Next Tuesday’s state budget will invest $727 million to ramp up capacity in Victoria’s prisons and youth justice centres, bringing more prison beds online to deal with the increasing number of alleged offenders being denied bail.
The budget expands the capacity of the youth justice and adult corrections systems and supports the opening of the new Western Plains Correctional Centre, which ramps up operations mid-year.
In total, almost 1,000 additional adult prison beds will open across the system, and a further 88 beds will open at youth justice facilities at Cherry Creek and Parkville.
Thanks to a recent recruitment drive, more than 640 prison officers and more than 170 youth justice officers have joined the corrections system in the past year.
The budget will continue this recruitment, with funding for a further 320 new roles in youth justice and 400 new roles in adult corrections.
The sign-on bonus of $8,000 announced at the start of the year for new recruits at Western Plains or Hopkins Correctional Centre has also now been extended to all other adult prisons.
As part of supporting people in custody to use their time to rehabilitate, the budget will also expand healthcare, rehabilitation and support services across the adult and youth systems – which the government hopes will help drive down recidivism.
Additionally, the government has introduced amendments to the Corrections Act to crack down on prisoners who assault and injure custodial staff.
This makes it crystal clear that any prisoner convicted of assaulting and injuring a corrections worker can expect additional time added on top of their existing sentence.
Minister for Corrections and Minister for Youth Justice Enver Erdogan said “We have zero tolerance for prisoners who assault our staff – our new laws make the consequences crystal clear.”
