Restrict emergency management days for violent and high-risk prisoners

The petition of certain citizens of the State of Victoria draws to the attention of the Legislative Council that all Victorian prisoners are eligible for emergency management days while incarcerated, which can see up to four days of their sentence removed for each day they are inconvenienced due to industrial action, emergencies, disruptions and deprivations, including due to COVID-19 lockdowns.

Over the two years that Melbourne and Victoria suffered through the world’s longest COVID-19 lockdowns, thousands of prisoners received more than 360,000 days off their collective sentences. This is equivalent to over 1,000 years of jail time.

The petitioners therefore request that the Legislative Council call on the Government to, as a matter of urgency, remove the eligibility for violent and high-risk prisoners to access emergency management days and ensure that any sentence reduction due to emergency management days cannot reduce the time served to less than the minimum non-parole sentence.