Indigenous imprisonment rates have risen again, with 5% of adult aboriginal males now behind bars Australia-wide, new official statistics show.
According to the latest Australian Bureau of Statistics data, the aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander imprisonment rate was 2,733 persons per 100,000 adult aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population in December 2024, up from 2,701 in September and 2,549 the previous year.
For adult males the rate was 5,001 per 100,000 – one in 20 – while for adult females it was 526.
State and territory data was not broken down by sex, but the overall rate was highest in Western Australia where 4,755.4/100,000 were in jail, followed by the Northern Territory on 3,850.6, 2,922.4 in South Australia, 2,636 in Queensland, 2,118.5 in NSW, 1,978.9 in the ACT, and 900.6 in Tasmania.
The overall Australian imprisonment rate in December last year was 207 persons per 100,000 adult population, down from 208 persons in September, and 203 person in December 2023.
The highest rate was in the Northern Territory where 1.2% of the population is behind bars, followed by Western Australia with an average daily imprisonment rate was 339.8 per 100,000 adult population.
The male imprisonment rate was 338/100,000, compared to 32/100,000 for females, with males making up 92% of the adult prison population.
If compared to countries, the NT would have the world’s second-highest imprisonment rate after El Salvador, where 1.65% of the population is in jail.
Despite being just 26.3% of the NT population, indigenous people make up about 90% of the territory’s adult prisoners and almost 100% for youth detainees, according to NT government data seen by ABC News.
Last year aboriginal crime-ravaged Alice Springs was ranked the 18th most dangerous city in the world, with youth offending rates up more then 50% since 2020.
Header image: Two men who escaped custody in Alice Springs and Darwin this month before being recaptured (NT Police).
