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INTRODUCTION

1 This publication presents information on all prisoners who were in custody on 30 June 2004. The statistics are derived from information collected by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) from administrative records held by corrective services agencies in each state and territory. A range of information is presented on the demographic and legal characteristics of prisoners such as age, sex, legal status and the nature of the offence for which the person has been charged or convicted. The publication also provides details of the type and length of sentences being served.

2 In March 1995 the Corrective Services Ministers' Council resolved that the responsibility for the collection and dissemination of corrective services statistics should be transferred from the Australian Institute of Criminology (AIC) to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). The AIC ceased publishing the Australian Prisoners series after June 1993. As part of the transfer of responsibilities, the ABS has undertaken the publication of all national corrective services statistics from June 1994 onwards.

3 The ABS has developed national standards for correctional statistics to ensure the comparability of data between states and territories. There is different legislation and/or different administrative recording practices in the states and territories, and while efforts have been made to attain maximum comparability between states and territories, some problems with jurisdictional comparability remain. Further detail on these differences is provided in the Explanatory Notes paragraphs 67-71.

REFERENCE DATE

4 The 2004 National Prisoner Census is a census of all persons in the legal custody of adult corrective services in each jurisdiction as at midnight 30 June 2004.

SCOPE

5 The types of correctional facilities and programs where prisoners are held varies between the states and territories.

6 Included in the collection are:

• gazetted prisons in all jurisdictions
• periodic detention centres in New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory
• community custody centres and work outreach camps in Queensland
• cells in court complexes administered by corrective services in New South Wales
• transitional centres in New South Wales
• lock-ups in Western Australia operated by the police but designated as a prison by the Chief Executive Officer of Corrective Services
• gazetted police prisons in the Northern Territory which are administered and controlled by the Director of Corrective Services.

• police lock-ups, police prisons and cells in court complexes not administered and controlled by corrective services
• immigration detention centres
• home detention programs
• military prisons.

• absent on an authorised temporary leave permit
• absent from the correctional facility on a work release permit or program
• located in secure wards in a hospital outside the correctional facility
• periodic detainees.

• prisoners who were unlawfully absent from corrective services legal custody, e.g. escapees or prisoners who failed to return from an authorised temporary absence from a correctional facility
• prisoners whose legal custody had been transferred to another agency, e.g. police or mental health institutions.

11 In all states and territories except Victoria and Queensland, persons remanded or sentenced to adult custody are aged 18 years and over. Persons under 18 years are treated as juveniles in most Australian courts and are not remanded or sentenced to custody in adult prisons, other than in exceptional circumstances. However, in Victoria and Queensland 'adult' refers to persons aged 17 years and over.

12 In addition to the general rules of inclusion and exclusion for the scope of the National Prisoner Census, the following should be noted:

• In Tasmania, persons aged 18 years or younger and sentenced to a term of imprisonment may be held in a juvenile detention centre. These offenders are included in this collection.

JURISDICTION OF CUSTODY

14 Persons included in the National Prisoner Census were counted in the state or territory in which they were held in custody regardless of which state or territory imposed the sentence being served.

15 Although the Australian Capital Territory commenced detaining some sentenced fine default only prisoners at their remand centre during 2000, persons sentenced to full-time custody by Australian Capital Territory courts are primarily held in New South Wales prisons. Some unsentenced persons from the Australian Capital Territory may also be held in New South Wales prisons when the capacity of the Australian Capital Territory remand centre is exceeded. The publication includes 'Total Australian Capital Territory' prisoner numbers and 'Total Australian Capital Territory' imprisonment rates to provide a greater understanding of the number of prisoners sentenced in the Australian Capital Territory. Data continue to be provided in the tables based on counts of Australian Capital Territory prisoners in New South Wales prisons as a subset of the New South Wales figures (labeled ACT in NSW), and Australian Capital Territory prisoners held in the Australian Capital Territory (labeled ACT in ACT).

DATA SOURCE

16 Statistics in this publication are derived from information on each prisoner collected by corrective services agencies within each state and territory.

INDIGENOUS IDENTIFICATION

17 In all states and territories persons are asked during entry into custody whether they identify as being of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander origin. It is uncommon for corrective services agencies to collect Indigenous status from anyone other than the individual prisoner themselves.

