Detention history

About 2 in 3 (68%) prison entrants reported they had previously been in an adult prison. Almost one-third (30%) had been in prison at least 5 times before, and 31% had never been previously incarcerated in the adult prison system (Figure 8.1).

Almost 1 in 5 (19%) prison entrants had previously been in youth detention. Of those previously in youth detention, almost two-thirds (64%) were in youth detention 1–2 times and just over one-quarter (26%) at least 5 times.

Male prison entrants were more likely to report extensive prison histories than female entrants (Figure 8.1). About one-third (33%) of male entrants had been in prison 5 or more times, compared with 15% of females. About one-third of male entrants (28%) and almost a half of female entrants (47%) had never been in prison before. Female entrants (88%) were more likely than male entrants (79%) to have never been in youth detention before.

One-quarter (25%) of First Nations prison entrants had never been in prison before, while almost 2 in 5 (39%) had been in prison at least 5 times before. One-quarter (25%) of First Nations prison entrants had been to youth detention at least once before.

Figure 8.1: Prison entrants, previous number of times in an adult prison, by sex and Indigenous identity, 2022

This horizontal bar chart shows the number of times all entrants, and entrants by sex and Indigenous identity had previously been in adult prison.

Notes

  1. Proportions are representative of this data collection only, and not the entire prison population.
  2. Excludes Victoria, which, did not provide data for this item.

Source: Entrants form, 2022 NPHDC.