“With more police on the beat, tougher sentencing and bail laws and an increasing population, prisoner numbers are expected to continue to rise and we are planning for that growth,” Ms Tierney said. The state’s overall prison population has risen more than 70 per cent in the past decade, adding hundreds of millions of dollars a year to the cost of managing inmates. There are 7400 prisoners in Victoria (up from 4176 in June 2007), about 2600 of whom are being processed through the courts, figures for March show. There were about 1400 unsentenced prisoners in the state's jails at the time of the previous election. Sentencing Advisory Council chairman Arie Freiberg said the increase in prisoners on remand had been massive and was driven in large part by the government’s response to community concerns about offences committed by people on bail or parole.

Sentencing Advisory Council chairman Arie Freiberg. Emeritus Professor Freiberg said the Andrews government was responding to growing public support for tougher sentencing, following community horror over appalling crimes such as Adrian Bayley’s rape and murder of Jill Meagher while on parole. There had been a reduction in the number of people being granted bail, and in offenders being granted suspended sentences and community corrections orders, he said. “We’ve put in well over a billion dollars in prison infrastructure, 35 per cent of those inside are not convicted, and many of those may not go to jail at all, even if they are convicted,” Professor Freiberg said. Tougher bail laws were introduced last year, ruling out bail unless under exceptional circumstances for a range of serious offences including car jacking, home invasion, armed robbery and culpable driving causing death.

New laws were also introduced this month that require judges to apply mandatory jail terms to those who commit more serious crimes. The laws also limit bail options and restrict the courts in issuing community corrections orders – moves that will swell prison numbers once again. But the state opposition said the number of unsentenced prisoners had also exploded because the government had failed to manage the heavier caseloads in the courts. The opposition is considering the deployment of magistrates to some prisons, to avoid having to transport people on remand from prison to the courts for administrative matters such as mentions. Spokesman Mr O’Donohue said this could expedite court cases. “Justice delayed is justice denied,” he said. “The time it is taking to conclude matters in the courts is unacceptable.”

Budget figures show the Magistrates Court met its target to process each case within six months 85 per cent of the time in 2016-17. A timeframe of within a year was met 85 per cent of the time in the County Court and 75 per cent of the time in the Supreme Court. Victorian Corrections Minister Gayle Tierney Credit:Rob Gunstone Corrections Minister Tierney said there had been ''significant growth in the prison population since 2013, and the previous Liberal government did little to keep up with demand, overcrowding the system and making it less safe for staff and prisoners”. Almost 2000 new prison places have been created since Labor came to power, a further 470 are planned, and 520 additional prison staff have been hired, Ms Tierney said. The 1000-bed medium-security Ravenhall prison was opened in October, 3½ years after the former Napthine government signed contracts to build it.

Construction of the 1000-bed Ravenhall Prison last year. Credit:Jason South The government announced in January, just three months after it opened Ravenhall Prison, that a new prison at Lara was being planned for hundreds more prisoners. The government is yet to confirm the site of the planned new jail. Victoria’s prisoner population expansion has also come at a steadily growing cost to taxpayers. A report by the Auditor-General found last month that the annual cost to the state of managing male prisoners – who make up 92.5 per cent of the prison population – had risen 90 per cent, from $425.9 million in 2010-11 to $811.2 million in 2016-17.

Each prisoner costs the state $127,000 a year on average, the report found.