ABSTRACT
This chapter will proceed by way of first providing some basic information about Australian prison systems, which can be compared with other countries covered in this book. After out lining the historical trends in imprisonment rates, a contemporary picture will be briefly sketched out by way of data on current imprisonment rates, backgrounds of prisoners and other basic sta tistical and empirical information. Two key features of Australian imprisonment will be singled out: the considerable State by State variation, and the over-representation of Aboriginal people in prison. A very brief treatment of some current issues such as devel opments in privatization and sentencing directions follows. An overview will then be provided of trends in penal politics in recent decades against a backdrop of broader political developments and shifts in discourses of penality.
