Aim: To report on the age profile of the NSW offender population with particular attention given to older offenders.

Method: This is a descriptive study utilising criminal court data from BOCSAR’s Reoffending Database and inmate census data from Corrective Services NSW.

Results: Older offenders increasingly contributed to the NSW offender population and those sentenced to custody at finalisation. The largest increases in the proportion of older offenders were for drug, other traffic offences, PCA / DUI and violent offences.

Conclusion: The ageing population cannot be given as the main reason for the increase in older offenders and inmates in NSW. Future research should focus on the reasons for older people offending. Corrective services should prepare infrastructure for the estimated increase in the older inmate population which adequately services the physical and psychosocial needs of older people.