Who's inside jail?

Issue 

BY ZANNY BEGG

SYDNEY — The Department of Corrective Services has released statistics for the September quarter on imprisonment rates in Australia. These figures show that the average daily number of people in prison has steadily increased from 17,600 in 1997 to 20,838 by September last year. The current level of imprisonment is 143 prisoners per 100,000 of the adult population.

Reflecting the inherent racism of the corrective system indigenous people make up 19% of the prison population (although they make up only 2% of the Australian population). The rate of imprisonment for indigenous people is 15 times higher then for the non-indigenous population.

Aboriginal women have the highest rates of incarceration in the Australian prison system being 19 times more likely to be sent to jail than non-Aboriginal women. This figure climbs to 26 times in South Australia.

The North Territory recorded the highest proportion of indigenous prisoners (62% of the prison population).

One trend revealed by the figures has been the impact of law and order campaigns run by state governments on the prison population. The total number of prisoners increased most in Victoria (7%) and Western Australia (5%) over the last quarter.

Critics of the mandatory sentencing laws in WA have argued that these laws discriminate against those groups already disadvantaged in society, particularly indigenous people. The statistics bear this out. Indigenous people are 18 times more likely to be imprisoned then non-indigenous Australians in WA.

Of the total prison population 94% are men. The highest proportion of women being jailed is in WA where 35 women per 100,000 of the adult population are in jail, this compares to the national average of 17.5 per 100,000.

Illustrating the link between poverty and incarceration, 15% of those people imprisoned during the September quarter where jailed for defaulting on fine payments.

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