by Cam Lucadou-Wells
A South East community legal service says women and Aboriginal people have suffered disproportionately due to Victoria’s “punitive” bail laws.
South-East Monash Legal Service (SMLS) is among many calling for Bail Act reform, including State Coroner Simon McGregor who labelled the laws a “complete and unmitigated disaster”.
On 30 January, Coroner McGregor handed down damning findings into the “harrowing” and “preventable” death of 37-year-old Veronica Nelson in a prison cell after being arrested for alleged shoplifting.
“Veronica, while alone in her cell at the Dame Phyllis Frost centre, passed away after begging for assistance for several of the last hours of her life.”
In a statement SMLS said there had been “exceptional growth” in unsentenced women being held in prison since tougher bail laws in 2013 and 2018.
Many did not “pose a risk to the community” and more likely to have committed “low-level offences”.
Their incarceration also led to the “harmful consequences” of their children often being placed in child protection.
There had also been a “dramatic increase” in Aboriginal people in prison who had not been sentenced.
“This is the opposite of what the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody recommended, over thirty years ago”.
Aboriginal women are the fastest-growing demographic of being held in custody without sentence. “Many of these women are victim-survivors of family violence and mothers.They need support, not a prison cell.”
Aboriginal children were also “disproportionately” impacted, with 69 per cent in youth custody being on remand.
Along with bodies such as Liberty Victoria, the SMLS has called for the removal of the Bail Act’s “reverse-onus” provisions.
This would reinstate the presumption in favour of bail subject to “specific and immediate risk to the safety of another person or demonstrable flight risk”.
SMLS also calls for a ban on remanding people facing charges unlikely to result in jail sentences.
Liberty Victoria president Michael Stanton said “our broken bail laws have now had tragic consequences”.
“An applicant for bail should not be required to demonstrate that they do not pose a risk to community safety in order to avoid the impact of a reverse onus provision.
“That would be very difficult to prove, even for many low-level alleged offences.
“The onus should always remain on the State to demonstrate why a person being held in custody before hearing or trial is justified and necessary.”
The Government and Opposition have both declared support for bail reform.
Attorney-General Jaclyn Symes said “the death of Veronica Nelson was a tragedy – nothing less”.
“Our bail laws need to protect the community without having a disproportionate or unintended impact on those accused of low-level offending who do not present a risk to community safety.
“We know we need to do more in relation to criminal justice reform, including bail reform, and that work is continuing.”
Shadow Attorney-General Michael O’Brien said more than 4 in 10 prisoners were held on remand awaiting trial “while Victorian court backlogs are the worst in the nation”.
The Coalition was committed to “effective bail laws that protect the safety of the community whilst giving every opportunity to those in the criminal justice system to get on the right path.”
