Productivity Report on Justice

The Productivity Commission recently published its 21st annual Report on Government Services. This report provides a national picture on government spending and service delivery across a number of portfolios including justice.

Some highlights from this report include:

• The overall real recurrent expenditure of justice services by Australian State and Territory governments increased in 2014-15 by 2.3% (the biggest growth occurring in corrective services expenditure), rising to a total of almost $15.3 billion (see pages C.7-8).
• Nationally in 2014-15, 89.3% of people felt ‘safe’ or ‘very safe’ at home alone during the night, an increase from 84.3% in 2008-09 (see page C.13).
• Nationally, 44.3% of released prisoners had returned to prison within two years (this was higher in NSW, with 48.1% returning to prison) , while 51.1% had returned to corrective services (again higher in NSW, with 52.9% returning to corrective services) (see page C.18).
• Nationally, there was a total of 63,161 operational police staff in 2014-15 (see page C.20) and high levels of satisfaction were achieved with 77.5% of people surveyed saying that they were ‘satisfied’ or ‘very satisfied’ with services provided by police in Australia (see page C.25).

More detailed data and commentary is provided in the report and the individual chapters on police, courts and corrective services. This report provides a wealth of data and is an important resource for academics, students, practitioners and policymakers.  See link: http://www.pc.gov.au/