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Urgent reform required as Australia’s prison bill tops $6.8 billion a year

Justice Reform Initiative Media Release, 5 February 2025

Australia now spends more than $6.8 billion per year on prisons, reigniting calls for urgent reform to address failed ‘tough on crime’ policies which push more people through the prison gates.

The latest Report on Government Services (RoGS), released by the Productivity Commission late Tuesday, shows that total net operating and capital costs for Australian prisons have soared to $6.8 billion per year, up 30% from 2019-20.  

While there has been a reduction in the overall rate of people imprisoned nationally over the last five years, the prison population has now returned to pre-COVID levels and there has been an increase in the number and rate of First Nations people incarcerated.

On average, 43,001 people per day were held in Australian prisons during 2023-24. More than one-third (34.5%) of people imprisoned by state and territory Governments are Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. This proportion is significantly higher in the Northern Territory (88.3%), Western Australia (43.9%) and Queensland (38.5%).

Justice Reform Initiative Executive Director Dr Mindy Sotiri said the latest data highlighted the critical need for policymakers to steer away from punitive law-and-order policies that funnelled more people into prison.

“Jailing is failing all Australians,” Dr Sotiri said. “Our overreliance on prisons costs taxpayers an exorbitant amount. At the same time, all of the evidence shows that prisons don’t work to make communities safer; they don’t work to prevent reoffending, and they also cause great harm.”

“The ROGS data shows the majority of people who go to prison return to prison with a new sentence within two years of their release. Evidence-based solutions to reducing crime exist outside of prisons and outside of the justice system. We can’t build safer communities by building prison beds. We need to look at what works to address the drivers of contact with the justice system.”

“We need to properly resource and expand proven support services in the community including First Nations led responses, and across all points of the justice system, to break cycles of justice system involvement.”

Key insights from the RoGS data include:

  • More than half of people who leave prison in Australia return with a new sentence within two years. The proportion is highest in the Northern Territory, where 60% return within two years.
  • Over the last five years there have been decreases in the rate of imprisonment in NSW, Victoria, Western Australia and the ACT. There have been increases in the rate of imprisonment in Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania and the Northern Territory.
  • Western Australia has the highest rate of First Nations imprisonment in Australia (3,994.5 per 100,000), followed by the Northern Territory (3,706.2 per 100,000).
  • Although Western Australia has seen an overall reduction in the rate of non-Indigenous incarceration over the last five years, it has seen an increase in the rate of First Nations incarceration.
  • The rate of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in prison has increased nationally by 8% over the last five years, driven by increases in Queensland, Western Australia, the Northern Territory and NSW.
  • In the Northern Territory, the total adult prison population has increased by 28% over the last five years (the largest jurisdictional increase in prison population in Australia)

Dr Sotiri said the direction taken by newly elected governments in Queensland and the Northern Territory was likely to further increase the number of people in prison and drive the costs of incarceration higher for Australian taxpayers without addressing the root causes of crime.

“’Tough-on-crime’ rhetoric and policy simply drive more people through a revolving door in and out of the criminal justice system,” she said.

“We need to invest in evidence-based programs outside of prison that offer proven results in improving community safety.”

The Justice Reform Initiative has recently published a series of position papers on key reform areas including early intervention, as well as reports outlining the success of evidence-based alternatives to prison.

Media contact:  Pia Akerman, 0412 346 746


The Initiative respectfully acknowledges and supports the current and longstanding efforts of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to reduce the numbers of Indigenous people incarcerated in Australia and, importantly, the leadership role which Indigenous-led organisations continue to play on this issue. We also acknowledge the work of many other individuals and organisations seeking change, such as those focused on the rate of imprisonment for women, people with mental health issues, people with disability and others.

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