Australian prison population rises to 8-year high

CANBERRA, Feb. 4 (Xinhua) -- The number of people being held in Australian prisons rose to an eight-year high in the 2024-25 financial year, according to government data.

The data from the Productivity Commission (PC), the federal government's independent research and advisory body on economic, social and environmental issues, revealed that the national average daily prison population hit 45,526 for FY 2024-25.

It marked an increase of 5.9 percent from FY 2023-24 and the highest figure in eight years.

The PC said that the net operating expenditure for Australia's prisons was 5.43 billion Australian dollars (about 3.8 billion U.S. dollars) in 2024-25, an increase of 4.3 percent since 2023-24 and of 49.3 percent over the last 10 years.

The proportion of adults released from Australian prisons who returned to prison with a new sentence within two years also rose in 2024-25 to a six-year high of 44.5 percent.

Among Indigenous Australians, the two-year reoffending rate in 2024-25 was 57.0 percent compared to 54.8 percent in 2023-24.

The report found that 22 people died in police custody across Australia in 2024-25, down from an 18-year high of 41 in 2022-23. Enditem