People born in Sudan have the highest imprisonment rate in the country — almost quadruple the rate of Australian-born prisoners, according to the latest Australian Bureau of Statistics data.
Analysis of data from the ABS reveals 208 people born in Sudan were in custody on June 30 last year, making the group the seventh largest prison population.
The ABS calculated that a Sudanese-born imprisonment rate of 997.8 per 100,000, using an estimated resident population of people who can be legally sentenced or remanded into an adult jail.
Although the Australian-born prison population was far greater at 33,573, the imprisonment rate of Australians per 100,000 was just 265.9, according to the 2017 data release.
The ABS recorded that 88 of the Sudanese-born prisoners were in custody in Victoria, with NSW prisons 40 prisoners born in Sudan and Queensland and Western Australia housing 35 and 33 respectively.
People born in Somalia had the second-highest imprisonment rate of 700.8 per 100,000.
People from Tonga, Samoa and Vietnam also had imprisonment rates higher than people born in Australia.
The Sudanese-born prison population echoed the Australian and New Zealand populations, with acts intended to cause injury most commonly recorded as the most serious offence or charge. Robbery, extortion and related offences were the second most common recorded serious offence or charge.
The question of whether Sudanese and South Sudanese in Australia are over-represented in crime statistics has been hotly debated in recent weeks. Most measures find people from Sudan or South Sudan account for about 1 per cent of crime in Victoria, and are about 0.1 per cent of the state’s population.
The Victorian government and Victoria Police have come under fire over their handling of high-profile crimes by Sudanese and South Sudanese youths, including public order disturbances, wild parties, assaults on police, brazen jewellery store robberies and home invasions.
Victorian statistics to the end of March also show Sudanese-born people were 33 times more likely to be charged with riot and affray compared with Australian-born counterparts. Tessa Akerman
