While Queensland university students once marched through Brisbane streets chanting “Queensland Police State”, Queensland is definitely a police state no longer, and, if any state deserves that tag, it’s NSW.
Since 2007, Queensland prisons have housed, each day on average, 5,500 – 5,700 people in full-time custody. Because the adult population has grown strongly since then, the imprisonment rate has fallen from around 175 to 166 prisoners per 100,000 adults.
In NSW, prisoner numbers have grown from around 9,600 to 10,400 since 2007, with a sharp increase in the imprisonment rate from 180 to 187 per 100,000 adults.
(Source: ABS Corrective Services Australia, June 201o)
It’s unclear what’s happening in NSW. They have experience a drop in recorded crime along with the other states (see ABS Recorded Crime – Victims), although there was a noticeable increase in assaults for a few years in the second half of the noughties.
Queensland’s justice system appears to be doing the right thing, with a reduction in imprisonment rates as recorded crime has fallen. Perhaps the reduction in crime explains why there are so many police hanging out at shopping centre coffee shops nowadays.
Queensland Economy Watch 
Enjoy your thoughts on a number of subjects but just wondering how you rationalise the claim… “(Queensland’s) reduction in crime” when anecedotally, there may be a marked increase. Certainly, magistrates are finding offenders guilty, fining them but then ordering that “no conviction be recorded”. There may be a drop in the number of convictions, but that may translate into a reduction in crime. Similarly, at times the police are too short-handed to even attend crime scenes – particularly spontaneous assaults. I would suggest that no police attended, does not mean no crime was committed. Your thoughts?
Thanks John. Those are good points. You’re right that the reduction in crime could be illusory. If the police are over-stretched and the legal system is getting more lenient, then convictions and imprisonments might improve even though crime is getting worse. Certainly I was surprised by the imprisonment data, given that alcohol-induced crime appears on the rise, based on what you see on the streets and in the papers. We may be experiencing a drop in the very infrequent most serious crimes (e.g, murder, armed robbery) but an increase in assaults and thefts, which may be less likely to be reported.