RATES

18 Imprisonment rates enable comparison of prisoner populations across states and territories. Prisoner rates are expressed per 100,000 adult population, which is in accord with international, state and territory practices.

19 For the purpose of this publication, the adult population figures used in the calculation of rates are for persons aged 18 years and over for all states and territories except for Victoria and Queensland, where the adult population used is that of persons aged 17 years and over (see paragraph 11 of these Explanatory Notes). In previous issues, rates for all states and territories included in this publication were calculated using adult population figures for persons aged 17 years and over. This change has been made following consultation with the National Corrective Services Statistics Advisory Group and brings this collection into alignment with Corrective Services, Australia (cat. no. 4512.0).

20 Imprisonment rate data for the Australian Capital Territory are calculated on the basis of the total number of Australian Capital Territory prisoners, held in both New South Wales prisons and the Australian Capital Territory. For New South Wales, the imprisonment rate is based on the count of New South Wales prisoners, excluding Australian Capital Territory prisoners held in New South Wales prisons. Time series data have also been derived on this basis. All estimates and projections for the Australian Capital Territory exclude Jervis Bay Territory. All estimates and projections for Australia exclude the external territories of Christmas Island and the Cocos (Keeling) Islands.

21 Rates for the general adult population are calculated using the preliminary March 2004 Estimated Resident Population (ERP) figures (refer to table A1 in Appendix 1 and to Australian Demographic Statistics, March 2004 (cat. no. 3101.0)).

Suppression of rates and proportions

22 In some instances rates and proportions have not been published. Where this occurs, the cell concerned contains the symbol 'np'. This happens where, either the number of persons in custody is less than 10, or where the denominator population on which the rate or proportion is calculated is less than 5,000. This has been done because such rates and proportions can vary widely with small variations in numbers of persons, and therefore may give an inaccurate reflection of the involvement of persons in custody.

Revisions to historical rates

23 Historical rates for total and Indigenous prisoners, presented in table 17, have been revised for 1994 to 2003 to reflect changes in the age used to create the adult population (see paragraph 19 of these Explanatory Notes).

24 Historical rates for total prisoners, presented in table 17, have also been revised using population estimates benchmarked on the 2001 Census of Population and Housing and back cast for the period 1994 to 2003.

25 Historical rates for Indigenous prisoners, presented in table 17, have also been revised using back cast Indigenous population estimates benchmarked on the 2001 Census of Population and Housing for 1994 to 2001, and Indigenous population projections based on the 2001 Census of Population and Housing (low series) for 2002 to 2003.

Country of birth

26 Imprisonment rates by birthplace, presented in table 5, are calculated using data for June 2002 ERP by Country of Birth (from Migration, Australia (cat. no. 3412.0)) as the denominator for each birthplace. Caution should be exercised as this data has not been age standardised (see Appendix 2 - Indigenous imprisonment rates). The adult population used for the denominator is persons aged 17 years and over and are the latest available at the time of preparing this publication. Although the estimates are for a point in time two years earlier than the prisoner census counts by birthplace, it is not anticipated that the difference in the reference period will have a noticeable impact on these rates.

27 The published list of countries of birth does not cover all birthplaces of prisoners and it is possible that for some birthplaces not listed in table 5, their imprisonment rates may be higher than those published. The list of published birthplaces has been kept constant since 1998 to maximise time series comparison. The 1998 list was based on publishing data only for those birthplaces which had a population of 25 or more prisoners. Future issues of the publication may add to the list where a birthplace records counts of 25 or more prisoners on a consistent basis.

Indigenous imprisonment rates

28 Rates for the Indigenous adult population in this publication are based on the 'low series' projections for 30 June 2004 (refer to table A4 in Appendix 2 and Experimental Estimates and Projections, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians, 30 June 1991 to 30 June 2009 (cat. no. 3238.0)). These projections are based on the 2001 Census of Population and Housing. Further information about these estimates is provided in Appendix 2 - Indigenous imprisonment rates.

29 Indigenous and non-Indigenous imprisonment rates included in table 3 are presented as both crude and age standardised rates. Ratios of Indigenous to non-Indigenous imprisonment rates are included. Further information about age standardisation of rates is provided in Appendix 2 - Indigenous imprisonment rates.

