People in contact with the criminal justice system

On this page:


The criminal justice system comprises 3 parts, the police (investigative element), courts (adjudicative element) and correctional services (corrective element). Information on alcohol and other drug use from each section of the criminal justice system is presented below.

Key findings

The consumption of alcohol and other drugs remains more prevalent among people in contact with the criminal justice system than the general population

Alcohol use

Prison entrants in 2018 were more likely than the general population to be non-drinkers, however those who did drink were more likely to drink at high risk levels than people in the general community

Alcohol use

In 2018, more than two-thirds (67%) of prison entrants smoked tobacco daily

Tobacco smoking

Two-thirds (65%) of prison entrants in 2018 reported using illicit drugs in the 12 months before incarceration

Illicit drugs

In 2020, the most commonly detected drugs among police detainees were amphetamine-type stimulants (52%) and cannabis (45%)

Illicit drugs

Over three-quarters (77%) of police detainees who provided a urine sample in 2021 tested positive for at least one drug type

Illicit drugs

View the People in contact with criminal justice systems fact sheet >

Police

Data from Recorded Crime – Offenders, found that 14% of offenders had a principal offence that was illicit drug related in 2021-22. Illicit drug offences (50,920 offenders) were the third most common principal offence nationally in 2021-22 (acts intended to cause injury,83,926 offenders, were the most common principal offence). The number of illicit drug offences decreased by 19% (down 11,778 offenders) between 2020–21 and 2021-22, the sixth consecutive year of decreases.

In 2021-22, the principal youth offender rate of illicit drug offences (3,503) decreased by 14% from 2020-21. This is the lowest recorded rate since 2008-09 and the seventh consecutive decrease (ABS 2023c).

Courts

Data from Criminal Courts, Australia for 2021-2022 showed that, excluding organisations and transfers to other court levels, most defendants had their offences finalised in the Magistrates’ Courts (92%, or 463,527).

  • Illicit drug offences were the 4th most common principal offence, accounting for almost 1 in 10 (9%, or 38,959) defendants finalised in the Magistrates’ Courts. Of these:
    • over 3 in 5 (68%, or 26,358 defendants) were possession or use offences.
    • almost three-quarters (74%, or 28,945) of defendants were male.
  • Excluding transfers, illicit drug offences remained steady from 2010–11 to 2018–19. The number of illicit drug offences has been variable between 2018–19 and 2021–22 (38,959 in 2021-22, a decrease from 50,958 in 2020–21) (ABS 2023a, Table 1).
  • Of defendants proven guilty in the Magistrates’ Courts for a principal offence of illicit drug offences (35,877 defendants), over 3 in 5 (62%, or 22,209) were sentenced to fines. A further 7.5% were given a custodial sentence (ABS 2023a, Table 10).

The introduction of COVID-19 restrictions in March 2020 led to the deferral of some cases and temporary court closures nationwide, which affected the number of defendants finalised in Criminal Courts. This should be taken into account when comparing the 2021–22 reference period with earlier years.

Corrective services

A snapshot of the adult (aged 18 and over) prison population at 30 June 2022 showed there were 40,591 prisoners in Australia. This represents 201 prisoners per 100,000 adult population and is a 6% increase from 2021 (ABS 2023b).

Young people under youth justice supervision

On an average day in 2021-22, 4,536 young people aged 10 and over were under youth justice supervision. A total of 8,982 young people were supervised at some time during the year, down from 9,352 in 2020-21 (AIHW 2022b). On an average day in 2021-22, more than 4 in 5 (82%) of young people under supervision were supervised in the community. However, around 1 in 5 (18%) were in detention and some were supervised in both the community and detention on the same day.

In 2021-22, the youth justice supervision data from this period coincides with the presence of COVID-19 in Australia and related social restrictions. Further research is required to better understand the impact of COVID-19 on youth justice supervision (AIHW 2023).

