4517.0 - Prisoners in Australia, 2000  
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 12/06/2001   
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  • Increase in Australian adults who are in prison - ABS figures (Media Release)

MEDIA RELEASE

June 12, 2001
Embargoed 11:30am (AEST)
69/2001

Increase in Australian adults who are in prison - ABS figures

There has been a 32% increase in the adult imprisonment rate, from 112 to 148 prisoners per 100,000 adult population, during the 10 years from 1990 to 2000, according to figures released today by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).

The increase in the adult imprisonment rate between 1999 and 2000 was 2%. Australia's prisoner population has increased by 52% since 1990 to reach 21,714 people as at 30 June 2000 (the increase between 1999 and 2000 was less than 1%).

Other findings in Prisoners in Australia, 2000 include:
  • 60% of all prisoners were males aged between 20 and 34 years of age.
  • Indigenous prisoners represented nearly 1 in 5 of the total prisoner population and have an imprisonment rate more than 14 times the non-Indigenous population. However the Indigenous imprisonment rate in 2000 (1,727 prisoners per 100,000 adult Indigenous population) was 7% lower than the 1999 rate.
  • Of those prisoners who were serving a sentence, more than half (56%) had previously served a prison sentence. For Indigenous prisoners, the proportion was 76%.
  • Nearly half (48%) of prisoners serving a sentence were convicted, for their most serious offence, of a crime involving violence or the threat of violence.
  • There were 3,785 prisoners (17% of the total prisoner population) who were on remand. That is they were either in custody awaiting trial or sentencing, or were being held under a deportation order. 10% of people on remand had spent more than 10 months in custody.

Further details, including key State/Territory indicators, are in Prisoners in Australia, 2000 (cat. no. 4517.0) available from ABS Bookshops.

The main features of the publication are available on this site. If you wish to purchase a copy of this publication contact the ABS Bookshop in your capital city.