2026-06-17
The Victorian Greens are demanding action to address Victoria's dangerously overcrowded police cells and will today introduce a Bill to cease decanting to Parliament.
Victoria’s remand population has exploded drastically due to Labor’s changes to bail laws which the Greens say have not only been ineffective in improving community safety but have overwhelmed an ill-equipped and unprepared system.
The Greens say that Labor chose to ignore the evidence and accused them of creating a dangerous and foreseeable crisis.
Overcrowding in prisons has become so severe that people are being held in police cells and transported between police stations because there is nowhere else to detain them, overriding long-standing legal protections designed to prevent extended stays in police custody.
The Greens' ‘Better Rights in Police Custody Bill’ would provide a mechanism to safely reduce the time a person can be held in police cells, cease decanting across different police stations, as well as ensuring those in police custody have the same rights to health care and visitors.
The Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service (VALS) has warned that police, corrections and court systems are unprepared to deal with the consequences of the government's bail laws and the growing number of people being held on remand.
The Victorian Police Association has also warned that it is only a matter of time before someone dies in police custody as a result of overcrowding and prolonged detention in police cells.
The Greens say these warnings are a stark reminder of the circumstances that led to the death in custody of Gunditjmara, Dja Dja Wurrung, Wiradjuri and Yorta Yorta woman Veronica Nelson, which the Coroner described as a "complete, unmitigated disaster".
The Greens say Labor's approach is making Victoria less safe and fuelling dangerous conditions that could lead to deaths in custody, and that we should be diverting resources into what actually reduces crime and reoffending.
Quotes attributable to Victorian Greens justice spokesperson Katherine Copsey:
"Victorians are less safe because of the choices Jacinta Allan's Labor Government has made.
"Labor ignored the evidence and ignored the warnings. Instead of investing in the things we know improve community safety, they chose reactionary politics and now we're facing a dangerous overcrowding crisis in both police cells and prisons.
"Victoria's prisons are overflowing, people are being warehoused in police cells and even police are warning it is only a matter of time before someone dies.
"Labor created this situation by ramming through harsher bail laws without any plan for the predictable surge in people being locked up.
"We need immediate action to reduce overcrowding and prevent deaths in custody, and we need the government to start investing in the things that actually make communities safer."