172. My investigation heard that a growing
number of prisoners are choosing not to apply for parole upon eligibility, and instead are opting to complete their maximum sentence and to leave on straight release at the end of their sentences, without having completed programs, and not subject to any conditions or reporting requirements. 173. Several witnesses told my investigation
about examples where prisoners found the new parole conditions to be too onerous, and would rather spend extra time in prison than be released on parole and risk the chance of breaching parole and being reimprisoned. A manager of a contracted service provider to Justice Health, told my investigation:
Some prisoners, our staff are telling us, are rejecting parole, so they’re saying I’ve waited too long and I’m nearly out, it’s too much, I’m not doing it. So we’ve got some of our high risk offenders, potentially not going through the parole process.
174. The Managing Director of the provider reiterated these concerns. They said:
… I think the thing that concerns me most… is this new cohort of offenders that are saying stuff your parole, are likely to be more high risk, and they are going to be released into the community with no treatment, and with no supervision … we’ve got a system that is potentially incentivising that …
175. The manager of the service provider also raised concerns about prisoners, who had also received a CCO in combination with their prison sentence, opting out of in- prison treatment on the basis that they were required to undergo similar treatment in the community as part of the CCO. He said:
The new combined custodial orders or shandy type sentences where offenders have a term of imprisonment followed by a term of community corrections supervision with a treatment condition placed on them in the community. So they’re coming in to prison, they’ve got the opportunity to do targeted treatment, it’s available for them and they’re saying I’m not doing it, because I have do it when I get out. And if I’ve got to do it when I get out then I’m not doing it in here. So they’re rejecting the prison treatment model, they’re sitting in prison often for short periods, and they get out, and when they get out the treatment options that they have are extremely limited.
176. One senior prison officer also raised concerns about the increased prevalence of straight release and the consequences of combined prison terms with CCOs being utilised by magistrates to address their concerns with the parole changes. The officer said:
Judges and Magistrates ... historically give maximum sentences and expect the minimum term is when someone will get parole. The Parole Board has sent the message loud and clear that minimum sentences mean nothing, EED’s [earliest eligibility dates] mean nothing, it’s the end date they are looking at and they will determine when someone gets out.
So Magistrates and judges ... have decided it appears ... that they don’t like that, and so now they’re setting straight release sentences with a Community Corrections Order following to ensure that someone will get out of jail when they say they should get out, not when the parole board says they should get out ... What that will mean in the long term ... is that there will be less and less and less parole terms, and the majority of those will be murderers or [those on] really long sentences ... and many many ... more Community Corrections Orders, being supervised by really inexperienced young staff who don’t know what they’re doing ... When a prisoner comes in on a sentence, they go through a system that determines what programs they should do. If they’re on a straight sentence, technically they’re not required to do any programs at all, and we’re seeing more and more and more straight sentences.
…
The other thing that’s happening is that prisoners are saying to the Parole Board ‘I don’t want my parole, stick it, I’m not doing it’ ... [this is happening] because the Parole Board is making it almost impossible for anyone to get through their parole. You can be breached on an allegation, you can be breached on suspicion, you can be breached on a phone call made to the board by anybody expressing any sort of concern about this person ... because it is so easy to breach, they’re saying ‘well you know what, it’s not worth it, I’d rather get out with nothing hanging over my head’ ... [the] parole reforms, great in theory, but in practice, I don’t think it’s workable. I don’t think they’ve thought it through very well, to actually see what it’s going to be like in practice.
177. In response to my draft report, the Department of Justice and Regulation stated:
The 2015-16 Budget provided $11.2 million in funding over four years for additional programs to meet court ordered conditions, and reduce re-offending targeting clinical and psycho-educational needs. This includes $4.7 million in 2015- 16 for one year of funding for alcohol or other drug treatment programs for the growth in offenders with an alcohol or other drug treatment condition attached to their order65.
The relationship between disadvantage and imprisonment is clear. Half of Victoria’s prisoners come from six disadvantaged postcodes.
Prisoners are far less likely to have finished school than the average Victorian and have dramatically higher rates of mental illness and acquired brain injury.
Prison experience is often multi-
generational: the children of prisoners are six times more likely to be imprisoned than their peers66.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, already facing massive disadvantage, are overrepresented in Victorian prisons and their rate of imprisonment is growing at a faster rate than anywhere else in the nation.
Key facts:
• 48.5% of prisoners had two or more characteristics of serious disadvantage prior to admission to prison
• 63% of male prisoners and 45% of female prisoners were unemployed at the time they entered prison
• 40% of all Victorian prisoners have been identified as having a mental health condition
• prisoners are 10 to 15 times more likely to have a psychotic disorder than someone in the general community.
66 Corrections Victoria, 2015-19 Prisoner Employment Pathway
Framework, page 9.
178. The links between disadvantage and imprisonment are well recognised. In its submission to my investigation the Victorian Council of Social Service stated that:
Victoria’s prisoners are in the main, people who have faced great disadvantage. They have low rates of educational attainment, literacy and employment before entering prison. Many have histories of abuse, mental illness and substance use. Aboriginal prisoners, prisoners with disabilities and women prisoners in particular have multiple and complex layers of disadvantage. If these disadvantages are not addressed through individual targeted responses, it is more likely that these people will reoffend and return to prison, sometimes again and again.
179. The data highlighted on the left describes a cohort of significant and often multiple characteristics of disadvantage, and shows that offending and imprisonment is often intergenerational. A 2010 government report found that 48.5 per cent of prisoners in Victoria had two or more characteristics of serious disadvantage. The characteristics of ‘serious disadvantage’ are where the prisoner is or was prior to admission to prison:
• unemployed • homeless
• identified as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander
• had a drug/alcohol status of abuse/ offend/support
• identified as having an intellectual disability or are flagged as having had a psychiatric admission67.
67 State Government of Victoria, Growing Victoria Together,
Progress Report Service Delivery 2010-11, Appendix B, page 433.