Exploring the Indigenous Population of Australian Prisons.
Here is the representation of Indigenous People within Australia.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders make up 3.3% of the general population of Australia.
This minority is not carried over into the prisons, where Indigenous People are in fact over-represented by a substantial amount.
Why is there a discrepancy between these two populations, and where is it most harmful?
Non-Indigenous People
Imprisonment Rate per State for Indigenous and Non-Indigenous Prisoners.
The imprisonment rates from 2015-2019 clearly shows an over-representation of Indigenous prisoners compared to non-Indigenous.
We see how Western Australia’s high prison rates for Indigenous prisoners is far greater than anywhere else in Australia, representing 4 105 prisoners per 100 000 Indigenous people. This could be related to the “frontier mentality” of the police, or racism being more prominent in Western Australia.
4517.0 - Prisoners in Australia, 2019. (2020). Retrieved 2 June 2020, from https://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/DetailsPage/4517.02019?OpenDocument