4500.0 - Crime and Justice News, Oct 2000  
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 20/10/2000   
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National Corrective Services Statistics Unit

Quarterly Custodial Collection

The June quarter 2000 issue of Corrective Services, Australia (ABS Cat. No. 4512.0) was released on 28 September 2000. Some of the key findings are:

  • In the June quarter, the average daily number of prisoners in Australia was 20,828, an increase of less than 1% on the March quarter 2000.
  • New South Wales and Western Australia made the greatest contributions to this increase, rising by 1% and 3% respectively.
  • On 1 June 2000 the highest number of Indigenous persons in prison custody was recorded in New South Wales (1,158).
  • The highest rate of imprisonment for the Indigenous population was in Western Australia with a rate of 3,010 Indigenous prisoners per 100,000 Indigenous population.

Copies of Corrective Services, Australia (ABS Cat. No. 4512.0) are available from the ABS for $20.00.

Prisoner Census

Data from the annual Prisoner Census were released in the report Prisoners in Australia, 1999 in June 2000. The data show that on the night of 30 June 1999;
  • There were 21,538 prisoners in Australia, an imprisonment rate of 145 prisoners per 100,000 adult population.
  • The highest imprisonment rates were in the Northern Territory and Western Australia with imprisonment rates of 453 and 217 prisoners per 100,000 adult population respectively.
  • The lowest imprisonment rates were in Victoria and the Australian Capital Territory (including prisoners held in New South Wales prisons) with imprisonment rates of 74 and 81 prisoners per 100,000 adult population respectively.
  • The prisoner population increased by 8% in the 12 months between the 1998 and 1999 censuses with the number of male prisoners increasing by 1,395 (7%) and the number of female prisoners increasing by 237 (21%).
  • The proportion of female prisoners increased from 5.7% to 6.4% of the prison population between 1998 and 1999.