The Perfect Storm?: The Impacts of Abolishing Suspended Sentences in Victoria

Over the course of the last decade Victorian governments have moved to limit the use of suspended sentences by the courts, with the aim of maximising community safety. Based on the evidence, however, the safety of the Victorian community is not being improved by the abolition of suspended sentences. Quite the contrary: the removal of a viable sentencing option, coupled with the increased workload faced by Victoria Police, the courts, community treatment and support providers, and Corrections Victoria in community corrections – coupled with the worsening conditions within Victorian prisons – all suggest that community safety may be compromised once the full reform process has been completed. Abolishing wholly suspended sentences will add approximately 5,500 people to the corrections population. To understand the scale of the impact of this reform, this is effectively equivalent to the number of people who currently receive community orders in Victoria each year. This increase has significant implications for the capacity of Corrections Victoria to manage – safely and effectively – a vastly increased workload. Many of those who work at the coalface of the criminal justice system have publicly expressed concern that Victorian law and order institutions are facing a ‘perfect storm’, with crippling effects. To understand this, this report examines the likely impact of the abolition of suspended sentences in Victoria, and makes a series of recommendations to make Victoria safer. The report has been developed through a series of consultations with key stakeholders and through a review of the relevant research literature. The report considers three key issues: the effectiveness of various sentencing options, including suspended sentences and those sentences which are likely to become more prevalent in the absence of suspended sentences; the social costs to the community of the abolition of suspended sentences; and the financial costs associated with the abolition of suspended sentences.