Liberty Victoria is very concerned about the Victorian Government’s announcement on proposed reforms to the Community Correction Order (‘CCO’) regime. The reforms should be strongly opposed.
The announcement reflects a fundamental misconception that by sentencing more persons to imprisonment Victorians will be made safer.
Submitted by Liberty Victoria on Wed, 12/10/2016 - 12:47
State Government plans to jail more people will not make Victorians safer, rights group Liberty Victoria warned today.
"Practical experience of the criminal justice system has long shown that in many cases offenders who are imprisoned pose a greater risk to the community upon release due to the harmful effects of jail," said Liberty Victoria Vice President, Michael Stanton.
"That is especially the case with youthful offenders."
Liberty Victoria welcomed the opportunity to make this submission in relation to the Victorian Law Reform Commission’s (Commission) review of the Role of the Victims of Crime in the Criminal Trial Process (Review).
Central to the Commission’s review is the question: what should the role of the victim be in the criminal trial process? In relation to consideration of this question, the Commission has indicated that it will inform itself with respect to what can be learnt from practice and what can be learnt from theory.
Liberty Victoria opposes the Bill which proposes an amendment to the Corrections Act 1986 (Vic) (the Act) by insertion of a new provision that would, in effect, render a prisoner serving a prison sentence for murder, or conspiracy to commit murder, ineligible for parole unless the Adult Parole Board (the Board) is satisfied that the prisoner has ‘cooperated satisfactorily in the investigation of the offence to identify the location, or last known location, of the remains of the victim of the offence’.
In October 2014 the Victorian Law Reform Commission (the Commission) was asked to examine and report on how the law can better prevent organised crime and criminal organisations from infiltrating occupations and industries.
Regulatory regimes include licensing, registration requirements and fit and proper person tests.
The Commission reviewed various lawful occupations and industries in Victoria and elsewhere:
A reluctance to acknowledge the existence of racial profiling and a misunderstanding of how racism can be part of police practice underscores the need for better education in the Victoria Police, Liberty Victoria said today.
This follows a call by the Law Institute of Victoria for police to be required to have written consent before stopping and searching people deemed to be suspicious.
Both Liberty’s statement and the lawyers’ comments were in submissions to an inquiry after complaints by men with an African background in the Flemington area.