LEGAL STATUS

30 The legal status of an offender is determined by the warrant(s) or court order(s) which provide the legal basis for the detention in custody of the offender. The classification is as follows:

31 Sentenced

• no appeal current
• awaiting appeal
• unfit to plead, not guilty on grounds of insanity, preventative detention.

• unconvicted awaiting court hearing or trial
• awaiting sentence
• awaiting deportation.

• If the prisoner has been sentenced for any offence then this takes precedence over any other offence(s) for which the prisoner is unsentenced.
• If the sentenced prisoner has appealed against all of his/her sentences then that prisoner is counted as under sentence awaiting determination of appeal. If any sentence is uncontested then this takes precedence over any offence(s) for which appeals are in progress.
• If the prisoner is convicted but as yet unsentenced for any offence then this takes precedence over any other offence(s) for which the prisoner may be on remand.
• A prisoner is counted as awaiting deportation if the prisoner is held in custody for this alone. If the prisoner is sentenced or held on remand for any other offences and is also awaiting deportation, then the other offences take precedence over the deportation warrant.

• Where an episode comprises orders/sentences of various levels of court, the level of court relating to the most serious offence (MSO) is recorded.
• An appeal court is recorded when it has altered the length of sentence of the MSO/charge.
• For prisoners not under sentence, the level of court which has issued the most recent remand in custody warrant is recorded.
• Prisoners held under a Department of Immigration order or under the authority of the Parole Board are recorded as 'other'.

36 In consultation with the National Corrective Services Advisory Group, the definition of episode changed from the 2003 Prisoner Census. The definition of episode was altered to maximise data comparability across states and territories. For New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia and the Northern Territory, there has been no change to the data provided for the Prisoner Census collection. That is, these jurisdictions have always provided data based on the definition of episode as outlined in the previous paragraph. These jurisdictions accounted for 65% of the prisoner population in 2002. For Queensland, Tasmania and the Australian Capital Territory, the definition of episode has changed from data provided prior to 2003 when the definition of episode treated persons who breached parole and returned to custody as continuing a prior episode (the date of reception was the date the person originally entered into custody prior to the breach of parole). In Western Australia, as noted in the previous paragraph, there remain differences in the application of the national counting rule (further detail on these differences is provided in the Explanatory Notes, paragraph 69). As the revised definition of episode only impacts on prisoners who have breached parole, the impact of this change in definition on time series data will be low at the national level.

DATE OF RECEPTION

37 Date of reception is defined as the date the prisoner was received into prison in a state or territory for the current episode. Counting rules for persons returning to custody from an escape attempt or parole are as follows:

• If an offender escapes from custody and is recaptured and returned to custody, the date of reception is the date the person originally entered into custody prior to the escape.
• If parole is revoked resulting in an offender returning to custody, the date of reception is the date the person was returned to custody. That is, a new episode is deemed to have commenced.

SENTENCING

39 Courts can set a term of imprisonment as either a fixed sentence - one that specifies a single term of custody without parole - or a 'parole' sentence comprising a maximum term and a minimum term. Alternatively, courts may not set a term of imprisonment, but rather, may apply an indeterminate sentence of imprisonment such as life.

40 The minimum term is that period that must be served before the prisoner is eligible for release from custody to parole, and the difference between the maximum and minimum term is the period that will be served on parole if the prisoner is released at his or her earliest eligibility date. While parole is generally granted at the earliest eligibility date, prisoners may be denied parole for some or all of the period up to the expiry of their maximum term. For both fixed and maximum-minimum sentences, the period actually served in custody may be less than the stated time to serve where administrative mechanisms such as sentence remissions are applied.

Aggregate sentence

41 The aggregate sentence is the longest period that the offender may be detained under sentence in the current episode. Charges pending which are likely to extend the current episode are ignored. Where a new episode is counted when a person returns to prison from parole, the unexpired portion of the prior episode is usually incorporated into the aggregate sentence for the new episode.

Expected time to serve

42 The expected time to serve is the period of imprisonment which a convicted prisoner is expected to serve and in most cases refers to the time elapsed between the date of reception for this episode (see Explanatory Notes, paragraphs 35-36) and the earliest date of release.

