifetime since the Royal Commission's report.

Change is more than overdue.