PROJECT | Dignity for People in Prison

Victoria is reviving unjust, discriminatory bail laws which have driven up the number of people in prison and are disproportionately impacting women experiencing poverty and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women.

These laws place the burden on the defendant or their lawyer to prove why the person should be on bail, rather than the police having to show a reason why the person should be in custody until a trial. They led to Aboriginal deaths in custody, including Veronica Marie Nelson.

Veronica was a strong Gunditjmara, Dja Dja Wurrung, Wiradjuri and Yorta Yorta woman who taken into custody in relation to minor shoplifting. After appearing without a lawyer, she was then refused bail and locked up in pre-trial detention. Instead of receiving the healthcare she needed, she died on the floor of a prison cell in 2020. Veronica was just 37 years old.

In January 2023, the Coronial Inquest into Veronica Nelson’s passing labelled the bail laws ‘a complete and unmitigated disaster’. The Coroner found that the bail laws discriminate against Aboriginal people, are incompatible with Victoria’s Human Rights Charter, and should be changed urgently.

Even just a short time in prison can have major consequences. Women lose their jobs, their housing stability, and their children can be taken away into out-of-home care.

The Human Rights Law Centre stood with Veronica Nelson’s family and our partners across Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, legal and advocacy groups to call on the Victorian Government to implement “Poccum’s Law” which outlined a suite of recommendations to fix the state’s bail laws and prevent what happened to Veronica from happening again.

In 2022, we gave evidence to a parliamentary committee review into Victoria’s criminal legal system. The Committee’s final report made 100 recommendations for change, including that the Andrews government review the operation of the state’s bail laws.

In 2023, the Andrews Government introduced some small changes to address the problem, such as removing reverse onus provisions for children, however the changes fell far short of the recommendations in Poccum’s Law and were painfully short-lived.

Driven by a media environment mythologising a “youth crime crisis”, the Allan Government has since scrapped all positive reforms, and in March 2025, introduced new even harsher bail laws that will escalate the problem further. The Human Rights Law Centre mobilised partner organisations to conduct public advocacy, widely condemning the government’s short-sighted decision making.

Victoria’s unjust bail laws form part of a national trend towards regressive bail laws across the country that are driving up the number of unsentenced people in prison. This is particularly the case in the Northern Territory and Queensland where we opposed amendments to youth justice laws that have resulted in the number of children driven into prisons skyrocketing.