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New South Wales

Snapshot at 30 June, 2016

• The number of adult prisoners in New South Wales prisons was 12,629, an increase of 7% (832 prisoners) from 2015.

• New South Wales had the largest adult prisoner population nationally, accounting for 33% of the total Australian adult population. (Table 14)

• The adult imprisonment rate was 211 prisoners per 100,000 adult population, an increase from 200 prisoners per 100,000 adult population in 2015. (Table 18)

• Just over half (52% or 6,517 prisoners) of prisoners had previously been imprisoned under sentence. (Table 13)

• The most common offence/charge was acts intended to cause injury (21% or 2,653 prisoners), followed by illicit drug offences (17% or 2,140 prisoners) and sexual assault (12% or 1,476 prisoners). (Table 15)

• Males comprised 93% (11,691 prisoners) of the total prisoner population. (Table 13)

• Since 30 June 2015, the male imprisonment rate increased from 377 to 398 prisoners per 100,000 male adult population and the female imprisonment rate increased from 29 to 31 prisoners per 100,000 female adult population. (Table 14)

• The median age of adult prisoners was 35 years of age. (Table 13)

• Overseas born prisoners accounted for 21% (2,687 prisoners) of the New South Wales adult prisoner population, with the largest proportion from New Zealand and Vietnam (both 12% of overseas born prisoners, or 326 and 311 prisoners, respectively). (Table 21)

• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders comprised 24% (3,037 prisoners) of the adult prisoner population. (Table 13)

• The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander age standardised imprisonment rate was 11 times the non-Indigenous age standardised imprisonment rate (1,992 prisoners per 100,000 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander adult population compared to 176 prisoners per 100,000 adult non-Indigenous population). (Table 17)

• Unsentenced prisoners comprised 33% (4,149 prisoners) of the adult prisoner population. The proportion of prisoners who were unsentenced has increased from 22% over the past 10 years. (Tables 13 and 14)

• The median time spent on remand by unsentenced prisoners was 3.7 months, which the highest nationally. Time on remand as reported in the Prisoner Census is time spent on remand as at 30 June 2016, and not the total time on remand. Time on remand is influenced by a number of factors, particularly the time it takes for a case to come before a court. (Table 31)

• The median aggregate sentence length of sentenced prisoners was 3.0 years. (Table 25)