IMPRISONMENT RATES



KEY SERIES

	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006 (a)	2007 (a)	2008 (a)	2009 (a)	2010 (a)
	rate	rate	rate	rate	rate	rate	rate	rate	rate	rate
Age standardised rate (b)
Males	282.7	281.1	291.4	295.9	307.8	308.4	319.6	317.7	327.6	324.5
Females	20.1	19.8	21.1	22.0	22.6	23.5	25.2	24.4	25.9	26.7
Crude rate (c)
Males	284.5	282.4	290.8	297.2	307.4	307.9	309.3	318.4	328.8	318.7
Females	19.8	19.2	20.4	21.4	21.9	22.8	25.1	23.6	24.7	25.2
(a) From 2006, in all States and Territories except Queensland, persons remanded or sentenced to adult custody are aged 18 years and over. In Queensland, 'adult' refers to persons aged 17 years and over. Prior to 2006, in Victoria persons aged 17 years and over were also referred to as 'adult'. For more information, see Explanatory Notes 11, 24–26 in ABS Prisoners in Australia, 2010 (cat. no. 4517.0). (b) Rates are age standardised to the Estimated Resident Population (ERP) at 30 June 2001. Rates are per 100,000 adult population. The denominator used to calculate national imprisonment rates has changed over time. For more information on rates, see Explanatory Notes 18–27 in ABS Prisoners in Australia, 2010 (cat. no. 4517.0). (c) Rates are per 100,000 adult population. The denominator used to calculate national imprisonment rates has changed over time. For more information on rates, see Explanatory Notes 18–27 in ABS Prisoners in Australia, 2010 (cat. no. 4517.0). Source: ABS Prisoners in Australia, 2010 (cat. no. 4517.0).

RELATED SERIES

	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010
Males (no.)	16,978	16,958	17,540	17,959	18,920	18,847	19,688	19,861	21,330	21,605
Female (no.)	1,145	1,120	1,198	1,277	1,300	1,361	1,440	1,409	1,594	1,728
Males (%)	93.7	93.8	93.6	93.4	93.6	93.3	93.2	93.4	93.0	92.6
Females (%)	6.3	6.2	6.4	6.6	6.4	6.7	6.9	6.6	7.0	7.4
Source: ABS Prisoners in Australia (cat. no. 4517.0).

	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010
	months	months	months	months	months	months	months	months	months	months
Median sentence length
Males	42.0	42.0	42.0	41.7	37.2	38.0	36.0	37.8	36.0	38.0
Female	24.0	24.0	27.0	24.0	22.0	24.0	24.0	24.0	24.0	25.9
Mean sentence length
Males	59.1	59.6	60.4	60.4	59.3	60.1	59.8	60.3	59.1	60.3
Females	39.5	39.8	42.2	42.6	42.1	43.2	42.2	42.4	42.8	43.3
(a) Prisoners with an indeterminate, life without a minimum or periodic detention sentences are excluded from the aggregate sentence length calculations. For further information on mean/median aggregate sentence length see Explanatory notes 78–80 in ABS Prisoners in Australia, 2010 (cat. no. 4517.0). Source: ABS data available on request, National Prisoner Census.

COMMENTARY



According to the annual National Prisoner census as at 30 June 2010, males comprised 92% of the total age standardised prisoner population, while females comprised 8%.

The annual National Prisoner Census counts all people, held on the night of 30 June in Australian prisons who are in the legal custody of adult corrective services, including periodic detainees in New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory, but excluding persons held in juvenile institutions, psychiatric custody and police custody. At any given point in time, most prisoners are serving long sentences for relatively serious offences, but the flow of offenders in and out of prisons consists primarily of people serving short sentences for less serious offences. (Endnote 1)

Although courts may impose various penalties for people convicted of criminal offences (such as fines, community service orders and the like) imprisonment is the most severe social response to crime in Australia. (Endnote 2)

Age standardisation is a statistical method that adjusts crude rates to account for age differences between study populations. Age standardisation enables better comparisons between different populations.

At 30 June 2010, there were 29,700 prisoners (age standardised, including sentenced and unsentenced prisoners) in Australian prisons. This represented an imprisonment rate of 170 prisoners per 100,000 adult population. (Endnote 3) The age standardised imprisonment rate for males increased from 282.7 in 2001 to 324.5 per 100,000 men in 2010, and for females from 20.1 to 26.7 per 100,000 women.

