Low-level offenders such as those with unpaid traffic fines are likely to be spared jail and put into community service work under a shake-up of the justice system aimed at slashing spiralling remand costs.

Ahead of next week’s State Budget, it is believed one of the major initiatives to be revealed by Treasurer Ben Wyatt will be an overhaul of WA’s criminal justice arrangements.

Central to the efforts will be reducing the cost of the State’s prison population, which has ballooned by more than 50 per cent to about 7000 inmates over the past five years.

As a result of the increase, the Corrective Services budget has risen to almost $1 billion a year as the prison population has reached its operational capacity.

On the back of work by Treasury to model every input cost into the system — through a project known as the “justice pipeline” — The Weekend West understands the Government will outline major changes to the way it manages the portfolio.

One measure is likely to see a revamp of the way low-risk offenders, such as fine defaulters, are handled by the system to keep them out of jail. Many such offenders are Aboriginals from remote areas who end up costing taxpayers significantly more to imprison than the value of their fines.

Another area likely to get a boost is the court system, which has been straining under the weight of an increased workload caused by an expanded police force.

There has been no material increase in the courts budget for years but it is understood Attorney-General John Quigley will announce funding for new judges, crucial to efforts to lower the number of prisoners held on remand, which has rocketed from about 10 per cent of the muster a number of years ago to about 30 per cent now.

Under a series of decisions since coming to power, the McGowan Government has announced plans to upgrade several prisons such as Casuarina and Bunbury rather than build a new one.

This week, Corrective Services Minister Fran Logan unveiled the latest investment, saying $12.3 million would be spent improving security at Greenough prison following last year’s riot and mass breakout.

A spokesman for Mr Quigley would not comment on the budget, but said: “The State Government is on record as being committed to reform fine default legislation, as recommended by the report following the coronial inquest into the death of Ms Dhu.

“In addition to enhancing time-to-pay arrangements and introducing garnishing of salaries and bank accounts, those reforms will enable people who have defaulted on their fines because of hardship to undertake Work and Development Permits instead of being imprisoned for fine default alone.”