4517.0 - Prisoners in Australia, 2009

Quality Declaration

ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 10/12/2009

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Contents >> Indigenous prisoner characteristics >> SENTENCED PRISONERS

SENTENCED PRISONERS

There were 5,811 sentenced Indigenous prisoners at 30 June 2009, a 13% increase since 30 June 2008, compared with a 6% increase in the number of sentenced non-Indigenous prisoners (from 16,062 to 16,986).

Aggregate sentence length

Excluding prisoners with indeterminate, life with a minimum and periodic detention sentences, the median aggregate sentence length for Indigenous prisoners was 2 years (24 months), while for non-Indigenous prisoners it was 3.5 years (42 months). This represented no change from 30 June 2008 for both the Indigenous and non-Indigenous prisoner populations.

SENTENCED PRISONERS, Indigenous status by median aggregate sentence length and selected most serious offence(a)(b)
Graph: SENTENCED PRISONERS, Indigenous status by median aggregate sentence length and selected most serious offence(a)(b)

Graph: SENTENCED PRISONERS, Indigenous status by median aggregate sentence length and selected most serious offence(a)(b)

Expected time to serve

Expected time to serve takes into account the earliest date of release for sentenced prisoners. Excluding prisoners with indeterminate, life without a minimum, and periodic detention sentences, the median expected time to serve for sentenced Indigenous prisoners was 1.3 years (15 months). The median expected time to serve was highest for the offence category of homicide (8.1 years or 98 months) followed by sexual assault (5 years or 60 months). For the non-Indigenous population the median expected time to serve was 2 years (24 months), with a median of 12 years (144 months) for the offence category of homicide.