Between the 2009 and 2010 Prisoner Census dates, the total age standardised prisoner population increased by 1% (from 29,317 on 30 June 2009 to 29,700 on 30 June 2010), which was lower than the 6% (1,702) increase recorded between 2008 and 2009. The number of male prisoners increased by 1% (280) and female prisoners increased by 5% (103).


By age

The median age of male prisoners at 30 June 2010 was 33.4 years, while for females it was 34.6 years. Approximately two thirds of all prisoners (67%) were aged between 20 and 39 years. (Endnote 3)

For both males and females, the highest proportion of prisoners were in the 25-34 year age group, with 35% of male and 37% of female prisoners in this age group. The age specific imprisonment rate for men in 25-29 year age group was 589.5 per 100,000 men and was 608.9 (per 100,000 men) for those aged 30-34 years. The age specific imprisonment rate for women was 50.3 per 100,000 women in 25-29 year age group and 55.3 per 100,000 women in 30-34 year age group.




SENTENCED PRISONERS

There were 23,333 sentenced prisoners in Australian prisons at 30 June 2010, an increase of 2% (409 sentenced prisoners) from 30 June 2009 (22,924). The proportion of sentenced prisoners who were males was 93% (21,605) in 2010. The number of sentenced males in prison increased by 1% (275) from 30 June 2009, while sentenced females increased by 8% (134) in the same period.

Sentenced prisoners by most serious offence

At 30 June 2010, the highest proportion of sentenced male prisoners were sentenced for acts intended to cause injury (17%) as the most serious offence, followed by sexual assault (14%). For sentenced female prisoners, the highest proportion were sentenced for illicit drugs (17%) as the most serious offence, followed by acts intended to cause injury (15%). However, the overall number of females sentenced for illicit drugs (294) was lower than males sentenced for this offence (2,092).

Similar proportions of male and female prisoners had homicide and related offences as their most serious offence (10% and 11% respectively). The proportion of male prisoners sentenced for sexual assault and related offences (14%) was much higher than for female prisoners (2%). 10% of male prisoners were sentenced for robbery, extortion and related offences compared to 6% of female prisoners.

There were higher proportions of female prisoners than male prisoners for the following offence types: fraud, deception and related offences (12% of female prisoners, 2% of male prisoners); and illicit drug offences (17% of women prisoners, 10% of male prisoners).

SENTENCE LENGTH

Aggregate length of sentence is derived by taking into account the longest period for which a convicted prisoner may be detained as a result of a sentence or sentences imposed by a criminal court for an offence or multiple offences in a concurrent episode.

At the 30 June 2010, the mean aggregate sentence length for adult male prisoners was 5 years (60 months), whereas for female prisoners it was less than 4 years (43 months). The median aggregate sentence lengths were 38 months for males and 26 months for females.

ABORIGINAL AND TORRES STRAIT ISLANDER PEOPLES

The age standardised imprisonment rate for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander prisoners at 30 June 2010 was 1,892 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander prisoners per 100,000 adult Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population. (Endnote 3)

At 30 June 2010, there were 6,930 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander male prisoners, which was 91% of all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander prisoners. Non-Indigenous male prisoners accounted for 93% of the non-Indigenous prisoner population.

The number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander male prisoners increased by 2% (147) between June 2009 and June 2010, while the number of non-Indigenous male prisoners increased by 1% (223). The number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander female prisoners increased by 8% (51) between June 2009 and June 2010, while the non-Indigenous female prisoner population increased by 3% (50).

The median age of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander male prisoners was 30.5 years compared to 31.5 years for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander female prisoners. In contrast, the median ages of male and female non-Indigenous prisoners were higher at 34.6 and 36.1 years respectively. (Endnote 3)

At 30 June 2010, the mean aggregate sentence length for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander male prisoners was 45 months, whereas for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander female prisoners it was 27 months. The mean aggregate sentence lengths for non-Indigenous prisoners were higher (66 months for males and 51 months for females).

ENDNOTES

1. Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2010, Year Book Australia, 2009-10 (cat. no. 1301.0) <www.abs.gov.au>.
2. Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2010, Measures of Australia's Progress, 2010 (cat. no. 1370.0) <www.abs.gov.au>.
3. Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2010, Prisoners in Australia, 2010 (cat. no. 4517.0) <www.abs.gov.au>.



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