The Victorian Liberal Party has called for extensive reform to release as many un-convicted Victorians as possible out of prison because it “crushes people’s souls.”
“The government cannot change men’s souls, except to crush them,” he told Parliament on Oct. 3.
He added that “every reputable study showed the exact opposite” of the argument that the prison system rehabilitates people the longer they are incarcerated, such as the report of the Yoorrook Justice Commission—a truth-telling process into injustices experienced by Aboriginal people in Victoria.
“As the children’s commissioner rightly says, residential care acts like a pipeline into the criminal justice system. And as the Yoorrook commission has found, imprisonment does not reform offenders; it criminalises them,” Mr. Bach said.
As a result, he said the government should stop becoming progressively more powerful and instead empower individuals, families, and communities.
“That’s where I think our policy direction should be going,” Mr. Bach said.
His comments were amidst the Victorian government’s Justice Legislation Amendment Bill 2023 debate, which seeks to correct a significant spike in the number of prisoners held on remand, narrow the application of the “reverse onus” test to only the most severe offences, refine the “unacceptable risk” test, and remove two bail related offences.
Further, the Bill would clarify the circumstances before refusing bail for children and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders.
It comes after the 2017 Bourke Street attack led to the tightening of Victoria’s bail laws, making them the toughest in the country, according to the Parliament of Victoria. Coupled with tightened bail provisions in 2013 and 2016, 42.2 percent of all people in prison in Victoria were unsentenced in June 2022.
According to the Victorian Greens, that figure currently sits at 37 percent.
Police Minister Anthony Carbines said those changes had a “disproportionate impact on people already experiencing significant disadvantage, with a particular effect on Aboriginal people, people with disabilities, children and women. Ultimately, the net was cast too wide.”
The Victorian Greens welcomed the proposed bail reforms, which, if passed, would come into effect in about six months rather than 12, after continued pressure from First Nations communities.
The left-wing party said the originally reported 12-month delay could have had tragic consequences for First Nations Victorians and see the already high number of unsentenced prisoners on remand continue to grow.
Victorian Greens justice spokesperson Katherine Copsey MLC said in August that vulnerable people remain in pre-trial detention “for no good reason, but we’re still concerned these reforms may not go far enough, or listen to the expert advice to reduce the number of unsentenced people in Victorian prisons and stop deaths in custody.”
Deaths in custody include that of Veronica Nelson, who died in prison in her cell at Dame Phyllis Frost jail on Jan. 2, 2020, from an undiagnosed stomach condition and heroin withdrawal after being transferred to the prison when refused bail.
Ms. Nelson’s justice advocates were on board with bail reforms and called former Premier Daniel Andrews to “do your job and get our daughters out of prisons. No more cover-ups. No more unintended consequences. It’s time to save our daughters. It’s time to change the law.”
‘Reform Must Not Come at the Expense of the Safety of Victorians’: Police
However, Police Association Secretary Wayne Gatt said on Aug. 15 that he would not comment on the government’s changes to the state’s bail laws until they provide him with a copy. Further, he said he hopes “common sense prevails.”
“The government still needs to provide us with a copy of the bill. The Police Association Victoria (TPAV) was consulted on amendments to the legislation and urged careful consideration of prospective changes that it felt could compromise the safety of Victorians. There are also many elements of the reform that TPAV supported,” Mr. Gatt said.
“Our position remains that there is a legitimate case for reform of the Bail Act. However, we maintain that reform must not come at the expense of the safety of Victorians.”
Further, he said police would “comment on the Bill as it’s been drafted, when we have seen it in full. In this instance, a press release is the tip of a vast iceberg. It belies the importance and complexity of the reform.”
Mr. Gatt said the big focus in Victoria should be hiring more police to improve the criminal justice system and keep the streets and communities safe.
“We know when we speak to our community, they agree with that too, and they want to see police out there and engaged more, but to do that, given everything else police have to do, we need governments investing in the police force.”
