The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander imprisonment rate was 2,418 persons per 100,000 adult Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population, up from: 2,383 in the December quarter 2022. 2,269 in the March quarter 2022.
Summary. 4.1 Indigenous people were 17.3 times more likely to be arrested than non-Indigenous people. The over-representation rate in Western Australia is four times the national average. 4.2 Incarceration of Indigenous people in Australia has increased by 61 per cent between 1988 and 1995.
As at June 2021, Indigenous adults were imprisoned at 14 times the rate of non-Indigenous adults, after adjusting for differences in the age structure between the two populations (age-standardised rate of 2,223 per 100,000 population, compared with 164 per 100,000 for non-Indigenous adults (Table D2.
Over half (56%, or 461 of 818) of all young people in detention on an average night in the June quarter 2022 were Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander people. Indigenous Australians made up just 6% of the Australian population aged 10–17.
There have been 547 Indigenous deaths in custody since the Royal Commission. Data are preliminary and may be revised.
At 30 June 2022: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander prisoners accounted for 32% of all prisoners.
The evidence suggests that most of the increase is due to increased severity by the criminal justice system in its treatment of Indigenous offenders. One quarter of the increase has come from remandees and three quarters from sentenced prisoners.
Aboriginal children remain significantly overrepresented in NSW youth detention. The number of Aboriginal young people in custody is now 122, an increase of 28.4 per cent in the 12 months to March 2023. Of those Aboriginal young people, 92 (75.4%) were on remand.
According to findings at NSW Budget Estimates 2021/22, 172 children were in detention as of the 28th October 2021, 44% of whom are Aboriginal. Currently, 65% of children in prison under 14 years of age are Indigenous.
The Bringing Them Home report (produced by the National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from Their Families in 1987), says that "at least 100,000" children were removed from their parents.
The links between lower socioeconomic status and the associated issues that come with it (inadequate housing, low academic achievement, poor health, poor parenting, etc.) to all types of crime are well-established, if complex, and disadvantage is greater in Indigenous communities than non-Indigenous ones in Australia.
It's estimated that as many as 1 in 3 Indigenous children were taken between 1910 and the 1970s, affecting most Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities in Australia.
Aboriginal people drink less than white people. Many Australian health surveys have shown that most Aboriginal people are less likely than non-Aboriginal Australians to consume alcohol, a trait they share with indigenous peoples in Canada and New Zealand.
In Australia, 812,000 people identified as Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander in the 2021 Census of Population and Housing. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people represented 3.2% of the population.
In the 1860s, Victoria became the first state to pass laws authorising Aboriginal children to be removed from their parents. Similar policies were later adopted by other states and territories – and by the federal government when it was established in the 1900s.
3.53 'Stock' statistics show that the four most common offences for which Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander offenders were imprisoned were similar to those for which they were charged, excluding public order offences, and included: acts intended to cause injury (comprising 33% of all Aboriginal and Torres Strait ...
In 2021–22, there were 106 deaths in custody: 84 in prison custody and 22 in police custody or custody-related operations. In total, there were 24 Indigenous deaths and 81 non-Indigenous deaths in custody and one death of a person whose Indigenous status was unknown.
Real action needed on Aboriginal deaths in custody
Of the 516 recorded Indigenous people who died in custody since 1991, 335 were in prison, 177 were in police custody and four were in youth detention.
It's a story that has been repeated for generations of Aboriginal families in Australia, and it's still happening today. In 2019/20, 952 Aboriginal children across NSW were removed from their families, a 2.6% increase on the year prior.
Children do their best when they are supported, nurtured and loved; when they can go to school, play with friends and sleep in their own bed each night. Yet right across Australia, children as young as 10 are arrested, charged with an offence, hauled before court and locked away in prison cells.
Indigenous status
The death rate of Indigenous prisoners was 0.14 per 100 prisoners in 2017–18. Both the number (n=16; see Table C2) and rate (0.14 per 100; see Table C5) of Indigenous deaths in prison custody were consistent with the previous year.
Most Aboriginal deaths in custody are due to inadequate medical care, lack of attention and self-harm. The Guardian database shows indigenous people are three times less likely to receive medical care than others.
The Northern Territory has the highest imprisonment rate in Australia, at 1,026.6 prisoners per 100,000 adults. This is substantially higher than all other states and territories. At 293.0 prisoners per 100,000 adults, the imprisonment rate in Western Australia is also considerably higher than the national average.
Trends. Over the decade to 2020, Australia's prison population increased in both number and as a proportion of the population. Despite a slight drop recently, the average daily prison population grew from 29,700 at 30 June 2010 to 41,060 at 30 June 2020.
As described in the Bringing Them Home report (HREOC 1997:31): '… between one in three and one in ten Indigenous children were forcibly removed from their families and communities in the period from approximately 1910 until 1970. '