Penalties for serious crimes are harsher in Victoria and contributing to the state's rising rate of imprisonment, a review by an independent advisory body shows.
The Sentencing Council of Victoria has released its findings after analysing data from the past two decades, describing sentencing outcomes as "much more severe" compared with 20 years ago.
The report outlined how the proportion of Victorians in prison had grown from 67 out of every 100,000 people in 2000, to 123 out of every 100,000 people in 2019 — almost doubling in that time.
The report said the changes could be linked to more people being held on remand, more people being given short prison sentences and those sentenced for serious crimes being given longer sentences.
Despite the growth, Victoria still had the second-lowest imprisonment rate in the country according to data collated at the end of March this year.
The ACT had the lowest rate, while the Northern Territory and Western Australia had the highest rates of imprisonment.
Overall, the report showed the number of serious offences coming before the state's higher courts — those above the Magistrates' Court — dropped or remained stable over the past 20 years.
These include serious violent, sexual and drug offences, and homicide.
But the Sentencing Council's analysis showed a greater proportion of those convicted of serious crimes were being sentenced to prison time, and the length of time offenders were spending in prison had grown.
"Together, these findings suggest that sentencing outcomes in Victoria's higher courts are much more severe now than they were 20 years ago," the report said.
The report showed that in 2002, the average prison sentence for murder was 19.5 years, but in 2020 that was 24.5 years. Those figures do not include non-parole periods.
In 2003, just 67 per cent of people convicted of cultivating a commercial quantity of narcotic plants were imprisoned, but over the past five years that figure has increased to almost 100 per cent.
The chair of the Victorian Sentencing Council, Arie Frieberg, suggested societal views played a part in shaping the long-term trends.
"This is almost certainly because courts are responding to a raft of legislative reforms as well as changing community attitudes," Emeritus Professor Frieberg said.
Tougher bail laws, sentences both contributing
The Law Institute of Victoria's Tania Wolff said there were two key drivers behind an "exponential rise in our prison population over the past decade".
"We know that the prison population has increased significantly as a result of the changes to bail laws and parole laws following the murder of Jill Meagher and the Bourke Street Massacre," she said.
"This report also explains that the rise can be attributed to serious offenders spending longer in prison."
Ms Wolff pointed to evidence that locking people up in prison was not necessarily the most effective way to improve community safety.
"There's a fair bit of evidence that efforts to deal with the underlying causes of crimes is a far more effective way of making the community safer," she said.
"We don't have a situation where people go to prison and stay locked up — they come back to the community.
"In prison there aren't the supports and programs that help people deal with that, and if they leave prison and go back to the environment or circumstances which don't afford any opportunity for rehabilitation, or for pro-social behaviour, then you're not going to change the individual or their motivations in any tangible respect."
Ms Wolff said the much higher threshold people had to meet to be granted bail was having unintended results.
"Unfortunately that has resulted in Victoria having an unprecedented amount of people who are on remand, and in particular women, and in particular Indigenous women," she said.
Voice of victims key to the justice process
Victims of Crime Commissioner Fiona McCormack said dealing with the justice system was often "harrowing and traumatising" for victims, and more should be done to consider their needs when reflecting on sentencing outcomes.
"Offenders being in prison is important for people who are victims of crime, who see this as an important justice outcome for them," she said.
"It's important, certainly, for those whose safety is increased by an offender being incarcerated.
"But I speak to lots of people who are victims of crime who want to know that the person is receiving treatment [and] support to reduce the likelihood of reoffending."
Ms McCormack said there was a role for restorative justice that went beyond an offender being convicted and jailed.
"Some people don't understand the reasons why an offender has offended in the first place," she said.
"Some want to explain to an offender the impact that the crime had on them.
"And some people want an apology."
A Victorian government spokesperson said the state government was delivering rehabilitation and reintegration programs "across the correctional system in partnership with community and external organisations".
"We're delivering a correctional system that keeps Victorians safe, and helps prisoners break the cycle of reoffending and gets their lives back on track," they said.
"We have a strong focus on tackling the root causes of offending through early intervention — to prevent crime, reduce reoffending and provide genuine opportunities for Victorians to turn their lives around."
