The annual National Prisoner Census, conducted on the night of 30 June, counts all adult offenders who are held in custody in gazetted Australian prisons. The Prisoner Census provides a snapshot of the number of persons in prison, and is not representative of the flow of prisoners. The majority of prisoners in the Prisoner Census are serving long sentences for relatively serious offences, but the flow of offenders in and out of prisons consists primarily of persons serving short sentences for relatively minor offences.
Based on the results of Prisoner Censuses, the total prison population in Tasmania increased by 70.9%, from 265 in 1993 to 453 in 2003. There were 429 male prisoners on 30 June 2003, accounting for 94.7% of the total prisoner population. The average age of prisoners in Tasmania in 2003 was 33.5 years.
The proportion of prisoners remanded in custody increased from 13.6% in 1993 to 21.6% in 2003.
Some of the factors that have influenced the size of the prison population in the past ten years include legislative changes affecting the length of the time prisoners spend in prison; the abolition of a sentence-reducing mechanism such as remission; significant court delays leading to an increase in unsentenced prisoners in some jurisdictions; and an increase in recorded crime. The graph that follows is a time series of the rate of adult prisoners per 100,000 adult population. The rate of imprisonment has fluctuated since 1993.
PRISONER CHARACTERISTICS, Tasmania, 1993-2003 |
|
 | All prisoners | Mean age | Females | Indigenous | Indigenous imprisonment
rate(a) | Remandees |
As at 30 June |
no.
|
years
|
%
|
%
| |
%
|
|
| 1993 | 265 | 30.6 | 3.4 | 5.3 | 255.8 | 13.6 |
| 1994 | 258 | 31.3 | 3.5 | 10.1 | 457.3 | 14.0 |
| 1995 | 244 | 30.1 | 2.5 | 5.7 | 238.4 | 17.6 |
| 1996 | 285 | 30.8 | 2.8 | 9.8 | 352.0 | 16.1 |
| 1997 | 263 | 31.8 | 1.9 | 12.9 | 396.9 | 12.2 |
| 1998 | 314 | 30.9 | 4.1 | 8.9 | 317.2 | 18.5 |
| 1999 | 343 | 31.2 | 5.5 | 10.5 | 397.2 | 11.7 |
| 2000 | 390 | 31.0 | 5.1 | 10.0 | 417.6 | 20.5 |
| 2001 | 346 | 32.2 | 5.8 | 11.6 | 417.7 | 21.4 |
| 2002 | 427 | 31.9 | 7.0 | 14.3 | 621.6 | 20.8 |
| 2003 | 453 | 33.5 | 5.3 | 11.7 | 527.3 | 21.6 |
|
(a) Rate is per 100,000 adult Indigenous population.
Source: Australian Institute of Criminology, Australian Prisoners; Prisoners in Australia (cat. no. 4517.0). |
IMPRISONMENT RATE, Tasmania
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