The Australian Prison Population and Daily Life in Australian Prisons

The first part of the chapter provides a picture of the prison population in Australia. This includes the statistical profile of the Australian prison population, and an outline of the characteristics of this population and some of the ways it differs from the general population.1 The unifying feature of this distinctiveness is vulnerability: the prison population contains an over-representation of vulnerable segments of the general population, including Indigenous Australians and people with mental health problems and cognitive disability.