Australia Yearbook - 2001

486 Year Book Australia 2001
rates(a)
140
C8.12 PRISONER POPULATION
120
100
80
60
40
1900 1910 1920 1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 1999
(a) Rates per 100,000 total population.
Source: Book of Australian Criminal and Social Statistics 1804–1988; Corrective
Services, Australia (4512.0).
C8.13 PRISONERS IN AUSTRALIA, Sentence
Length—1999
Aggregate sentence no. %
Under 1 month 136 0.8
1 to less than 3 months 502 2.9
1 to less than 6 months 1 258 7.3
Less than 6 months 1 896 11.0
6 to less than 12 months 2 008 11.7
1 to less than 2 years 2 531 14.7
2 to less than 5 years 4 037 23.5
5 to less than 10 years 3 768 22.0
10 years and over 2 100 12.2
Life and other indeterminate 826 4.8
All sentenced prisoners excluding
periodic detainees 17 166 100.0
Source: Australian Prisoners 1989; Prisoners in Australia
1999.
During 1998–99 there were, in addition to the
prison population, 55,253 people (average daily
number) serving community correction orders.
Almost half (27,177) were serving supervision
orders (probation or parole), 10,347 were
performing community service, 15,892 were
serving fine options and 496 were in home
detention (SCRCSSP 2000, p. 775).
Prisons involve substantial financial outlays. The
value of prison assets in Australia is $2.008b, the
average assets per prisoner being $109,005
(SCRCSSP 2000, p. 786). Recurrent costs in secure
prisons across Australia average $158.95 per
prisoner per day or approximately $58,000 per
year, while community corrections average out at
$6.45 per offender per day. Data at this level of
detail are not readily available for the early
part of the century.
Far more people move through the prison
system in a year than are indicated in annual
prison holding statistics. In essence, the
‘flow’ is much larger than the ‘stock’. Many
people have very short sentences. For
example, more than a third have sentences
of under a year. As a result the daily average
number of prisoners cannot be calculated
from the annual number of prisoners.
In 1903 the daily average number of
prisoners in Victoria was 907 males and 141
females (table C8.14). In that year there was
accommodation for 1,845 males and 533
females, so the male prisons were operating
at half capacity while the female prisons were
operating at one quarter capacity. At the end
of the century there is much more efficient
use of assets! The Victorian Year Book of
1903 proudly described the decrease in
crime over the previous decade (p. 302).
While the daily average for males was 907,
the total number of males received into the
prisons in 1903 was 5,952, while for females
receptions totalled 1,490 for a daily average
of 141. In the years before 1903 the prison
numbers in Victoria showed a steady decline,
so that the number in 1903 was 26% less than
in 1895.