On any given day, 2.3 per cent of the Indigenous population is in prison, with a further 2.9 per cent in community corrections.
Hundreds of millions are spent on building prisons each year. The latest prison in Darwin is estimated to have cost more than $1 billion to build.
Australian taxpayers pay over $3 billion each year for a prison system housing more than 32,000 people – that equates to over $106,000 per person.