Tobacco smoking

The National Tobacco Strategy 2012–2018 recognises that prisoners have some of the highest levels of smoking and that smoking is common among groups that are often over-represented in the prison population (IGCD 2012). Recently, there have been a range of smoking bans introduced in Australian prisons and most correctional facilities are now smoke-free (DoH 2016).

Data from the National Prisoner Health Data Collection (NPHDC) showed that rates of smoking among prisoners is substantially higher than in the general community. In 2018:

  • Three-quarters (75%) of prison entrants currently smoked tobacco.
  • Tasmania had the highest proportion of current smokers (90%), followed by South Australia (83%). Queensland (68%) had the lowest proportion.
  • More than two-thirds (67%) of prison entrants smoked tobacco daily (Figure CRIM1).
  • The average age a prisoner smoked their first full cigarette was 14.1 years (AIHW 2019).

In the general population, findings from the 2019 National Drug Strategy Household Survey (NDSHS) showed that of people aged 14 and over:

  • 11.0% smoked on a daily basis.
  • 14.0% were current smokers.
  • The average age of their first full cigarette was 16.6 years (AIHW 2020).

Figure CRIM1: Smoking status for prison entrants and the general population, 2018 and 2019 (percent)

The figure shows that 75% of prison entrants reported being a current smoker in 2018, and 67% reported being a daily smoker. These are higher proportions than for the general population, where 14.0% of people were current smokers and 11.0% were daily smokers in 2019. Conversely, prison entrants were less likely than the general population to be ex-smokers (10.0% compared with 22.8%) or never smokers (13.0% compared with 63.1%).

View data tables >

Alcohol consumption

The risky consumption of alcohol has been found to be strongly associated with adverse outcomes including criminal offending (Fergusson, Boden & Horwood 2013).

The Drug Use Monitoring in Australia (DUMA) program is an ongoing monitoring program that captures information on illicit drug use among police detainees. Data from the 2021 DUMA indicate that alcohol consumption is common among police detainees.

  • Over one in 4 (27%) police detainees reported consuming alcohol in the 24 hours prior to their arrest, with a median of 10 standard drinks consumed.
  •  Among those who reported drinking alcohol in the 30 days before interview, 3 in 10 (30%) reported that alcohol use contributed to their arrest (Voce & Sullivan 2022).

Prison entrants in 2018 were more likely than the general population to be non-drinkers, however those that did drink were more likely to drink at high risk levels than people in the general community (refer to Box CRIM1 for information on how alcohol related harm is calculated for prison entrants). Specifically:

  • Prison entrants aged 25–44 years were twice as likely to consume alcohol in greater quantities that those the same age in the general community (e.g. 7 or more standard drinks on a usual day of drinking) (AIHW 2019).
  • During the 12 months prior to prison, 34% of prison entrants consumed alcohol at levels that placed them at high risk of alcohol-related harm (AIHW 2019).

Prison entrants in the Northern Territory (60%) and Tasmania (40%) were the most likely to be at high-risk of alcohol-related harm, while those in South Australia (58%) and Queensland (35%) were the most likely to report that they do not drink (AIHW 2019, S236).

Box CRIM1: Calculating alcohol-related harm for prison entrants

The proportion of prison entrants who are at risk of alcohol-related harm as determined using questions on alcohol consumption from the WHO’s Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test (AUDIT) screening instrument. The AUDIT tool alcohol harm risk profile does not align with the alcohol risk guidelines and as such the results are not comparable to the general population (AIHW 2019).

Illicit drugs

It is commonly understood that there is a link between the use of illicit drugs and involvement in the criminal justice system. Illicit drug use has been identified as a primary motivating factor in non-violent property offences such as burglary and theft (Kopak & Hoffman 2014).

The Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission (ACIC) collects national illicit drug arrest data annually from federal, state and territory police services to inform the Illicit Drug Data Report (IDDR). According to the 2019–20 IDDR, there was a record 166,321 national illicit drug arrests in 2019–20, an increase from 153,377 arrests in 2018–19. The number of national illicit drug arrests has increased 96% over the last decade (from 84,738 arrests in 2010–11) (ACIC 2021). Most (88%) of the national illicit drug arrests in 2019–20 were for consumer related offences (Figure CRIM2).

