Homeless are staying in jail
Legal Aid and social services stretched
HOMELESS people are being held in custody for minor offences like theft because they cannot be bailed to a non-fixed address, overstretched lawyers claim.
Legal Aid Geelong’s managing lawyer Shelley Buchecker said a range of social issues including rising homelessness and rife family violence had led to a surge in demand for nearly all of the legal provider’s services over the past financial year.
She said stretched social services meant low-level offenders were often left unable to access drug or alcohol detox programs, leaving authorities with no choice but to hold them in custody.
This was resulting in custody cells becoming an “ad hoc detox centre”, with illequipped staff forced to deal with offenders withdrawing from drugs and alcohol.
“They are not equipped for that and don’t have the medi- cal services,” Ms Buchecker said.
The Geelong legal aid centre saw a 23 per cent increase in homeless people seeking its legal services in 2016-17 and a near 41 per cent rise in demand for breach of family violence in-house lawyer services.
Victorian acting managing director Cameron Hume said courts and legal aid needed to have the resources to work together to steer people towards available programs and services to help them get on top of problems leading to offending.
“The justice system is interconnected. Matching investment in courts and legal aid is needed, alongside investments in police, corrections and child protection, if we are to solve entrenched and difficult problems in our community and make the community safer,” Mr Hume said.
Ms Buchecker said an increase in police resources meant more homeless people, who often lived in their cars, were being picked up for offen- ces such as driving an unregistered vehicle. That could be the start of a vicious cycle.
“If you are a homeless person there is a level of desperation. A lot of people living in their cars might not be able to afford registration and end up being charged,” she said.
“They end up being held in custody — not for the seriousness of their offending but because they have no address to be bailed to.”
Geelong police Inspector Craig Darlow said when offenders had no fixed address to be bailed to, police would usually refer the case to a bail justice or magistrate.
A police association spokesman said offenders were sometimes bailed to crisis accommodation providers, but it was not seen to be a significant problem in Geelong.
The region’s 10 legal aid lawyers, backed up by occasional pro-bono lawyers, saw 3991 clients in the 2016-17 financial year, up 3 per cent on the year prior.