The Australian Institute of Health & Welfare (AIHW), a government social research agency, has released a 154 page report on Juvenile Justice in Australia, the fifth in the series on young people under juvenile justice supervision.
The report notes that around 6,000 young people are under juvenile justice supervision in Australia on a day by day basis. 9,540 young people experienced supervision at some time during the year.
The number of young people in detention on an average day increased by 17% over four years from 2004/05. In 2004–05, just over one-third of the average daily detention population was unsentenced but, by 2007–08, unsentenced young people in detention outnumbered those who were sentenced. The increase in the unsentenced population occurred for both Indigenous and non-Indigenous young people
Although only about 5% of young Australians are Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islanders, 40% of those under supervision on an average day were Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islanders. That over-representation was particularly prominent in detention, where over half of those in detention on an average day and 60% of those who were unsentenced in detention were Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islanders. An Indigenous young person aged 10–17 years was 16 times as likely as a non-Indigenous young person of the same age to be under supervision in 2007–08, nearly 15 times as likely to be under community-based supervision as a non-Indigenous young person, and nearly 30 times as likely to be in detention.
The report contains information on the characteristics of young people under community-based supervision and in detention as well the type and length of their supervision.
It follows From corrections to the community: a set of indicators of the health of Australia's prisoners, a recent AIHW Bulletin regarding development of a national data collection on the health of Australia's prisoners.
The Bulletin outlines the health indicators to be reported on. These indicators - "written in consultation with experts in the field" - will assist in monitoring the health of prisoners, information prisoner health service planning and delivery, and evaluating the provision of services.
