Using structured query language (SQL) data extraction, data was obtained from the Department’s database, Total Offender Management Solution (TOMS) for the period between July 2009 and July 2014. Three distinct data sets were created.
Remand population
To measure the changing demographic profile of remandees over the five year period quarterly extractions were performed on the 15th day of July, October, January and April for the 2009-2010 through to 2013-2014 financial years. The person’s status as remand, sentenced or other on this day was used to determine the proportion of the prison population which were on remand.
Data on adults and data on young people under 18 years old was examined separately.
Time on remand
The period of remand were calculated between July 2009 and July 2013. People held on remand after July 2013 were omitted from analyses to enable the calculation of prisoners held in prison for over a year. The length of time they were on remand was calculated by measuring the days between the date the person was classified as remand and the date the person had their status changed (to release, sentenced etc.).
In total, 23 973 adults had a status of remand during this period. This included people who had come into the system on remand multiple times. Accounting for multiples there were 11 765 individual people who were on remand from July 2009 to July 2013.
Charges and court flows
Similar to the data extraction for the remand population, quarterly extractions were performed on the 15th day of July, October, January and April for the 2009-2010 through to 2013-2014 financial years.
This information included offence descriptions, aligning with the Australian Standard Offence Classification (ASOC) categorisation scheme, which was recoded into eight categories namely:
- offences against property
- offences against the person
- justice procedures
- weapons or drugs offences
- traffic offences
- fraud
- public order offences
- unknown or other offences
Examples of the type of charges included in these categories are:
| Charge type | Examples include |
| Against property |
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| Against the person |
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| Justice procedures |
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| Public order |
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| Traffic |
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| Weapons and drugs |
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Behaviour in custody
Quarterly data extractions of every incident occurring in every facility, were performed on the 15th day of July, October, January and April for the 2009-2010 through to 2013-2014 financial years.
In total 33424 incidents involving remandees occurred in adult facilities and 9344 incidents occurred in juvenile facilities. Examples of what was examined as an ‘incident’ and how they were categorised is listed below.
| Critical | Examples from TOMS (may not be critical incidents) | |
| Assault | Includes:
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| Contraband | Includes: any item that may have a significant impact on the good order and security of a prison, for example:
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| Death | Applies when there is a:
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| Environment | An incident or event that results in the loss of essential services or serious damage to prison infrastructure. For example:
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| Fighting | ||
| Health | includes injury, illness | |
| Injury |
A serious injury can be defined as an injury to a person (prisoner / staff / visitor) which requires external medical assessment or treatment and/or overnight hospitalisation as a result of an industrial accident (workplace injury), an unnatural occurrence / accident (ie. falling out of bed, building defect etc), or a suspicious injury. Note: where the serious injury is the result of a serious assault, the incident is to be reported as a serious assault. |
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| Injury – Self-harm |
Self-harm includes self-injury and self-poisoning and is defined as the intentional, direct injuring of body most often done without suicidal intentions. Serious self-harm relates to the act of self-harm that requires either:
Note: Self-harm which does not fall under the definition of serious self-harm is to be categorised as a Non-Critical incident, Injury (Self-Harm), Self-Harm. Attempted suicide is the act of self-harm whereby a person attempts to take their own life. Attempted suicides include such examples as: attempted hanging, attempted drug overdose, attempted poisoning (other than drugs), serious self-harm (ie extensive mutilation of ones own body) and/or jumping from an elevated platform where the intent of the act was to cause self-harm or death. Self-harm also includes voluntary starvation. |
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| Insulting language | ||
| Misconduct | Any incident that cannot be otherwise categorised and results in a loss of privileges. If it does not result in a loss of privileges it should only be recorded as an offender note. | |
| Risk Management | Includes:
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| Searches | ||
| Self-harm | Includes:
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| Substance/drugs |
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| Unlawful absence |
Escape: An escape occurs when a prisoner breaches physical security; flees from an authorised escort; or flees from any facility, hospital or location whereby they are lawfully meant to be. Examples of an escape is when a prisoner flees from a:
Escape (attempted): An attempted escape is an attempt to escape as defined above. Note: all attempts of escape, regardless of success, are to be reported as critical. This includes situations where an attempt has been terminated before the perimeter has been breached. Preparation to escape is also to be recorded as an Attempted Escape where planning appears to be well progressed. Released in error: Where a prisoner has been released from custody prior to the date he is lawfully entitled to be released, as a result of an administrative error. Generally follows discovery of:
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| Use of force |
Use of force is the application of DCS approved control, restraint and physical force techniques to maintain security and good order (in line with Policy Directive 5 – Use of Force). Critical Incident reporting is required when, during the use of force, any of the following applies:
Note: the planned routine use of restraints for movement purposes is not a reportable incident. |