The Prisoners in Australia report contains annual national information on prisoners in custody as at 30 June 2021. Key findings include:

  • Prisoners with an illicit drug offence declined between 2021 and 2022 for both males (a decrease of 13%, or 725 prisoners) and females (a decrease of 14%, or 94 prisoners).
  • Over the period 30 June 2021 to 30 June 2022, unsentenced prisoners decreased by 2% (318 offenders) to 14,864. Of that, illicit drug offences were down 18% (422) (ABS 2023b).

Figure CRIM2: Consumer, provider or total national illicit drug arrests, by drug type, 2010–11 to 2019–20

This figure shows that in 2019–20, most consumer arrests were for cannabis (69,406) followed by amphetamine-type stimulants (43,428).

View data tables >

Information related to criminal activity and contact with the criminal justice system is collected as part of the Ecstasy and Related Drugs Reporting System (EDRS) for people who regularly use ecstasy or other stimulants and the Illicit Drug Reporting System (IDRS) for people who regularly inject drugs.

Of the 2022 EDRS participants:

  • 7% had been arrested in the past year.
  • The most common self-reported crimes in the last month included drug dealing (23%) and property crime (20%).
  • A minor proportion (6%) of the sample reported a lifetime prison history, stable from 2021 (4%) (Sutherland et al. 2022a).

Of the 2022 IDRS participants:

  • 23% reported having been arrested in the 12 months preceding interview, decreasing from 31% in 2021.
  • 3 in 5 (60%) participants reported a lifetime prison history, remaining stable to 2021 (60%).
  • The most common crimes reported in the last month were property crime (23%) and selling drugs for cash profit (23%) (Sutherland et al. 2022b; Figure 39).

Due to COVID-19 restrictions being imposed in various jurisdictions during data collection periods for both the IDRS and the EDRS, interviews in 2020, 2021 and 2022 were delivered face-to-face as well as via telephone. This change in methodology should be considered when comparing data from the 2020, 2021 and 2022 samples relative to previous years.

Data from the DUMA program indicate that drug use is common among police detainees. In 2021, 45% of police detainees had used cannabis in the past 30 days and 41% had used methamphetamine (Voce & Sullivan 2022). 

Among police detainees who provided a urine sample:

  • Almost 4 in 5 (77%) tested positive to any drug, and 41% tested positive to more than one drug type.
  • The most commonly detected drugs were amphetamine-type stimulants (52% of detainees), cannabis (45%) and opioids (18%) (Voce & Sullivan 2022; Figure CRIM3).

In 2021, data collection was suspended during quarter 3 and the Sydney collection was relocated from Bankstown to Surry Hills in quarter 4 due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. This should be considered when comparing 2021 data with previous years.

The Health of Australia’s Prisoners 2018 reports that overall, two-thirds (65%) of prison entrants reported using illicit drugs in the 12 months before incarceration, with the most common drug being methamphetamine (43%) followed by cannabis (40%) (Figure CRIM3). The Australian Capital Territory (89%) and Tasmania (86%) have the highest rates of illicit drug use for prison entrants, while South Australia (58%) and the Northern Territory (40%) had the lowest (AIHW 2019, Table S225).

In contrast, rates of drug use among the general population were substantially lower, with 1 in 6 (16.4%) people aged 14 and over reporting the use of any illicit drug in the past 12 months (AIHW 2020).

Figure CRIM3: Recent drug use among police detainees (2021) or prison entrants (2018), by drug type (percent)

The figure shows that, in 2021, 77% of police detainees in the Drug Use Monitoring in Australia collection tested positive for any drug via urinalysis. Methamphetamine was the most common drug in positive urine tests (50% of detainees), followed by cannabis (45%), heroin (8%), and cocaine (2%).

