Imprisonment rates have been rising and crime rates falling
Australia’s imprisonment rate — measured as prisoners per 100 000 adults — is at its highest in a century (figure 1.2). The imprisonment rate has more than doubled in Australia since the mid–1980s and at its peak
Imprisonment growth has been higher among women in several jurisdictions, particularly since 2010. Nonetheless, men still make up the bulk of the prison population.
A study of Aboriginal mothers incarcerated in Western Australia found that women who reported using violence were more likely to have experienced it themselves. Of those mothers who reported using violence, 91 per cent had experienced family
violence compared to 77 per cent of those mothers who did not report using violence (Wilson et al. 2017).
Women in prison are more likely to have a history of mental illness than men — in 2018, 65 per cent of females compared with 35 per cent of males reported a previous diagnosis of mental illness (PC 2020, p. 1016).
Moreover, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women in prison have a higher incidence of mental ill health than Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander men or non-Indigenous women.
Another feature of Australia’s imprisonment trends is that imprisonment rates are increasing faster for some demographic groups. While women comprise only 7.7 per cent of the national prison population, female imprisonment rates have increased faster than male imprisonment rates nationally and in several
jurisdictions (figure 2.7). This faster growth in female imprisonment has been common across Western countries including New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States.
There is some evidence from New South Wales that much of this increase has been driven by more women presenting to courts as repeat offenders.
There is little evidence that women are committing more serious crimes or spending longer in prison (Ooi 2018).
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women have experienced the fastest growth in imprisonment rates. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women’s imprisonment rates have increased by 115 per cent between 2000 and 2020 compared with an increase of 65 per cent for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander men. (ABS 2020b; SCRGSP 2020b). The underlying structural, relational and personal circumstances of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women put them at greater risk of imprisonment (SCRGSP 2020b).
Imprisonment rates have increased steadily over the past two decades in all Australian jurisdictions from different base levels. This growth has been more pronounced for women and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
And the rate of suicide has been measured to be between five times higher in men, and twelve times higher in women incarcerated in Australian prisons compared to the general population (Kariminia et al. 2007).
Source: Australia’s Prison Dilemma – Research paper – prison-dilemma.pdf