In March 1989 there were 11,896 people in Australian prisons at a national rate per 100,000 of 71.1. However, there are nearly three times as many people at any one time under some form of community-based supervision than are in prison. One of the most dramatic changes in penal relations since colonization has been the removal of Kooris from the margins of the penal settlements, where they were seen by convicts as "a wild extension of the jail of infinite space" to the very center of contemporary penality as the most highly imprisoned race in the world. Prisons in all States are characterized by overcrowding, leading to increased stress and management problems, boredom and frustration stemming from the lack of useful activities, sexual and other assault, violence and intimidation, and dramatically increased drug use. As a result, it is argued that imprisonment should be the punishment of last resort and that more emphasis should be placed on noncustodial sanctions. Also, a prison system in which prisoners would be able to challenge the processes of their criminalization and imprisonment would be a system in which a different, social rather than antisocial, ethic and culture might emerge. 3 notes, 44 references.