Australia is putting more people in prison despite a drop in crime rates

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People who leave prison are likely to return. In mid-2020, nearly 60 per cent of the more than 40,000 Australians in prison had been there before.

That's one of the highest rates in the world, Commissioner Stephen King said.

"The system isn't working as well as it could be," he said.

Mr King said the rise in imprisonment numbers is happening in each state and territory, and is partly due to 'tough on crime' policies.

"This costs the taxpayer a lot but is not necessarily creating a safer society," he said.

Commissioner Richard Spencer says that incarcerating low-risk prisoners doesn't keep society safer.

"We must look at alternatives," he said, while acknowledging prison is "essential" for violent and high-risk offenders.

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Those alternatives include more use of home detention, electronic monitoring or intensive rehabilitation.

The 159-page report also suggests looking at improving treatment in prison where offences have been caused by mental illness or addiction, and better support for people leaving custody to help to prevent re-offending.

Australia's prison population has been rising steadily since the 1980s, and its imprisonment growth is now the third highest in the OECD, beaten only by Turkey and Colombia.

The rise is at least partly a policy choice, the commission says in its report.

But the reasons for it depends on the place. In New South Wales - which has seen the slowest growth in the imprisonment rate - mostly due to growing sentence lengths.

In Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia and Tasmania, offenders are becoming more likely to go to prison if convicted.

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The Justice Reform Initiative - a multipartisan alliance working to end Australia's "expensive overreliance" on prisons - says the report adds to an overwhelming body of evidence showing the criminal justice system is going in the wrong direction.

Executive Director Mindy Sotiri said Australian politicians should read the report but said there were limitations to the Productivity Commission's analysis of alternatives.

Addressing recidivism requires social drivers of crime and imprisonment to be addressed, which means properly resourcing community supports including housing, employment and mental health programs, Dr Sotiri said.

"We need to look beyond sentencing alternatives like home detention that are part of the existing correctional system and instead draw on the evidence about 'what works' in community-led programs that address the real social and economic drivers of imprisonment," she said.

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