4517.0 - Prisoners in Australia, 2011 Quality Declaration 
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 08/12/2011   
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SENTENCED PRISONERS

There were 5,850 sentenced Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander prisoners at 30 June 2011, a 2% decrease since 30 June 2010, compared with a 4% decrease in the number of sentenced non-Indigenous prisoners (from 17,243 to 16,510). (Table 4.5)


Aggregate sentence length

Excluding prisoners with indeterminate, life with a minimum and periodic detention sentences, the median aggregate sentence length for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander prisoners was unchanged from 2010 at 2.0 years (24 months), while for non-Indigenous prisoners it was 3.9 years (47 months), an increase of four months since 2010. (Tables 4.6 and 4.7). The following chart shows some variation in the aggregate sentence length for selected offences for the two populations.

Sentenced prisoners, Indigenous status by median aggregate sentence length(a) and selected most serious offence
Graph: Sentenced prisoners, Indigenous status by median aggregate sentence length(a) and selected most serious offence



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 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander prisoners was 1.3 years (15 months). Median expected time to serve was highest for the offence of homicide (8 years or 96 months) followed by sexual assault (5.3 years or 64 months). For the non-Indigenous prisoner population the median expected time to serve was 2.3 years (27 months), with a median of 12 years (144 months) for the offence of homicide. (Tables 4.6 and 4.7)







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