The ACT's Indigenous elected body says it will keep a "close watch" on an inquiry into the death of inmate Steven Freeman, while calling for more to be done support Aboriginal people in custody.
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Mr Freeman, 25, was found dead in the Alexander Maconochie Centre late last month, a death that greatly affected the Indigenous community and reignited concerns about his treatment following a vicious bashing last year.
So far, no detail about the manner of Mr Freeman's death has been released.
But the ACT government has launched an urgent, independent inquiry to probe Mr Freeman's treatment at the AMC, headed up by Philip Moss, a former anti-corruption boss who recently produced a damning report of rape and abuse at the Nauru detention centre.
That inquiry is due to report back in three months.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Elected Body chair Diane Collins said it was crucial that the truth to be established.
Ms Collins said the death raised questions about how far Australia had come since the royal commission into Aboriginal deaths in custody 25 years ago.
That inquiry examined 99 deaths in the 1980s."It really saddens me to think that this has happened, in this day and time," she said.
"This is a very serious matter with extreme sensitivities surrounding it which calls for us to find out what really happened here."
Mr Freeman had been bashed in a near-fatal attack last year, an event which prompted significant concerns for his safety.
Extra measures were put in place to ensure he was protected and to ameliorate the risk of self-harm.
His lawyers tried to have him released, and his mother warned that he wouldn't leave the prison alive.
Ms Collins said the incident provided more evidence that more needed to be done to support Indigenous men and women in custody.
She said a more targeted approach to service delivery and better rehabilitation and diversionary programs were needed.
"The Elected Body, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and organisations, and the family will continue to keep a close watch on the developments of this inquiry and its findings," she said.
The inquiry is due to report back by late August. In the meantime, barrister and former ACT attorney-general Bernard Collaery has returned to Australia to act for the family.
He has called for an urgent, proactive investigation of the death, and signalled that an independent and eminent expert be brought in from interstate to conduct an autopsy.
