Tuesday, 14 October 2025

 David ETTERSHANK (Western Metropolitan) (18:25): (1980) My adjournment is addressed to the Minister for Corrections. The whole ‘tough on crime’ posturing by our political leaders is damaging and ineffective. While the latest tranche of regressive bail laws, particularly the scrapping of remand as a last resort for young offenders, makes good copy for News Corp audiences, it is always comforting to see the Minister for Police bragging about a 100 per cent hike in youth offenders. We know that these sorts of measures do not make our community safer. Indeed, and perhaps strangely, the Minister for Police agrees, having recently stated that we cannot arrest our way out of youth crime. If locking them up did work, we would be safer now than were back in the 1990s, because our prison population has virtually doubled since then. The Sentencing Advisory Council has found that Victoria’s prison population has grown 62 per cent in the past 20 years, driven largely by the number of people on remand – offenders held in custody without sentencing who have been refused bail. While this might get young offenders off the streets for a short period, it puts them at greater risk of recidivism and continual involvement with the justice system. The council’s director Stan Winford observed:

Short sentences can lead to longer term, problematic outcomes in terms of people’s lack of access to programs, employment, housing …

that is, the very things that address the drivers of criminal behaviour and reduce contact with the criminal justice system.

Prison breeds criminals. If you build them, they will most certainly come again and again. Some 61 per cent of people in our prisons have been there before. The most recent surge in offenders on remand, partially attributable to Victoria’s new bail laws, might be something that our police minister is pleased to spruik, but it has resulted in severe overcrowding in our jails. This, combined with staffing shortages, has led to more lockdowns in our prisons; an increased risk of assault, sexual abuse and self-harm amongst inmates; and unsafe working conditions for staff. While our prisons are not yet full, with arrests at their highest level, most likely, in Victoria Police’s 172-year history, it will not take long. My request is that the Minister for Corrections provide a report on what provisions the government is making for when our prison system is at full capacity.