View data tables >

Cannabis

Data from the 2019–20 IDDR found that:

  • There were 76,669 national cannabis arrests in 2019–20, with the number of arrests increasing 30% over the last decade (58,760 in 2010–11).
  • Cannabis (46%) accounted for the greatest proportion of national illicit drug arrests in 2019–20 and most of these arrests (91%) were consumer arrests.
  • While cannabis continues to account for the greatest proportion of national illicit drug arrests, this proportion has decreased over the last decade (down from 69% in 2010–11) (ACIC 2021; Table S1.17).

Data from the DUMA found that over 2 in 5 (45%) of police detainees reported using cannabis in the past 30 days in 2021 (Voce & Sullivan 2022). In 2021, data were not collected during Quarter 3 and the Sydney collection was relocated from Bankstown to Surry Hills in Quarter 4 due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

Methamphetamines and other stimulants

Data from the 2019–20 IDDR found that:

  • Amphetamine-type stimulants (ATS) accounted for the second largest proportion (30%) of national illicit drug arrests in 2019–20. 
  • The proportion of arrests attributed to ATS has increased over the last decade (from 15% in 2010–11) (Table S1.17).
  • The number of national cocaine arrests has increased 543% over the last decade, from 839 in 2010–11 to a record 5,393 in 2019–20 (ACIC 2021; Table S1.17).

Urinalysis data from the DUMA showed that, in 2021:

  • Over half (52%) of police detainees tested positive to amphetamine-type stimulants.
  • Almost all (95%) detainees who tested positive to amphetamine-type stimulants tested positive to methamphetamine specifically.
  • Small proportions of detainees tested positive to cocaine (2%) and less than 1 percent detections for MDMA (Voce & Sullivan 2022).

Data for 2021 were not collected during Quarter 3 and the Sydney collection was relocated from Bankstown to Surry Hills in Quarter 4 due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. This should be considered when comparing 2021 data with previous years.

Opioids, including heroin

Data from the 2019–20 IDDR found that:

  • Heroin and other opioids accounted for 2.0% of national illicit drug arrests in 2019–20.
  • The proportion of arrests attributed to heroin and other opioids has decreased over the last decade (from 3.0% in 2010–11) (ACIC 2021; Table S1.17).

Urinalysis data from the DUMA found that almost 1 in 5 (18%) police detainees tested positive to opioids in 2021 (Figure CRIM3). This included heroin (4% of detainees), buprenorphine (11%), methadone (2%), and other (unidentified) opioids (4%). Urinalysis screening cannot distinguish non-medical use of pharmaceutical opioids (buprenorphine, methadone).

Data for 2021 were not collected during Quarter 3 and the Sydney collection was relocated from Bankstown to Surry Hills in Quarter 4 due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. This should be considered when comparing 2021 data with previous years.

Health and harms

The NPHDC includes a number of indicators regarding prisoner health and harms. In 2018:

  • 40% of prison entrants had ever been told they have a mental health disorder (including drug and alcohol abuse).
  • 10% of prison entrants experienced ‘a lot’ of distress due to alcohol, tobacco and other drug use, while 17% experienced ‘a little’ (AIHW 2019).

Further, data from the National Prison Entrants’ Blood Borne Virus and Risk Behaviour Survey in 2013 found that almost 1 in 5 (18%) prison entrants had shared injecting drug equipment in the previous month, placing them at risk of communicable disease (Kopak & Hoffman 2014 as cited in AIHW 2015). Less than 1 in 10 (8%) prison dischargees reported using a needle and syringe that had been used by someone else, while in prison (AIHW 2019).

Treatment

Treatment data collected for the AODTS NMDS are released twice each year, via an early insights report in April and a detailed report mid-year.

Data from the AODTS NMDS showed that in 2020–21, diversion referrals fell from 14% in 2011–12 to 9% in 2020–21 (AIHW 2022).

The NPHDC found that opioid substitution treatment (OST) was currently being undertaken by 7% of prison entrants and 7% of prison dischargees. Around 1 in 7 (13%) prison entrants reported ever having been on an OST (AIHW 2019).