Listen to Australian and world news, and follow trending topics with SBS News Podcasts.
TRANSCRIPT
Australia's average daily prison population is at its highest level in eight years, according to data released this week by the Productivity Commission.
More than 45,000 adults on average were locked up each day in the 2024-2025 financial year- around 2,500 more than the previous financial year.
With the swelling prison population comes substantial costs.
The Commission's report revealing the yearly price tag of Australia's prisons has gone up by more than 49 per cent over the last ten years.
Robert Tickner is a former federal cabinet minister.
He's now Chair of the Justice Reform Initiative.
He says the figures show billions of dollars a year are being funneled into an approach that's proven to fail.
"That we need to build more and more prisons and more and more youth detention centres just on the American model, which has led America to become the incarceration nation. Well, we're a long way behind them, but boy, we're catching up... we're now spending $7.3 billion dollars every year on our prisons and another billion on youth detention centres."
But...while prison numbers and costs are escalating... many crime rates are coming down.
Household crimes like property damage, break-ins and car thefts have all dropped over the past ten years, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics ((A-B-S)) crime victimisation database.
Most categories of physical crimes have also decreased, including assaults and robberies, while incidents of sexual assault have risen slightly.
Mr Tickner says it is clear the spike in prisoner numbers is less to do with rising crime, than it is a result of harsher laws.
"The truth of the matter is that the offending levels in a whole lot of major areas that are measured in terms of crime rates are going down. That's the extraordinary thing. But what we're really seeing here is this focus on increasing the numbers of people going into prison. And this isn't just a view for one side of politics or the other. "
This trend toward tougher crime policies can be seen across the states and territories - and across political boundaries.
The Queensland coalition government enacted its 'Adult time for Adult crime' policy in 2024 as part of their 'Making Queensland Safer' framework, and Victoria's Labor Party followed suit, introducing new 'Adult time for Violent Crime' laws in 2025.
Victoria also enacted what it called the toughest bail laws in Australia, which included tougher bail tests for repeat offenders, and new offences for breaching bail rules.
New South Wales similarly tightened its bail laws in 2024, as did the Northern Territory last year.
Northern Territory Minister for Corrections, Gerard Maleyn has defended the state's harsher laws in a statement to SBS, which in part reads:
"Crime in the Northern Territory had reached an unacceptable level, with serious offences committed by offenders repeatedly released on bail. This Government has strengthened consequences for repeat offending, tightened bail laws and backed police with the authority they need to protect the public... Our focus remains unchanged – community safety is our number one priority, and the message is clear: if you break the law, you will be held accountable.”
But experts say harsher bail laws are having wide-reaching impacts.
Professor Thalia Anthony if from the University of Technology, Sydney, faculty of law.
She says, across the country, tougher laws are making it increasingly difficult to prove a person should be granted bail.
"We are seeing that for many of these crimes where there was a presumption of innocence and therefore people were entitled to bail in the past, there's almost a presumption that the person will commit another crime and therefore people are no longer entitled, they no longer have the right to bail."
She says what these stricter bail laws means is more people in prison on remand, spending weeks, months and even years in custody while they await trial.
"So basically when someone is refused bail, firstly by the police and then by a court, they go straight to prison and sometimes that period can be a number of months. Sometimes it can look more like years if the crime is serious. So even if the person is acquitted, they don't get any credit or compensation for being locked up for that period. So it really undermines that right to fair process."
In 2025, the number of prisoners on remand was more than 40 per cent of the total prison population.
Professor Anthony says for certain groups, such as women and First Nations people, the proportion of those in custody awaiting trial is especially high.
"What we're seeing is particular spikes for certain groups such as women in New South Wales, we saw in the last month have an incredible increase. It's about 60% of women in New South Wales prisons are on remand."
According to the latest A-B-S data, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander prisoners continue to be drastically over-represented in Australia's incarcerated population, accounting for 37 per cent of all adult prisoners.
Nerita Waight is Chief Executive of the Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service and acting Chair of the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Service.
She says tougher bail laws are playing a huge part in the consistently increasing number of First Nations people in prison.
"This has primarily been driven of course by punitive changes to bail legislation across the country. And this has started in changes in terms of drug cause and compelling reasons tests to far more punitive and stricter arrangements. And that has also meant that the unsentenced population of aboriginal prisoners across the country skyrocketed."
Experts say the high rates of recidivism revealed in this week's Productivity Commission report are a clear indication the system is failing.
The findings show more than 44 per cent of prisoners released in the 2022-23 financial year returned to prison within two years.
Those numbers were higher in all states and territories for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
Ms Waight says it's a clear sign the systemic problems that increase risk of imprisonment and re-offending are being ignored.
"A lot of the time they have significant mental health issues coupled with disability, coupled with chronic homelessness, and often have received little or no help in relation to any substance abuse issues, or any other social emotional well being issues that they have faced across their life because those programs and supports don't exist. Because rather than investing in those, we spend in a recent example in Victoria, 1.6 billion (dollars) on prisons, but nothing on the supports that people need to thrive."
Mr Tickner is the former federal Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, and former principal solicitor for the New South Wales Aboriginal Legal Service.
He says the focus urgently needs to shift away from investment in prisons, toward these underlying issues perpetuating cycles of incarceration.
"They're essentially released on the street, homeless, without a job. And of course, what happens in those circumstances is that people get caught up in the system again. What we want is a fresh start. And in Australia, there are so few politicians who ever talk about the importance of giving people leaving prison an opportunity for a fresh start."
