Yesterday the ABS released a set of corrective services data that shows us how many people are sitting in the big house at any given time. Among the figures there were quite a few surprises, as well as a quite few unfortunately predictable results.
First up, the national figures by state and territory. For all these we’ll use a rate of how many people are incarcerated per 100,000 of the adult population.
That pretty much speaks for itself. We can also measure the change in the imprisonment rates since 2006 – in both raw rate changes and as a percentage change in the rate since 2006 – which was only 3 years ago.
While the NT has experienced the largest change in the raw rate, SA and WA have had relatively larger increases. Interesting is how us law abiding citizens of Qld, Tassie and the nations capital have witnessed a reduction in imprisonment rates over the last 3 years.
We can also break these results down by gender.
While the rate of imprisonment among males is generally a large magnitude of order higher than that of females in every State and Territory, since 2006 there has been a larger increase (or in the case of Qld, a smaller decrease) in female imprisonment rates than that of their male counterparts.
The other figures released look at indigenous imprisonment rates, calculated on a per 100,000 of the indigenous population basis.This isnt a pretty story.
With the ACT and Tasmania having only very small indigenous populations, the only good news here is among the male indigenous imprisonment rate in Qld, sightly dropping. Some of the other figures are astonishing – a 50% increase in the female indigenous imprisonment rate in the NT over the last 3 years is incredible.
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These are the sorts of figures that just leave you speechless.
That being said, I’d love to compare judicial process changes on state-by-state basis to the % changes to see any possible correlations (ie mandatory sentencing etc).
The indigenous imprisonment rates are truly shocking. Surely a reasonable society should take a good hard look at the root causes of that and make some very drastic changes. As a generality, people who are living reasonable lives, whith adequate income levels and education, do not have a 4.5% male imprisonment rate.
Also, possum – there’s some great statistics pron at RCP yesterday (http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2009/11/25/how_unemployment_affects_midterm_elections_99261.html) – any chance you could do something similar for Australia? I remember reading, pre-2007 Australian election, that if at least two of inflation, unemeployment, interest rates are heading upwards, the government loses office. Love to know if this conventional wisdom is true!
Seems that we have not improved much since the first fleet.
You know, once upon a time, not that long ago, South Australia was a good place to live.
Hey Poss, do you have the data behind this article and what do you think?
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/politics/liberals-facing-election-rout/story-e6frgczf-1225804771480
Cud, good question. The “would lose 20 seats” figure in the article is already reflected in the Pollytics Projections; if that doesn’t factor in the dinosaur rebellion and further loss of support in metropolitan seats, ouch.
What would be really interesting to know is how much of the prison population is banged up, on the basis of a victimless crime. For instance, convictions over drug issues that might have been better dealt with in detox centres or over unpaid fines as a result of poverty.
Also, I suspect a graph for each state showing what percentage of the jail population are indigenous, would be pretty telling. In W.A. I think it is running close to 50% and there are plans to increase it by making random search laws that will undoubtedly improve on that. Bastards.
Thanks from bringing all that together I have been quite curious about all this and have never seen it clearer.
Possum Polytics said:
No, it was predictable. It is also good as it means the Intervention and associated policies are working.
The Intervention is about restoring law and order. Prison is about correcting social dysfunction. The system is working when law breakers are apprehended and punished.
There is no greater indictment of the old order than to say that incarceration actually represents a better option for service delivery (accommodation, nutrition, health and education) than whats available on the outside for many remote indigenes.
Ultimately the only way forward for remote indigenes is to rebuild shattered familial and municipal institutions. That means reforming patriarchy by getting indigenous men into paid useful work, so that they can act as protectors and providers, rather than predators and parasites, for their womenfolk and kin.