Prisoners spending entire jail term in police cells as Victoria’s justice system buckles

Inmates are being shuffled across police cells and prisons in Victoria as the state balances its tougher bail laws with a shortage of beds and corrections workers. Photograph: Diego Fedele/AAP

In winter this year, a young Aboriginal man with a history of self-harm who had been remanded in custody in Melbourne was told he would be moving cells.

But he was not shifted across the corridor or to another building nearby: he was driven 300km to the police cells in Wodonga.