The recent release of the Productivity Commission’s annual Report on Government Services has revealed a substantial increase in demand across the Victorian criminal justice space. The number of released prisoners who return to prison under sentence within two years is now at an all time high of above 44%. The number of individuals in prison and imprisonment rates have peaked both in Victoria and nationally.
Assault rates in Victorian prisons are higher than the national average and Victoria has the second lowest completion rate of CCOs of all Australian states – averaging just 65% over the last ten years.