43 The time a prisoner is expected to serve in custody depends upon the sentence(s) originally handed down, the system of remissions and the forms of parole available in the various states and territories and whether any time was spent in custody prior to reception, for example, time on remand or in police custody. The rules governing date of release are complex and differ between the states and territories. The calculation of the earliest date of release in each state and territory is described in the Explanatory Notes, paragraphs 44-59.

New South Wales

44 In New South Wales significant legislative amendments came into force on 3 April 2000, repealing a number of Acts of Parliament which were administered by the Department of Corrective Services, namely:

• Correctional Centres Act 1952
• Sentencing Act 1989
• Periodic Detention of Prisoners Act 1981
• Home Detention Act 1996
• Community Service Orders Act 1979.

• Crimes (Sentencing Procedure) Act 1999
• Crimes (Administration of Sentences) Act 1999.

47 Amendments to the Periodic Detention of Prisoners Act 1981 (Periodic Detention of Prisoners Amendment Act 1998 (No. 43)) enabled courts to set 'minimum' and 'additional' terms when imposing a sentence to be served by way of periodic detention. These changes were incorporated in the new legislation (Crimes (Sentencing Procedure) Act 1999) with respective changes to the sentence type terminology, as explained above. Periodic detention sentences are described as either 'Periodic (Sentence/Non-Parole)' or 'Periodic (Sentence/Parole declined)'.

48 A new fine enforcement system for NSW was introduced from 27 January 1998 under the Fines Act 1996 and is based on a hierarchy of civil and non-custodial sanctions with imprisonment as a sanction of last resort. Inmates with a sentence type of 'Fine default' are held only for reason of commonwealth fine default (i.e. there are no outstanding charges or current sentences).

49 Those prisoners with a sentence of three years or less, being a sentence that has a non-parole period, are automatically released from custody at the expiry of the non-parole term. Those with a non-parole term greater than three years may be released by the NSW Parole Board at any time after serving the non-parole term.

Victoria

50 In Victoria, the calculation of expected time to serve is based on either the non-parole period set by court or the aggregate sentence. Time spent in detention prior to the commencement of the sentence counts toward the time expected to be served under sentence. Under the provisions of the Sentencing Act 1991 (as amended), the sentencing rules in Victoria are as follows:

• If a sentence of Life or a term of two years or more is imposed, the court must fix a period during which the offender is not eligible to be released on parole, unless it considers that the nature of the offence or the past history of the offender make the fixing of such a period inappropriate.
• If a sentence of less than two years but not less than one year is imposed, the court may set a non-parole period.
• The non-parole period must be at least six months less than the term of imprisonment and must be in respect of the aggregate sentence that the offender is liable to serve under all the sentences imposed.

Queensland

52 In Queensland, with the exception of sentences of indefinite length such as Life, calculations are based on the date an offender was eligible for parole.

53 Release dates are calculated as follows:

• Unless otherwise specified by the court, the parole eligibility date is at half the aggregate sentence length.
• The earliest discharge date indicates when an offender might be discharged if remissions on each term of imprisonment are granted. For those prisoners ineligible for remission, this date would be the same as the full-time discharge date.
• The new Corrective Services Act 2000 (Qld) commenced on 1 July 2001. Offenders convicted of an offence that was committed on or after 1 July 2001 and sentenced to a term of imprisonment are not eligible to have that term remitted. Offenders convicted of an offence that was committed prior to the commencement of the new Act and sentenced to a term of imprisonment of two months or more are eligible to be considered for a remission of up to one-third of that term of imprisonment.
• New corrective services legislation (Section 135 of the Corrective Services Act 2000 (Qld)) enables prisoners with life sentences to apply for parole:
  • if the prisoner is serving a life sentence under the Criminal Code section 305(2)15 - once the prisoner has served 20 years or longer
  • if the prisoner is serving a life sentence under another code - once the prisoner has served 15 years.

• Where a prisoner has not had a NPP set, the earliest date of release is the aggregate sentence end date.
• Where a prisoner has a NPP, and an aggregate sentence of less than five years, the earliest date of release is the end date of the NPP.

