Deaths in Private and Public Prisons in Australia: A Comparative Analysis

Public opinion in Australia has been divided on the question of whether private prisons are welcome and one of the issues in dispute has been the question of whether or not private prisons are associated with proportionately more or fewer deaths of prisoners, particularly suicides, than public prisons. The available evidence is examined, and when the number of deaths, or suicides, per 1000 prisoner years served for all private and public prisons are calculated it is found that the rate for all deaths is significantly lower in private prisons at the 0.05 level of confidence. However, the difference in the suicide rates is not statistically significant.The lower overall death rate is particularly surprising as private prisons in Australia hold proportionately more unconvicted remandees,who are at higher risk, than public prisons. A close examination of the data for three relatively new remand and reception prisons, two private and one public, shows that all have much higher rates for both all deaths and for suicides than the national averages. This is an updated and expanded version of a paper by the same authors published by the Australian Institute of Criminology in June 1999. That paper was admitted into evidence at a coronial inquiry that was held into five deaths that occurred in the Port Phillip Prison in Victoria. Address for correspondence: D. Biles, 25 Kidston Cres, Curtin ACT 2605, Australia.