M2 - Learner Manual

9.22. Incarceration

In September 2017, Indigenous prisoners represented 27% of the total full-time adult prisoner population, whilst accounting for approximately 2% of the total Australian population aged 18 years and over. The adult imprisonment rate increased 77% between 2000 and 2015.

The detention rate for Indigenous children aged 10-17 years was 26 times the rate for non-Indigenous youth in 2016.

In 2008, almost half of Indigenous males (48%) and 21% of females aged 15 years or over had been formally charged by police over their lifetime.