JAILHOUSE JUDGE PLAN

Up to 30 prisoners don’t make it to court some days Libs, police union push for magistrate at Lara prison

A RADICAL plan has been hatched to tackle the increasing problem of Barwon prisoners failing to appear for court — often because they refuse to board transport.

With the recalcitrant behaviour costing taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars, Opposition Corrections spokesman Edward O’Donohue says a sitting magistrate at the Lara Prison Precinct could be the solution. Prisoners also fail to show for court because of lack of space on transport and lack of cells to hold them at court.

In 2016, Corrections Victoria failed to bring 229 prisoners to court, up 76 per cent from 130 the year before.

A RADICAL plan has been hatched to address the increasing problem of prisoners failing to appear for court — often because they refuse to board transport.

Shadow Corrections Minister Edward O’Donohue says a sitting magistrate at the Lara Prison Precinct could be the solution, with the recalcitrant behaviour costing taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Prisoners also fail to show for court appearances because of lack of space on transport and lack of cells to hold them at court.

In 2016, Corrections Vic- toria failed to bring 229 prisoners to court, up 76 per cent from 130 the year before.

Figures reveal the failure to present prisoners to court has cost Victorian taxpayers more than $400,000 since 2015.

“With remand prisoner numbers ballooning and Corrections Victoria continu- ously failing to present prisoners to court, justice for victims of crime is being delayed and taxpayers’ money wasted,” Mr O’Donohue said.

“Part of our plan includes having a magistrate sit at the Lara Prison Precinct to avoid unnecessary prisoner transportation to courts in Gee- long, Melbourne and elsewhere for procedural court hearings. With the Lara Prison Precinct forecast to have a population of nearly 2000 prisoners, it is clear we need to be smarter about how we manage prisoner movements and court appearances to improve the efficiency of the justice system.”

Police Association of Victoria secretary Wayne Gatt backed the plan, claiming the court process in Victoria needed to be streamlined.

“A key cause of clogging in the system is the movement of prisoners to court often for short appearances, some of which are procedural in nature,” Mr Gatt said. “It’s an inefficient and labour-in- tensive process that can be done better.”

“What the courts need is a fully operable video link facility to stop the need for transporting prisoners. In the absence of that, we should consider justice precincts being co-located with prisons. It makes sense.

“Common reasons are that the prisoner refuses to get on the bus to come to court, there’s not enough room on the bus, there is not enough cells to safely hold the prisoners appearing before a particular court on a particular day.”

A similar plan was reportedly broached during talks between Victoria Police and the Magistrates’ Court of Victoria last year.

The possibility of holding hearings at the Metropolitan Remand Centre and at maximum-security women’s jail Dame Phyllis Frost Centre was raised, the Herald-Sun reported in September. However, some magistrates were reluctant to sit at prisons.

At the time Mr Gatt said members told him it was common for between 10 and 30 prisoners to not make it to court on a given day.

On a single day in late August, 14 prisoners could not be taken to various courts for their hearings. There were four at Geelong, four at Broadmeadows, three at Melbourne, and two at Ringwood.

“Part of our plan includes having a magistrate sit at the Lara Prison Precinct to avoid unnecessary prisoner transportation.”