Legal groups have urged the Victorian government not to delay reforming the state's tough bail laws, in anticipation of the findings of a major coronial inquest being handed down next week.
The family of Veronica Nelson have granted permission to use her image.
Aboriginal woman Veronica Nelson was suffering from a combination of severe malnutrition, heroin withdrawal symptoms and an undiagnosed medical condition when she died in her cell at Dame Phyllis Frost prison in 2020.
In the years leading up to Veronica's death, Victoria's laws had been progressively tightened to restrict access to bail.
The changes, which were introduced after a review prompted by the deadly 2017 Bourke Street car attack, have meant people already on bail or a corrections order facing even minor offences must prove there are exceptional circumstances to justify them being bailed.
When Veronica died, she was being held on remand for missing a court date and alleged shoplifting.
Witnesses at a coronial inquest into her death later agreed she posed no risk to the community.
After hearing an overwhelming body of evidence in favour of bail reforms, the coroner is expected to recommend changes when he hands down his report on Monday.
Urgent reform needed to prevent 'tragic' harm, lawyers say
Victoria's prison population has risen sharply in the past few years, which the inquest into Veronica's death heard was fuelled by people being remanded for some offences which would never carry jail time.
Legal and prison experts told the inquest the state's bail laws were creating a costly "churn" of prisoners on remand that was putting the most marginalised in the community at risk.
Law Institute of Victoria president Tania Wolff said there were several significant changes that needed to be made to the state's bail laws.
"One is to change the reverse onus, so that you have an expectation or a right to bail unless certain circumstances exist," she said.
"The other is to make the right amends so that it stops the situation that exists right now whereby being charged with some minor offences in conjunction with others will stop you from having a right to bail."
Ms Wolff said while the bail laws had been overhauled in 2018 to try to prevent violent male offending, the changes had "affected women, and most significantly Indigenous women, in a tragic way".
Changes are also supported by Victoria Legal Aid, the Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service, Liberty Victoria and a parliamentary inquiry into the issue.
Nerita Waight, the chief executive of the Victorian Aboriginal Legal Aid Service, said Aboriginal women were dramatically over-represented in the state's prison system, at least partly because of the state's bail laws.
"There have been times where about 80 per cent of Aboriginal women in Victoria’s prisons are on remand. Often these women are victims of domestic violence and they are usually primary carers for family members," she said.
"Being unsentenced, they have limited access to programs and essential supports. Putting them in a prison does not make the community safer, but it does do tremendous harm to the families and communities that rely on them."
Barrister Melissa Walker gave evidence at the coronial inquest. She said clients of hers had been remanded in custody under the existing bail laws after stealing orange juice, sushi and an ice cream.
"Quite frankly, I think it was an intended consequence of the bail laws that they had to be seen to be a very tough and immediate response to the incident that occurred in Bourke Street," she said
"It's been conflated to bring in all the members of the community and all of the crimes, without really acknowledging that the matters at Bourke Street were extraordinary and exceptional in this state."
Government says it will consider findings
In a statement, a Victorian government spokesperson said Veronica's death was a tragedy and any recommendations from the coroner would be carefully considered.
"We continuously monitor how our bail laws shape our criminal justice system and consider how we can better ensure they protect our community and most vulnerable people," the spokesperson said.
"Fundamentally, our bail laws need to protect the community without having a disproportionate or unintended impact on those accused of low-level offending who do not present a risk to community safety.
"We know that more needs to be done to address the over-representation of Aboriginal Victorians in the justice system – and we've implemented a range of reforms to reduce the rate of Aboriginal people on remand and in custody."
Last week, the government announced a major reform to health care in women's prisons, saying it would stop outsourcing services for female prisoners to for-profit companies.
Health care will instead be administered by local public health services.
Victorian Greens leader Samantha Ratnam said the results of the inquest were a "damning indictment of the Andrews Labor Government's failure to reform broken bail laws". She said the Greens would introduce legislation to change the laws.
"The focus is on community protection as a primary concern rather than the risk. And really risk should be the primary focus as to whether or not this person is a risk of failing to appear or to harm the community."
