Legal advocates are warning Victoria’s tough-on-crime bail laws could lead to an Indigenous death in custody, as the state’s prison system struggles to keep up with a ballooning population of unsentenced prisoners.
Introduced in response to increasing crime rates, the March 2025 changes to the Bail Act were designed to target repeat, violent offenders by prioritising public safety above all else.
The Allan government made it harder for both adults and children to be granted bail by toughening the bail “tests” for people charged with certain crimes.
Some fear the state of the prison system will lead to another preventable death in custody. (AAP: Jono Searle)
Police Minister Anthony Carbines in May said the changes to the act had led to 84 per cent more people being denied bail.
But members of the legal sector and the prison officers’ union say the system is not coping under the pressure.
The number of people in the justice system is approaching the number of people it was housing when 37-year-old Aboriginal woman Veronica Nelson died on remand, days after she was arrested for low-level theft in January 2020.
The Gunditjmara, Dja Dja Wurrung, Wiradjuri and Yorta Yorta woman was denied bail as a result of similar tough-on-crime bail laws that were introduced in 2018, following the Bourke Street Mall attack in 2017.
Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service (VALS) principal managing lawyer Raagini Vijaykumar said her service was “gravely” concerned the current settings would result in another “entirely preventable” death in custody.
Not enough beds
Criminal law specialist Melinda Walker said the government was “scrambling” to find places to put people on remand, which resulted in them being held in police cells longer than the legal 14-day limit.
“That’s quite unacceptable. They’re not conditions that people should be spending any more than overnight in,” she said.
Ms Walker said police cells were not like prison cells; people only had the clothes on their back, there were no onsite medical staff, toilets and rooms were often shared by multiple people, and people did not have access to fresh air.
But, she said, “the jails don’t have capacity … so they are moving from police cell to police cell”.
Mike Bush has described moving prisoners from police cell to police cell as “undesirable”. (ABC News: Danielle Bonica)
In May, Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Mike Bush told a Public Accounts and Estimates Committee hearing the practice “was not unlawful” but was “undesirable” and that his organisation was “working very hard to alleviate that issue”.
The same hearing heard 94 people had been held in police custody for more than 14 days in the 2024–25 financial year.
In a statement, Victoria Police said it was prioritising people with complex health needs for transfer into the prison system.
Death in custody concern
Ms Vijaykumar said over-reliance on police cells was creating a “very dangerous” situation for Victorian Aboriginal Legal Services’s clients.
Raagini Vijaykumar says an over-reliance on police cells is creating a dangerous situation for clients. (ABC News)
“We are really worried that there will be a death in custody … these facilities are just not equipped to provide the kind of medical care and attention that many of our community members in police cells need,”
she said.
Marie Mitchell oversees VALS’s custody notification service, with her team members in constant contact with clients on remand in police cells.
“At times, [staff] have really had to strongly advocate for an ambulance to be called. And there has been an instance where somebody nearly lost their life,” she said.
Marie Mitchell says at times, her team has had to strongly advocate for an ambulance to be called. (ABC News)
VALS has taken at least one matter to the Supreme Court, after a man who had been in police cells for 26 days experienced a significant decline in his health without access to medication.
When asked about the issue, a Victoria Police spokesperson said it worked closely with Corrections Victoria to ensure “the safety and welfare of all people in custody”.
Ms Vijaykumar said VALS had seen several clients denied bail for “really low-level offending, nonviolent offending, such as theft or committing another really minor offence while on bail”.
This was supported by several other community legal services approached by the ABC.
Staff under strain
The Community and Public Sector Union’s Victorian branch secretary, Jiselle Hanna, who used to work as a corrections officer, said the state’s prison system was under serious “stress” managing the influx of people on remand.
“The prison system isn’t built for a disproportionately high number of remand prisoners,” she said.
Jiselle Hanna says Victoria’s prison system is under stress. (Supplied)
Those on remand are unable to access the same supports and programs as people who have been sentenced and found guilty of a crime.
The former prison officer said people on remand were harder to manage, which in turn exposed staff to higher levels of violence.
“[Corrections officers] want to work towards a therapeutic correctional model, but they can’t because they don’t have the resources to do it. So they’re scrambling as well,” she said.
Greens Victoria justice spokesperson Catherine Copsey echoed this concern, saying the party was “frustrated” the Allan government had invested in the prison system instead of early intervention.
“So that people don’t end up in desperate situations to begin with,” she said.
‘Community safety must come first’
Responding to questions about the extended use of police cells, Premier Jacinta Allan said the bail laws were “working”.
“[We] will continue to support the work of Corrections Victoria who make the decisions on how those facilities are utilised,” she said.
Victoria’s bail laws are working, the premier says. (ABC News: Danielle Bonica)
She also pointed to her government’s $727 million investment in the justice system, which included adding 1,000 prison beds.
When asked about concerns that the current settings could lead to a death in custody, she said there were “clear requirements” for corrections facilities and that “community safety must come first”.
In a statement, The Police Association Victoria said it supported the “general proposition” behind the bail laws.
