Victoria’s highest court has delivered a withering assessment of the state’s mandatory sentencing regime, saying it required “judges to be instruments of injustice” and showed a “profound misunderstanding” of the community’s best interests.
In a judgment published on Thursday, court of appeal president, Justice Chris Maxwell, and Justice Terence Forrest said introducing mandatory sentencing for a range of offences over the past decade showed that state governments appeared to have “ignored the incontestable evidence about the adverse impact of adult gaol on young offenders”.
