Australia’s disproportionate First Nations incarceration rate is getting worse

First Nations people now make up 33% of the Australian prison population despite making up less than 4% of the overall population.

The number of First Nations people in prison across Australia increased by 7% in the last year and now makes up a third of the overall prison population.

Australian Bureau of Statistics figures this week reveal that the prison population increased by 3% from June 2022 to June 2023, to a total of just under 42,000 people.

While the broader prison population increased by 3%, the number of First Nations people in prison increased by 7% in the same timeframe to 13,852.

This increased the imprisonment rate of First Nations people to 2442 people per 100,000 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, compared to a rate of 22 people per 100,000 people of the total population.

First Nations people now make up 33% of the Australian prison population despite making up less than 4% of the overall population.

There was a significant increase in the number of First Nations people in prison in Victoria, with a 17% rise in the last financial year, despite an overall 2% decrease in the state’s prison population.

In Queensland there was an 11% increase in First Nations people in prison to 3801 people, and a 9% increase overall.

Despite the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody handing down its findings and a wealth of recommendations more than three decades ago, the disproportionate rate of incarceration in Australia is getting worse.

In 2018, First Nations people represented 27% of the Australian prison population. This figure is now 33%.

The figures show a 7.2% increase in the number of unsentenced people in prison over the last financial year, and a 6.4% increase in female people in prison.

There were prison population increases in Queensland, Western Australia, Tasmania and the Northern Territory, and decreases in New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia and the ACT.