Western Australia

56 In Western Australia,

• Where no minimum sentence is specified, the calculation is based on the total effective sentence minus one-third - known as the two-thirds time date or effective date of release (EDR) - less any special time off granted by the executive director at census date. Should there be an earlier Home Detention Eligibility Date, that date will be taken into account.
• Where a parole term has been specified the calculation is based on the minimum sentence (i.e. the Earliest Eligibility Date (EED) as presently calculated). If this date has already passed and parole was denied, the next review date or the EDR, whichever comes first, is used.
• In all cases above, should the parole board set a release date or review date prior to the EDR or EED and such date has not already passed, that date is used.

Northern Territory

58 In the Northern Territory sentence remissions for new prisoners were abolished on 1 July 1996. Expected time to serve is calculated as follows:

• Prisoners whose sentences commenced prior to 1 July 1996 will be discharged with one-third remissions or at the expiry of the non-parole period, as approved by the Northern Territory Parole Board. If the parole date has elapsed, the date eligible for remission is used (if applicable) else the full-term expiry date is used.
• Prisoners sentenced after 1 July 1996 have an expected time to serve based on their non-parole period, a fixed release date or an earliest release date based on a suspension of sentence after a set period of time.
• Life sentenced prisoners do not have an earliest expected release date.

Mean/median sentence length

60 Calculations of mean and median sentence lengths are affected by the reference period used. For the Prisoner Census, information relates to the characteristics of prisoners at a point in time (the night of 30 June), rather than the total prisoner population during the year. During a year, a large proportion of prisoners who go through the prison system are those who are serving short sentences (i.e. less than a year), while at any point in time the majority tend to be prisoners serving longer sentences. The impact of this is that when the total stock of prisoners during a year is considered, the large number of short sentences will result in lower mean and median sentence length values compared with means and medians calculated from point in time data.

61 In some instances mean and median sentence lengths have not been published. Where this occurs, the cell concerned contains the symbol 'np'. This happens where the number of persons in custody is less than 10. This has been done because calculations such as means and medians can vary widely with small variations in numbers of persons, and therefore may give an inaccurate reflection of the involvement of persons in custody.

62 From 1994, indeterminate or part-time sentences are excluded from the calculation of mean and median sentence lengths. Therefore, prisoners with Indeterminate and Periodic detention sentences are excluded from the calculation of the mean and median aggregate sentence length and expected time to serve.

63 Changes to the treatment of prisoners who have a 'Life with minimum' sentence occurred from 2002. Between 1994 and 2001, these sentences were not included as part of the calculation of the mean and median sentence lengths for prisoners' expected time to serve in prison. Their inclusion has slightly increased the mean for the expected time to serve, but has had a negligible impact on the median value for expected time to serve.

MOST SERIOUS OFFENCE/CHARGE

64 For sentenced prisoners, the Most Serious Offence (MSO) is the offence for which the prisoner has received the longest sentence in the 'current episode' for a single count of the offence, regardless of the possible result of any appeals, and regardless of whether the sentence for that offence has actually expired at census date. Where sentences are equal, or the longest sentence cannot be determined, the MSO is the offence with the lowest Australian Standard Offence Classification (ASOC) code.

65 From 2004, the MSO for prisoners who have breached parole and returned to prison, is determined only from the breach offence and any new offence(s) committed while on parole (the original MSO is excluded from the determination). There are some state and territory variations:

• In Western Australia, the MSO is selected from all offences recorded during the whole of the 'current episode'. However differences in the definition of an episode exist in Western Australia (see Explanatory Notes, paragraph 69).

• In New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory, if a prisoner is convicted but as yet unsentenced for at least one charge, the MSC is selected from those offences for which convictions have been recorded.
• In Tasmania, the MSC is always determined by the lowest ASOC.
• In Western Australia, the MSC is selected from all charges recorded during the whole of the 'current episode'. However differences in the definition of an episode exist in Western Australia (see Explanatory Notes, paragraph 69).

Victoria

68 For 2002 and previous years, when a prisoner was held on remand and then sentenced to a term of imprisonment as part of the one episode, the time on remand was considered a separate episode of imprisonment for the purposes of determining whether a prisoner had known prior adult imprisonment. This practice was inconsistent with the national counting rule for the Prisoner Census and resulted in an inflated number (and proportion) of Victoria's prisoner population with known prior adult imprisonment. From 2003 the national counting rule was adopted for recording known prior adult imprisonment in Victoria.

