South Australia's rate of prisoner recidivism continues to fall, ensuring the Malinauskas Government's target of reducing reoffending by 20 per cent by 2026 has been achieved, according to a new report.
The continued reduction also means South Australia has the lowest rate of repeat offending in the country, making our community safer.
The Productivity Commission's Report on Government Services (ROGS) shows South Australia's recidivism rate has fallen to 36.8 per cent, well below the national average of 53.6 per cent.
The recidivism rate refers to prisoners who return to corrective services with a new sanction – either a prison sentence or community corrections order – within two years of release.
The data also reflects the success the state has had with recruiting police with South Australia sitting second in the country with how many operational staff per 100,000 people.
The Report also shows SAPOL has 295 operational sworn staff per 100,000 people – the second most of any state and higher than the national average of 264 – while response times were sitting at 96.9 per cent of Grade 1 taskings in the metro area, responded to within 15 minutes. This is well above the national target of 80 per cent.
The Malinauskas Labor Government's investment in police recruitment has also begun to show dividends, with South Australia having the lowest police workforce attrition of all states at 5.2 per cent. The only jurisdiction lower was ACT.
It follows record applications to police – 3,050 people from across Australia and overseas compared to fewer than 1000 in 2018-19 under the former Liberal Government.
The 2025-26 Budget made a significant investment to support our police force to better protect and serve the community, including funding additional officers, improving the amenity of police facilities and modernising their equipment.
The State Government has committed an additional $334 million to support SA Police, including $82 million dollars to hire an extra 189 Police Security Officers.
The Report also shows positive improvements within the Courts system, with criminal backlogs decreasing in the District, Magistrates and Youth Courts, and both Criminal lodgements and Civil lodgements per 100,000 people in SA in 2024-25 the second lowest rates in Australia – with only the Australian Capital Territory reporting a lower figure.
The rate of Children's Court criminal finalisations was 189 per 100,000 people which was above the national rate.
As put by Blair Boyer
We're focused on protecting our community and this latest data is evidence the investments in South Australian police and our strong legislative changes, are making a difference.
And we are seeing real results, not only in this data but we also have just announced the highest number of police applications on record.
Not only that, but we have seen 15 consecutive months where overall crime has fallen across our state.
There's more to do, and our government will continue investing in our police to reduce crime and improve community safety.
As put by Rhiannon Pearce
South Australia is the country's top performer when it comes to reoffending rates, which helps reduce pressure on our prisons and staff and improves community safety.
We lead the nation in reducing recidivist offending and the Government is committed to keep driving this rate down.
ROGS data shows that South Australia is also the lead jurisdiction when it comes to prisoner participation in education with 48.3 per cent.
