By JOHN VAN KLAVEREN
A “massive failure of policy and imagination” will deliver Geelong only 27 of 80 new temporary prison beds for regional Victoria, according to the opposition.
Shadow corrections minister Martin Pakula said Geelong would still have overcrowded police station cells.
“We have a situation in Geelong where crime is going up, prisons are overflowing and our hard-working police are babysitting prisoners instead of tackling and reducing crime,” Mr Pakula said.
“I would have thought the whole point of being tough on crime would be to bring down the crime rate and the rate of reoffending. Instead both rates are rising and our prison population is ballooning.”
Victoria’s Police Association said police were “babysitting” more than three times the capacity of station cells.
Member for Western Victoria David Koch announced last week that Lara’s Marngoneet Correctional Centre would have nine extra relocatable prisoner accommodation units by August, each able to three medium-security prisoners.
The other 18 units would go to Sale’s Fulham Correctional Centre.
Mr Koch said relocatable units were providing an “important, immediate boost to capacity in Victoria’s corrections system”.
Mr Koch said the coalition had opened more than 1000 prison beds since the start of 2011 and had a further 2500 in the pipeline, he said.
