Australia: prison population soars by nearly 40% after sentencing backlog

The number of full-time prisoners in Australia has soared by nearly 40% over the past five years, driven by a huge increase in the number of unsentenced inmates. Australian Bureau of Statistics data show there were an average of 40,577 people in full-time daily custody in the March quarter, up 6.8% over the last 12 months. But, over the past five years, full-time prisoner numbers have soared by 11,274, or 38%, with the number of unsentenced inmates awaiting the outcome of their trial surging by 6,125 people, or 87%.

Ten years ago, one in five prisoners was unsentenced, whereas now they account for more than one third. An ABS spokesman told Guardian Australia that, in the past 12 months, unsentenced prisoners accounted for 65% of the increase in full-time prisoners. A spokeswoman from the Australian Institute of Criminology said prisoner numbers had increased sharply for a number of reasons, which varied between jurisdictions.

She said the main reasons included: changes to bail laws and practices that reduce the likelihood of accused people being granted bail, and that place additional mandatory requirements on the accused; changes to parole laws and release decisions that have reduced the numbers of people being released on parole; and increases in the proportion of convicted offenders being given prison sentences.

The data comes as New South Wales Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research (Bocsar) figures show that in the past two years, four of the 17 major offences have trended downward in NSW, with the other 13 remaining stable. Major offences trending downward include robbery with a weapon not a firearm (down 10.9%), breaking and entering a dwelling (down 5.9%), stealing from a person (down 15.2%) and fraud (down 4.3%).

Jackie Fitzgerald from Bocsar said the increase in Australia’s prison population has been occurring as crime rates were falling. However, she cautioned against assuming that crime rates were falling because more people were going to jail. “It’s a counterintuitive result,” she said. “There certainly would be some incapacitation effect of incarcerating people … but it’s certainly not the major reason why crime is falling in NSW at least.

“There’s been a whole bunch of other things that have happened over the course of this decline in crime that seem to be more causative.” Fitzgerald said greater prosperity, changes in the stolen goods market (people don’t get as much for stolen goods they once did), changes in the drugs market (opiates aren’t the problem they used to be) and improved police practices have all contributed to declining crime rates.

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