Today, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, human rights, legal and advocacy organisations called on the Andrews Government to end human rights abuse in Victorian prisons as part of the Cultural Review of the Adult Custodial Corrections System. The Review was announced off the back of numerous reports highlighting serious, systemic and ongoing human rights abuse in Victoria’s public and privately run prisons. The Review will examine the experiences of people in custody and the laws that contribute to prisons being harmful and unsafe places. The submission – endorsed by the Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service, FlatOut, St Kilda Legal Service and Fitzroy Legal Service – calls on the Andrews Government to end mistreatment behind bars by taking a number of steps, including: 

• putting a stop to their mass-imprisonment crisis by fixing unfair bail and parole laws that have seen an explosion in the number of people in prison;  

• upgrading the Corrections Act by putting human rights safeguards front and centre and banning cruel practices like solitary confinement and routine strip searches; 

• providing healthcare – including mental healthcare – that is the same standard as in the community and access to free phone calls and emails; 

• implementing greater transparency, accountability and oversight of prisons, by meeting their United Nations anti-torture protocol obligations and making the Parole Board subject to the Victorian Human Rights Charter; and 

• resourcing legal services dedicated to meet the legal needs of people in prison

Monique Hurley, Senior Lawyer at the Human Rights Law Centre, said: 

“Successive Victorian governments have created a mass-imprisonment crisis. Instead of building more prisons where cruelty is rampant and unchecked, the Andrews Government should be both reducing the number of people forced into prisons by fixing discriminatory bail and parole laws, and supporting people and communities by investing in housing and social services.  

“The government’s human rights responsibilities do not end at prison gates. This review is a long overdue opportunity for the Andrews Government to finally turn the page on abuse behind bars, enshrine best practice human rights protections in law and ban cruel practices like solitary confinement and routine strip searching once and for all.”

Read thge submission to the Cultural Review of the Adult Custodial Corrections System here.