Graph 20 Prisoners, by age group and sex - 30 June 2004

Graph 21

Proportion of prisoners who are Indigenous (a)

122. At 30 June 2004, almost half (47 per cent) of all sentenced prisoners were convicted with a most serious offence involving violence or the threat of violence, including homicide and related offences (10 per cent), sexual assault and related offences (11 per cent), acts intended to cause injury (assault) (14 per cent) and robbery/extortion (12 per cent). A further 13 per cent of sentenced prisoners had a most serious offence of unlawful entry with intent, and 10 per cent were serving sentences for a most serious offence involving illicit drugs.

Table 38

Sentenced prisoners, by most serious offence - 30 June 2004

	NSW (a)	Vic.	Qld	SA	WA	Tas.	NT	ACT in ACT	ACT in NSW (a)	ACT total	Aust. (b)
Homicide and related   offences	619	368	484	126	221	49	54	-	12	12	1 921
Acts intended to cause   injury	1 152	217	614	61	322	69	190	15	11	26	2 640
Sexual assault and   related offences	593	362	627	121	359	58	61	n.p.	n.p.	18	2 182
Dangerous or   negligent acts   endangering persons	53	29	97	n.p.	98	9	15	n.p.	n.p.	5	307
Abduction and related   offences	64	28	8	n.p.	14	-	3	n.p.	-	n.p.	121
Robbery, extortion   and related offences	930	357	527	113	397	28	14	n.p.	n.p.	19	2 367
Unlawful entry with   intent	900	388	471	139	415	56	58	7	12	19	2 434
Theft and related   offences	460	340	154	38	180	22	18	15	12	27	1 227
Deception and related   offences	238	103	192	64	53	15	6	n.p.	n.p.	5	674
Illicit drug offences	877	350	370	76	211	12	20	9	5	14	1 925
Weapons and   explosive offences	66	13	5	4	5	6	n.p.	n.p.	-	n.p.	104
Property damage and   environmental   pollution	57	35	56	54	22	13	n.p.	n.p.	n.p.	n.p.	250
Public order offences	61	30	6	n.p.	24	n.p.	-	-	n.p.	n.p.	124
Road traffic and motor   vehicle regulatory   offences	558	105	132	21	144	13	86	14	3	17	1 073
Offences against   justice procedures,   government security   and government   operations	797	266	126	144	160	24	37	8	23	31	1 562
Miscellaneous   offences	33	19	210	n.p.	43	n.p.	11	3	-	3	325
Total	7 458	3 010	4 079	970	2 668	379	587	85	118	203	19 236

Source: Prisoners in Australia, 2004 (4517.0).

(a) The majority of full-time prisoners sentenced in the ACT are held in NSW prisons.

(b) The ACT in NSW figures are a subset of the NSW figures and are not separately counted in the Australian totals.

Sentence length

123. Aggregate length of sentence is a measure of the sentences imposed on an offender, sometimes taking multiple offences into account. Average sentence length excludes prisoners who receive an indeterminate type of sentence such as “life” as well as periodic detainee sentences. At 30 June 2004 the average aggregate sentence of all prisoners sentenced to a specific term was 4.9 years. Nearly one in four sentenced prisoners (23 per cent) had an aggregate sentence of 2-5 years, and prisoners with a sentence of 5-10 years comprised 22 per cent of the prisoner population.

124. The time a prisoner is expected to serve in custody depends upon the sentence originally handed down, the system of remissions and the forms of parole available. Taking into account the earliest dates for release of sentenced prisoners, the average expected time to serve at 30 June 2005 was 1.9 years.

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