Police, prison spending up and jails filling, new figures show
Tasmania spends more per capita on police than any other state and is sending more people to jail despite fewer cases making it to court, national figures show.
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Tasmania spends more per capita on police than any other state and is sending more people to jail despite fewer criminal cases going before the state’s courts, national figures show.
And the state’s prison system is among the nation’s most expensive and violent – but delivers the worst results in terms of rehabilitation.
The Productivity Commission has released data comparing the nation’s police, courts and corrective services.
The figures reveal Tasmania spends $706 for police services per capita compared with a national average of $606.
More than 72 per cent of Tasmania report being satisfied by police services — the highest in the nation.
Tasmania Police were also the most likely to be regarded as professional, to treat people fairly and equally, and be honest than police in any other state or territory.
As police numbers rose, the number of criminal case lodgements with Tasmania courts have decreased from 18,700 in 2014/15 and 20,100 in 2017/18 to 17,703 in 2023/24.
The number of criminal cases finalised by the state’s courts has fallen more than 20 per cent since 2017/17, from 20,200 to 15,900.
Spending on the state’s court system has been slow to rise, increasing at a rate of 1.5 per cent per year in real terms over the last decade.
The Supreme Court’s annual funding has grown at an average rate of 0.17 per cent per year.
The average number of times a criminal defendant has to appear before the Supreme Court before their case is finalised is 16.7, four times the average number of appearances in Queensland, Western Australia or South Australia.
Figures detailing expenditure on correctional services reveal that it costs $427 a day to house a prisoner in Tasmania — the second-highest cost in the nation — around $172,000 a year.
Tasmania spent an estimated $132m operating its prison system in 2023/24, to house a daily average of 710 prisoners, up from 589 in 2021/22.
The cost of prisons has gone up 92 per cent in a decade, after adjusting for inflation: the highest increase in the nation and nearly double the national average cost growth.
Part of the increase reflects a rise in the imprisonment rate over the period.
The number of people per 100,000 citizens who are in custody has increased by 13.7 per cent since 2017/18, from 146 to 166, although this figure is still below the national average of 202.
Only one other state recorded an increase in its incarceration rate, and the national average reflected an overall 6.5 per cent decline.
The figures showed 51.3 per cent of those released are back in prison within two years — the highest recidivism rate for any state in the nation.
Tasmania also recorded the second-highest rate of assaults in custody, with 19 per 100 prisoners, more than twice the figure of a decade ago.
Originally published as Police, prison spending up and jails filling, new figures show
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