The number of people held in custody on serious domestic violence charges could keep rising beyond record levels in NSW after the introduction of harsher bail laws.
Extreme criticism of bail decisions following the killing of young mum Molly Ticehurst in April prompted the state government to amend regulations, placing the onus on people accused of serious domestic violence offences to show why they should be released.
More than 5760 people were in custody awaiting a hearing on any charge in June 2024, up 19 per cent from the previous peak of 4831 in June 2023.
The NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research put the rise down to an increase in accused domestic violence offenders being denied bail, with a record-high 1811 DV offenders on remand.
The figures pre-date the harsher bail laws, which were introduced on July 1.
Premier Chris Minns said his government brought in those bail changes in response to "some truly shocking crimes".
"We felt we had to make a decision to keep families safe and the end result of that may mean an increase in the remand population but the alternative is devastating," he told reporters on Tuesday.
The cases being heard in courts across NSW were "overwhelmingly" family and domestic violence matters, the premier added.
Bureau executive director Jackie Fitzgerald said much of the increase in the remand population could be tracked to the period from late April onwards, after Ms Ticehurst's death in the central western NSW town of Forbes.
The 28-year-old was allegedly murdered by former partner Daniel Billings, who had earlier been given bail by a court registrar on other, serious domestic violence-related charges.
“There have been some legislative bail changes since then but the change proceeds a response by magistrates to that decision, which was very heavily publicised for the circumstances that led up to that incident,” Ms Fitzgerald told AAP.
“It seems like there's been a little bit of behaviour change by magistrates that's occurred around the same time as that quite horrific incident."
Some 22 per cent of domestic violence defendants were refused bail in the three months to June 2024, up from 18 per cent in the quarter to December 2023.
Ms Fitzgerald said that refusal rate would not necessarily increase after the bail changes given decision-makers had already taken it upon themselves to be more harsh.
“These types of changes in decision-making are pretty rare … it's not like we've got a great precedent to see where it will land,” she said.
Almost half of adult prisoners were on remand, the highest proportion on record, the latest figures showed.
The number of sentenced prisoners has dropped four per cent since June 2023.
A third of the remand population were in custody for a domestic violence offence.
The Indigenous remand population has also risen, up to 1891 in June 2024 from 1466 a year earlier.
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