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Almost half of Victoria's prisoners re-offend within two years of release: study

Xinhua, May 8, 2015 Adjust font size:

Victoria's criminals are re- offending in record numbers, as statistics have revealed that almost half of the state's prisoners return to jail within two years of being released.

Fairfax Media reported on Friday that the rate of re-offending is likely to hit more than 45 percent for the 2014-15 financial year. The figure is up more than 5 percent compared to the previous year's data.

The rise in recidivism has been blamed on the previous state government's "tough on crime" policies that resulted in record numbers of incarcerations across the state.

Corrections Minister Wade Noonan said the government had set aside nearly 99 million U.S dollars in the state budget for health, rehabilitation and training programs to be implemented in prisons.

The government hopes the allocation would assist prisoners assimilate into everyday life once released, but Noonan said it would be some time before the funds help to lower the re-offending rate.

"It will be hard to bring rates down until such time as Labor's new investment takes effect," Noonan told Fairfax on Friday.

"What the previous government did was throw new beds wherever they could without the necessary infrastructure such as healthcare and training."

Liana Buchanan from the Federation of Community Legal Centres was happy with the Labor government's budget allocation, and told Fairfax Media the previous government's "tough on crime" policy left prisons overcrowded and poorly resourced.

"In overcrowded prisons you cannot put in programs, education and employment that are needed for rehabilitation," she said.

"The budget will in part allow infrastructure in prison to keep pace with prisoner numbers, and it will also provide some funding to community corrections so they too can keep pace."

But the opposition has argued the Labor government had been slow in working on a plan for re-offenders since taking government last November.

"This is a pathetic attempt by a new minister to try to politicize and blame others for an issue instead of taking responsibility for it," opposition Corrections Minister Edward O' Donohue told Fairfax on Friday. Endi