NCJ Number
190232
Date Published
October 2000
Length
6 pages
Annotation
This document uses data to examine trends associated with sentenced prison populations in Australia.
Abstract
The prison rate in Australia per 100,000 had rose from 89.8 in 1982 to 139.2 in 1998. The total prison population is made up of two different groups -- those on remand and those in prison under sentence. The percentage of sentenced prisoners fell between 1982 and 1998, corresponding to the rise in remand prisoner populations over the same period. A breakdown of sentenced prisoner populations by jurisdiction revealed that some jurisdictions had a higher proportion of sentenced prisoners to total prisoners than the national average. Others had always been below the national average. The remaining oscillated around the national average. Because it comprised over one third of Australia’s total population, the changing trends that occurred within New South Wales had a major impact in determining the national trend. There has been an overall percentage decrease of approximately 25 percent in the median aggregate sentence lengths for total offenses. This trend has not been consistent across different offenses and/or jurisdictions. For Australia as a whole, there has been an overall percentage increase of approximately 23 percent in the median expected time to serve for total offenses. This increase occurred in all jurisdictions except South Australia, which experienced a marginal decline. In general, the median expected time to serve tended to increase for the most serious offenses, which account for the majority of sentenced prisoners. 6 references