ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses an insight into Australian penality and imprisonment, with particular attention to the last 30 years. Evidence has been presented of the historical pattern of imprisonment rates, together with a snapshot of current prison rates and demographics. The two key features are the significant state variations and the over-representation of Aboriginal prisoners. The chapter presents the broad trends over the past 30 years from a period of upheaval, reform and alternatives in the 1960s and 1970s to one of increased punitiveness, just deserts and selective incapacitation in the 1980s and 1990s. It talks about the state variations, which makes a national picture misleading and as penal developments emerge against a context of local politics and sensibilities rather than global or national economic forces. It then provides some basic information about Australian prison systems, which can be compared with other countries.
