Punishment in Australia

Punishment in Australia arises when an individual has been accused or convicted of breaking the law through the Australian criminal justice system. Australia uses prisons, as well as community corrections (various non-custodial punishments such as parole, probation, community service etc.).^[1] When awaiting trial, prisoners may be kept in specialised remand centres or within other prisons.

The death penalty has been abolished,^[2] and corporal punishment is no longer used.^[3] Prison labour occurs in Australia, with prisoners involved in many types of paid work. Before the colonisation of Australia by Europeans, Indigenous Australians had their own traditional punishments, some of which are still practised.^[4] The most severe punishment by law which can be imposed in Australia is life imprisonment. In the most extreme cases of murder, and some severe sex offences, such as aggravated rape, courts in the states and territories can impose life imprisonment without parole, thus ordering the convicted person to spend the rest of their life in prison.

Prisons in Australia are operated by state-based correctional services departments, for the detention of minimum, medium, maximum and supermax security prisoners convicted in state and federal courts, as well as prisoners on remand. In the June quarter of 2018, there were 42,855 people imprisoned in Australia, which represents an incarceration rate of 222 prisoners per 100,000 adult population,^[5] or 172 per 100,000 total population.^[6] This represents a sharp increase from previous decades.^[7] In 2016-2017 the prison population was not representative of the Australian population, for example, 91% of prisoners were male,^[8] while males were only half of the population, and 27% of prisoners were Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islanders,^[8] while Indigenous people were only 2.8% of the population.^[9] In 2018, 18.4% of prisoners in Australia were held in private prisons.^[8]

In the 2016-17 financial year, Australia spent $3.1 billion on prisons and $0.5 billion on community corrections.^[10]

Australia also detains non-citizens in a separate system of immigration detention centres, operated by the federal Department of Home Affairs, pending their deportation and to prevent them from entering the Australian community.^[11] Controversially this includes the detention of asylum seekers, including children, while their claims to be refugees are determined.^[12][13] In 2023, the High Court of Australia ruled that indefinite detention was unconstitutional if the detainees had no foreseeable prospect of deportation (for instance stateless individuals). The court stated that in such cases indefinite detention amounted to punishment, which is the purview of the courts - not the executive government.^[14] It has been stated the different purposes make little practical difference between immigration detention and imprisonment,^[15] and that detainees often experience immigration detention as if it were punishment.^[16]