An Illusion of Toughness: New proposed bail law reforms are no real response to community safety concerns

Liberty Victoria is deeply concerned about proposed changes to Victoria’s bail laws proposed by the Victorian Government under the “Tough Bail Bill” which appear to be primarily targeted at children.

These reforms are not evidence-based. They will not remedy the concerns about community safety in the medium to long-term. The only guarantee of these proposed reforms is that they will inflict cruelty and, as past inquiries have shown, expose vulnerable people who have not been convicted of any offence to potential loss of life.

We know that prisons are particularly unsafe for First Nations peoples, with at least 587 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people having died in custody since the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody published its Final Report in 1991.1.