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PRISONERS
The National Prisoner Census, conducted annually on the night of 30 June, counts all people who are in the legal custody of adult corrective services, including periodic detainees in New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory. 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.
The total prison population on 30 June 2004 was 24,171 (table 11.39). New South Wales had the highest proportion of prisoners (39%), followed by Queensland (22%).
11.39 PRISONERS, By states and territories - 30 June 2004
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 | | NSW(a) | Vic. | Qld | SA | WA | Tas. | NT | ACT in
ACT | ACT in
NSW(a) | ACT
Total | Aust.(b) |
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NUMBER |
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| All prisoners | 9,329 | 3,624 | 5,240 | 1,485 | 3,169 | 447 | 717 | 160 | 118 | 278 | 24,171 |
| Males | 8,671 | 3,380 | 4,881 | 1,393 | 2,900 | 425 | 701 | 148 | 111 | 259 | 22,499 |
| Females | 658 | 244 | 359 | 92 | 269 | 22 | 16 | 12 | 7 | 19 | 1,672 |
| Indigenous | 1,576 | 186 | 1,195 | 249 | 1,217 | 59 | 556 | 10 | 16 | 26 | 5,048 |
| Non-Indigenous | 7,629 | 3,438 | 3,989 | 1,069 | 1,952 | 388 | 161 | 150 | 102 | 252 | 18,776 |
| Unknown | 124 | - | 56 | 167 | - | - | - | - | - | - | 347 |
| Sentenced | 7,458 | 3,010 | 4,079 | 970 | 2,668 | 379 | 587 | 85 | 118 | 203 | 19,236 |
| Unsentenced | 1,871 | 614 | 1,161 | 515 | 501 | 68 | 130 | 75 | - | 75 | 4,935 |
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PROPORTION (%) |
|
| All prisoners | 100.0 | 100.0 | 100.0 | 100.0 | 100.0 | 100.0 | 100.0 | 100.0 | 100.0 | 100.0 | 100.0 |
| Males | 92.9 | 93.3 | 93.1 | 93.8 | 91.5 | 95.1 | 97.8 | 92.5 | 94.1 | 93.2 | 93.1 |
| Females | 7.1 | 6.7 | 6.9 | 6.2 | 8.5 | 4.9 | 2.2 | 7.5 | 5.9 | 6.8 | 6.9 |
| Indigenous | 16.9 | 5.1 | 22.8 | 16.8 | 38.4 | 13.2 | 77.5 | 6.3 | 13.6 | 9.4 | 20.9 |
| Non-Indigenous | 81.8 | 94.9 | 76.1 | 72.0 | 61.6 | 86.6 | 22.5 | 93.8 | 86.4 | 90.6 | 77.7 |
| Unknown | 1.3 | - | 1.1 | 11.2 | - | - | - | - | - | - | 1.4 |
| Sentenced | 79.9 | 83.1 | 77.8 | 65.3 | 84.2 | 84.8 | 81.9 | 53.1 | 100.0 | 73.0 | 79.6 |
| Unsentenced | 20.1 | 16.9 | 22.2 | 34.7 | 15.8 | 15.2 | 18.1 | 46.9 | - | 27.0 | 20.4 |
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(a) The majority of full-time prisoners sentenced in the ACT are held in NSW prisons.
(b) The ACT in NSW figures are a subset of the NSW figures, and are not separately counted in the Australian totals.
Source: Prisoners in Australia, 2004 (4517.0). |
There were 22,499 male prisoners at 30 June 2004, comprising 93% of the total prisoner population (table 11.40). The median age of prisoners was 32 years for both males and females. The majority (53% or 12,783) of prisoners were young adult males aged 20-34 years (graph 11.40).
There were 5,048 Indigenous prisoners (21% of the prisoner population) at 30 June 2004. Over the past decade, Indigenous prisoners have accounted for an increasing proportion of the total prisoner population (graph 11.41).
Unsentenced prisoners include prisoners awaiting a court hearing or trial and convicted prisoners awaiting sentencing. At 30 June 2004, one in five (20%) of the total prisoner population were unsentenced prisoners. Over the past ten years, unsentenced prisoners have accounted for an increasing number and proportion of the total prisoner population. The proportion of prisoners who were unsentenced increased from 12% in 1994 to 20% in 2004 (graph 11.42).
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