Imprisonment and prisoner re-entry in Australia

Abstract

The aims of this brief commentary are twofold. First, I want to offer a snapshot of the prison population in Australia and to make specific reference to the situation pertaining to Indigenous persons. Second, I want to comment on the connection between imprisonment and post-release life (the process of re-entry) in the Australian context. As shall be seen, Australia?although still arguably a 'low incarcerating nation'?is steadily moving towards an imprisonment rate that may soon require this apparently benign descriptor to be revised. The rise in prisoner numbers, of course, has less to do with more people doing more crime than it relates to changes in the intensity with which particular types of offences are policed (especially breaches of court orders) matched with increases in the numbers of prisoners serving longer sentences. Both these scenarios fundamentally impact the process of re-entry?the former by bringing more people into the system for shorter periods thereby placing more pressure on scant post-release services and resources and the other by delaying the process of re-entry thereby further entrenching the process of institutionalisation and the likelihood of recidivism.