Western Australia

69 Where prisoners were returned to prison partly or wholly as a result of breach or suspension of early release orders, a new episode is not deemed to have commenced and the date of reception is based on the date the person originally entered into custody, prior to being released on the early release order. Therefore, time spent in prison for the original sentence has continued to be included in the calculation of expected time to serve and aggregate sentence length data and will result in a higher mean and median duration for these data items in comparison with other states and territories. In light of legislative changes effective from 31 August 2003, it is essential for Western Australia to have a continuous series of comparable information to enable the monitoring and evaluation of the impact of the new legislation.

70 The increase in Indigenous imprisonment rates in 2003 was due mainly to a 6.1% increase in the number of sentenced imprisonments commenced by Indigenous persons. This increase was accentuated by corresponding reductions in sentenced imprisonments commenced by non-Indigenous persons (9.8%). The main areas of increase in relation to most serious offence were Justice/good order offences (37.7%), Offences against the person (6.6%) and Unlawful entry with intent (5.3%). Remand only receptions (where prisoners were unsentenced at the 30 June 2003) increased by 9.6% for Indigenous persons and decreased by 15.1% for non-Indigenous persons. Offences against the person (28.9%) and Unlawful entry with intent (6.1%) showed the largest increases.

Australian Capital Territory

71 In 2002 all periodic detainees with a current warrant were included in the census count (i.e. including those who were in breach of an order). Consequently, the periodic detainee population increased from 2002.

AUSTRALIAN STANDARD OFFENCE CLASSIFICATION

72 The offence categories for national corrective services statistics used in this publication are based on the Australian Standard Offence Classification (ASOC), 1997 (cat. no. 1234.0). The classification replaced the previous national offence classification, Australian National Classification of Offences (ANCO), 1985 (cat. no. 1234.0), and provides a national framework for classifying offences for statistical purposes. While the ABS is publishing 2004 Prisoner Census offence data based on ASOC, the data recorded by some of the corrective services agencies are still coded according to ANCO. ANCO data is then mapped to the relevant ASOC category. Where there is no direct concordance between the two classifications the ANCO codes have been mapped as closely as possible to the relevant ASOC categories. The ABS will be continuing its work with the data providers to have the ASOC codes used within their systems, to ensure better quality national offence data.

ADDITIONAL DATA

73 A standard set of additional tables containing state and territory equivalents of the tables in this publication are available on the ABS web site. Special tabulations can be produced on request to meet individual user requirements. For further information, contact the National Centre for Crime and Justice Statistics by email through <crime.justice@abs.gov.au> or the contact person listed on the front cover of this publication.

RELATED PUBLICATIONS

ABS publications

74 Other ABS publications which may be of interest include:

Australian Demographic Statistics (cat. no. 3101.0) - issued quarterly
Australian Social Trends (cat. no. 4102.0) - issued annually
Australian Standard Offence Classification (cat. no. 1234.0) - irregular
Corrective Services, Australia (cat. no. 4512.0) - issued quarterly
Crime and Safety, Australia (cat. no. 4509.0) - irregular
Criminal Courts, Australia (cat. no. 4513.0) - issued annually (previously titled Higher Criminal Courts, Australia)
Experimental Estimates and Projections, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians, 30 June 1991 to 30 June 2009 (cat. no. 3238.0)
General Social Survey: Summary Results, Australia (cat. no. 4159.0) - irregular
Information Paper: Measuring Crime Victimisation, Australia: The Impact of Different Collection Methodologies (cat. no. 4522.0.55.001) - single issue
Measuring Australia's Progress (cat. no. 1370.0) - issued annually
Migration, Australia (cat. no. 3412.0)
Prisoners in Australia (cat. no. 4517.0) - issued annually
Recorded Crime - Victims, Australia (cat. no. 4510.0) - issued annually (previously titled Recorded Crime, Australia)
Sexual Assault in Australia: A Statistical Overview (cat. no. 4523.0) - single issue
Working Papers in Econometrics and Applied Statistics: No 2003/2 Dynamics in Repeat Imprisonment: Utilising Prison Census Data (cat. no. 1351.0)
Year Book Australia (cat. no. 1301.0) - issued annually