“Australia’s prisons are on the brink of a capacity crisis. Governments are already spending record amounts on incarceration and will be forced to spend billions more building new prisons unless urgent criminal justice reform is delivered,” said Mia Schlicht, Research Fellow at the Institute of Public Affairs.
Today the IPA has released new research, The Cost of Prisons in Australia: 2025, which exposes the growing financial burden of Australia’s incarceration levels and the looming capacity crisis in state prison systems. The research found:
- State and federal governments are now spending over $6.8 billion per year on the construction and operation of prisons. This represents a 50 per cent growth in just 10 years when adjusted for inflation.
- The national incarceration rate is now 202.9 per 100,000 adults, and it costs taxpayers on average $159,510 per year to house just one prisoner.
- Prisons are expected to reach capacity by October 2025 in Queensland, August 2028 in South Australia, July 2029 in Western Australia, November 2028 in Tasmania, and December 2036 in New South Wales.
- Victoria’s prisons are not expected to reach their designed capacity by 2040. If Victoria leased out 20 per cent of their current prison capacity, it could generate $290 million in revenue for the Victorian government.
“Our criminal justice system is in dire need of structural reform, which at its core acknowledges the difference between violent offenders who pose a risk to community safety, and non-violent offenders whose incarceration sees little overall safety benefit,” Ms Schlicht said.
“Importantly, IPA research shows that if Victoria leveraged its current prison capacity surplus, it could see more than $290 million generated to invest in much needed crime prevention, such as more police on the beat, given the state’s current crime crisis.”
The IPA’s research shows that 37 per cent of prisoners in Australia have been incarcerated for non-violent crimes. Many of these offenders could be punished through alternative measures such as offender-employment programs, home detention, fines, and forced restitution.
“Community safety can be strengthened if the $2.6 billion currently spent on locking up non-violent offenders is redirected to crime prevention, and ensuring there is room in prisons to enable violent offenders to be sentenced for longer,” Ms Schlicht said.
“With businesses still struggling to find the workers they need, low-risk, non-violent offenders should be contributing to society through work and be made to pay back the victims of their crimes.”
“This approach has seen conservative jurisdictions in the United States, such as Texas and Georgia, save billions of taxpayer dollars and improve community safety outcomes with a reduction in violent, sexual, and serious property crimes.”
“With violent crime on the rise, we should be reallocating resources to put more police on the beat so they can deter criminals from acting in the first place. The research is clear that the best way to stop crime is a stronger police presence,” Ms Schlicht said.
To download the IPA’s previous research click here.
