The authors of this report argue that measures to reduce illicit drug and alcohol use, improve school retention and improve economic outcomes for Indigenous Australians are essential if Australia is to achieve any long-term reduction in the scale of Indigenous over-representation in prison.

This study examines the correlates of First Nations contact with the criminal justice system. Key risk factors include membership of the stolen generation, psychological distress, and having used illicit drugs and alcohol over the preceding 12 months. The latter increases the marginal risk of arrest by 14 percentage points.

Treating drug-related offenders is far more effective than sending them to prison, according to this research. The researchers compared re-offending rates among Drug Court participants with offenders who had been deemed eligible for the Drug Court but not placed on it. Offenders were followed up over an average period of 13.5 years.

This project aimed to assess whether the application of an alternative court model with fixed teams of lawyers operating on a rolling basis in the NSW District Criminal Court resulted in greater efficiency.

This study helps to explain the upward trend in Indigenous imprisonment in NSW between January 2012 and September 2016.