Australia is putting more people in prison, despite a fall in the number of criminal offenders. This paper looks at what is driving these trends, the costs on society and whether there are alternatives to prison that still keep the community safe, but at a lower cost.

This report measures the number of young people who were released from a supervised youth justice sentence and who were subsequently returned—that is, young people who received another supervised sentence after the end of their initial sentence. Supervised sentences include both community-based and detention sentences.

This report studies sentencing outcomes from 2010 to 2019 for offenders sentenced when aged 60 and over in Victoria. The report reviews the relevance of age to sentencing and investigates the prevalence of sentenced older offenders in the state.

In Australia, threshold quantities of illicit drugs act as an indicator of supply offences in distinguishing traffickers from users. This analysis maps out how current sentencing practices respond to offenders involved in ‘social supply’ and ‘minimally commercial supply’ who are charged with drug trafficking.

The purpose of this paper is to highlight the rising rates of women’s incarceration in Victoria and to build foundations for an alternative trajectory.