Women composed 5 percent of the prisoner population in NSW on census day, June 30, 1994. They were most likely to be incarcerated for theft offenses. The majority (87.5 percent) of women sentenced in 1994 to prisons received sentences of less than 12 months. Most women (63.8 percent) who were in prison on June 30, 1994, were in the age bracket of 20-34 years. The percentage of Aboriginal imprisoned women was 18 times the percentage of aboriginal women in the general population of NSW. The percentage of imprisoned women who had been born in a country other than Australia (21.2 percent) was similar to the percentage of females in the population who had been born elsewhere (24.6 percent). More than half (55.6 percent) of the incarcerated women at the time of the 1994 census had been in prison previously. Most (96.6 percent) incarcerated women were housed in the two women-only prisons in NSW; the remaining inmates were held in mixed-sex prisons throughout the State. The majority (72.2 percent) of the female prison population were held in Mulawa Correctional Centre, a medium-security prison. The estimated cost of housing the 320 women prisoners in custody on Census day 1994 was $37,049 for one day. 2 tables, 7 figures, and 30 notes