Socio-economic outcome area 10

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander adults are not overrepresented in the criminal justice system

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Target 10

By 2031, reduce the rate of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander adults held in incarceration by at least 15 per cent.

Dashboard snapshot: The data below are the most recent at the time of preparing the July 2023 report. Please go to the dashboard to access the current data.

Nationally at 30 June 2022, the age-standardised rate of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander prisoners was 2151.1 per 100 000 adult population (figure CtG10.1).

The 2022 rate is below the previous year (2222.7 per 100 000 adult population in 2021) but it is an increase from 2142.9 per 100 000 adult population in 2019 (the baseline year).

Nationally, based on progress from the baseline, the target is worsening. However, this assessment should be used with caution as it is based on a limited number of data points. Please see the How to interpret the data page for more information.

Figure CtG10.1 shows the age-standardised imprisonment rate per 100 000 adult population at 30 June. More details can be found within the text near this image.

The assessment below reflects progress from the baseline (improvement, worsening or no change).

NSW Vic Qld WA SA Tas ACT NT Aust
Assessment of progress 2019 to 2022WorseningImprovementWorseningImprovementWorseningImprovementImprovementWorseningWorsening

right arrow improvement rectangle no change left arrow worsening not applicable as required data not available. tick good improvement and target on track to be met. circle improvement but target not on track to be met.

Note: These assessments of progress should be used with caution as they are based on a limited number of data points.

Disaggregations

By sex

Nationally at 30 June 2022, the age-standardised rate of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander prisoners per 100 000 people was higher for males (3942.6) compared to females (386.1) (figure CtG10.2).

Figure CtG10.2 shows Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, Age-standardised imprisonment rate per 100 000 adult population at 30 June, Australia, by sex, by year. More details can be found within the text near this image.
Data in figure CtG10.2 (rate (AS))
Sex2019202020212022
Males3906.23817.14041.93942.6
Females412.9387.3433.9386.1

By age group

Nationally at 30 June 2022, there were 2039.6 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander prisoners aged 18-24 years per 100 000 people in the population aged 18-24 years (figure CtG10.3). The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander imprisonment rate increased with age group until peaking at 4025.9 per 100 000 people aged 35-39 years, but declined with each successive age group thereafter (to 385.6 prisoners per 100 000 people aged 55 years or over).

Figure CtG10.3 shows Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, Imprisonment rate per 100 000 population at 30 June, Australia, by age group, by year. More details can be found within the text near this image.
Data in figure CtG10.3 (rate)
Age2019202020212022
18-24 years old2265.02067.51985.12039.6
25-29 years old3646.03528.73674.53353.5
30-34 years old4062.83974.84132.83921.8
35-39 years old4016.63844.84286.34025.9
40-44 years old3041.83165.03387.63407.6
45-49 years old1889.81905.12218.92215.0
50-54 years old1140.81038.31228.91194.9
55+ years old340.4344.6363.2385.6

By sex, by age group

Data on imprisonment rates, by Indigenous status, by sex, by age group are available in table CtG10A.5.

Target data specifications

Target 10: Reduce the rate of adults held in incarceration

Outcome:

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are not overrepresented in the criminal justice system.

Target:

By 2031, reduce the rate of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander adults held in incarceration by at least 15 per cent.

Indicator:

Age-standardised imprisonment rate.

Measure:

The measure is defined as:

Numerator — number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people aged 18 years or over in the legal custody of adult corrective services at 30 June

Denominator — number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people aged 18 years or over at 30 June

and is presented as an age-standardised rate per 100 000 people.

Target established:

National Agreement on Closing the Gap July 2020

Latest dashboard update:

15 June 2023

Indicator type:

Target

Interpretation of change:

A low or decreasing rate is desirable.

Data source(s):

Name (numerator): Prisoners in Australia

Frequency: Annual (revised data for 2019 in the March 2022 Dashboard update).

Name (denominator): Estimates and Projections for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population

Frequency: Annual (revised data for 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020 in the March 2022 Dashboard update).

Documentation (links): https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/people/crime-and-justice/prisoners-australia

https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/people/aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander-peoples/estimates-and-projections-aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander-australians

Data provider:

Provider name: Australian Bureau of Statistics

Provider area: Justice

Baseline year:

2019

Latest reporting period:

2022

Target year:

2031

Disaggregations:

State and territory and Australia, by Indigenous status.

State and territory and Australia, by Indigenous status, by sex.

State and territory and Australia, by Indigenous status, by age group

State and territory and Australia, by Indigenous status, by sex, by age group.

Computation:

Numerator divided by Denominator multiplied by 100 000 and age standardised

Counting rules (excluding disaggregation differences noted above)

From 2019, in all states and territories, persons remanded or sentenced to adult custody are aged 18 years or over.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander rate: rates are calculated based on estimates of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population based on Series B projections for 30 June of the relevant calendar year.

Non-Indigenous rate: rates are calculated based on estimates of the non-Indigenous population derived as the difference between the estimated resident population as at 31 March and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population projections as at 30 June for the relevant calendar year.

Age-standardised rate: rates are calculated using the direct method of age standardisation. This is a standard methodology and consists of:

  • calculating a series of crude rates for individual age ranges
  • weighting each of these age ranges by their proportional contribution to a standard population
  • summing the weighted ranges to derive the age-standardised rate.

Disaggregations:

Sex: Sex relates to biological primary sexual characteristics. Prisoners are housed according to sex so are recorded as male and female in that context. Sex is as recorded on the administrative records of the Corrective Services agencies. The standard ABS definition of sex is used, which includes categories for 'Male', 'Female', 'Other' and 'Unknown'. Prisoners classified with 'Other' or 'Unknown' are included in totals (where applicable), very few prisoners have Other or Unknown sex.

Age: Date of birth is used to calculate age at 30 June of the reference year. Prisoners with unavailable/missing date of birth are still included in total counts of prisoners (very few prisoners have an unknown age). Totals for age tables may include prisoners whose age is unknown. Components may not add to total due to the effects of perturbation.

Data quality considerations:

It is not possible to reproduce the exact age-standardised rates as published in the ABS releases on Prisoners in Australia as the rates calculated using the method described above are based on unperturbed data, whereas the published data by age range is perturbed to protect the confidentiality of individuals.

Comparisons of imprisonment rates should be made with care, especially for states and territories with relatively small Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander populations. Small changes in prisoner numbers can cause variations in rates that do not accurately represent either real trends over time or consistent differences from other jurisdictions.

Future reporting:

Additional disaggregations required for future reporting:

  • Remoteness areas and other small geographic areas (where available)
  • Socioeconomic status of the locality
  • Disability status

Supporting indicators

Driver

  • Proportion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people charged by police
  • Proportion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people convicted and sentenced

    By offence and type of sentence

  • Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander prisoner by offence type and number of offences

    Most serious and other offences

  • Proportion of prisoners by legal status

    Sentenced vs unsentenced and by sentence length

  • Number and rate of unique alleged offenders processed by police
  • Proportion of prisoners previously incarcerated

    Number of unique episodes of incarceration

  • Mental health, substance abuse issues, family history of incarceration, employment post release, history of victimisation
  • Entry rate to incarceration

    Newly sentenced to prison

Contextual information

  • Rates of death in prison custody of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander prisoners

    By cause of death

  • Proportion spending greater periods of time on remand
  • Progress towards parity

Material for download

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