How many prisons and people took part?
The National Prisoner Health Data Collection (NPHDC) collected data from 73 prisons in participating states and territories in Australia (excluding Victoria). These included 72 public prisons run by the state or territory governments and 1 private prison run by an independent provider.
Periodic detention centres and court cells administered by corrective services, youth detention centres, immigration detention centres and secure psychiatric facilities were excluded.
Prison entrants, prison dischargees and people in custody visiting the prison clinic were invited to participate in the data collection. They could choose not to participate without consequence. A prison clinic visit was defined as any consultation for which an entry was made in the health service record. The clinic services provided varied between prisons and between states and territories, so not all health services reported on were available at every site. Data for prison entrants, prison dischargees and people in custody visiting the prison clinic were collected over a 2-week period. Data for medications dispensed to prisoners were collected on one day only.
Prison entrants and dischargees throughout this report
Prison entrants and prison dischargees in this data collection were different groups of people. The surveys of these 2 different groups were administered during the same 2-week data collection period in 2022.
Entrants forms were completed by 371 of the 2,082 (18%) people who entered prison during the data collection period. Over the same period, 431 of the 1,854 (23%) people discharged from prison completed Dischargees forms.
Total entrant and dischargee numbers over the data collection period are sourced from the Establishment form. All participating prisons, except one, completed an Establishment form.
Anecdotal feedback from people in prisons suggests that some of the clinic and medications data were not captured for a number of reasons, including (for example) staffing constraints that affected data collection or obtaining participant consent.
How are people in prison defined in the data collection?
People in prison were defined as adults, aged 18 or over, who were held in custody and whose confinement was the responsibility of a correctional facility. This definition included sentenced people in prison and those held in custody awaiting trial or sentencing (remandees).
Youth offenders, people in psychiatric custody, police cell detainees, people held in immigration detention centres, or Australians held in overseas prisons, were not included.
People aged at least 18, held in full-time custody in correctional facilities in Australia were in scope for the clinic and medication components of the NPHDC.
Who is a prison entrant?
A prison entrant is a person aged at least 18 and entering full-time custody, either on remand or on a sentence. People currently in prison who were transferring from one prison to another were not included as prison entrants.
Who is a prison dischargee?
A prison dischargee is a person aged at least 18, who is expected to be released from custody during, or within 4 weeks, of the data collection period. People being transferred from one facility to another were not included as prison dischargees.
Profile of prison entrants
The majority (84%) of the 371 prison entrants in the 2022 data collection were males. One entrant (0.3%) identified as transgender.
The median age of prison entrants was 35; the youngest person was 18 and the oldest was 68.
- 7 in 10 (70%) entrants were on remand, awaiting trial or sentencing.
- 19% had been in youth detention previously and 69% had been in prison before, including 41% in the last 12 months.
- A large proportion (49%) of prison entrants identified as First Nations Australians (Table 1.1).
| Jurisdiction | Prison entrants (number) | Male (%) | First Nations (%) | Median age (years) | Age range (years) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NSW | 160 | 81 | 39 | 34.5 | 18–68 |
| Qld | 70 | 93 | 30 | 36.0 | 23–63 |
| WA | 30 | 80 | 73 | 36.0 | 18–68 |
| SA | 33 | 64 | 49 | 38.0 | 19–62 |
| Tas | 6 | 100 | 50 | 31.5 | 25–42 |
| ACT | 10 | 90 | 30 | 41.5 | 31–60 |
| NT | 62 | 92 | 90 | 33.0 | 19–60 |
| Total | 371 | 84 | 49 | 35.0 | 18–68 |
Notes
- Numbers are representative of this data collection only and not the entire prison population.
- Excludes Victoria, which did not provide data for this item.
- State and territory data should be interpreted with caution due to low response rates for entrants and dischargees in some jurisdictions.
Source: Entrants form, 2022 NPHDC.
Profile of prison dischargees
Most (85%) of the 431 prison dischargees in the data collection were males. Two dischargees (0.5%) identified as transgender.
The median age of dischargees was 35; the youngest was 18 and the oldest was 88 (Table 1.2). Nationally, about 1 in 5 (21%) dischargees reported being in prison for less than 3 months, and about 1 in 8 (13%) for 2 years or more. A large proportion (46%) of prison dischargees identified as First Nations Australians (Table 1.2).
| Jurisdiction | Prison dischargees (number) | Male (%) | First Nations (%) | Median age (years) | Age range (years) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NSW | 226 | 86 | 36 | 35 | 18–83 |
| Qld | 19 | 95 | 37 | 32 | 21–53 |
| WA | 50 | 88 | 66 | 37 | 19–68 |
| SA | 50 | 72 | 34 | 36 | 18–88 |
| Tas | 10 | 80 | 20 | 39 | 25–59 |
| ACT | 8 | 88 | 0 | 33 | 25–45 |
| NT | 68 | 84 | 88 | 32 | 20–59 |
| Total | 431 | 85 | 46 | 35 | 18–88 |
Notes
- Numbers are representative of this data collection only and not the entire prison population.
- Excludes Victoria, which did not provide data for this item.
- State and territory data should be interpreted with caution due to low response rates for entrants and dischargees in some jurisdictions.
Source: Dischargees form, 2022 NPHDC.