Victoria's former top cop acknowledged the state's former bail laws directly led to the death of Indigenous women Veronica Nelson despite allegedly recently pushing for the laws to be strengthened again.

The concession, in a letter to Ms Nelson's mother, Aunty Donna Nelson in 2023, comes as the state government weighs up whether to strengthen bail laws under increased pressure from conservative media, the state opposition and the police.

Ms Nelson, a Gunditjmara, Dja Dja Wurrung, Wiradjuri, and Yorta Yorta woman, died in custody in 2020 in a "vomit ridden" prison cell from a rare gastrointestinal condition – known as Wilkie's syndrome - along with malnutrition and opiate withdrawal.

An inquest into her death heard the then-bail laws were described by Coroner Simon McGregor as an "unmitigated disaster". He said they discriminated against Aboriginal people, were incompatible with Victoria's Human Rights Charter, and should be changed urgently.

They had also led to a dramatic increase in the number of Indigenous people and women being held on remand.

In his letter, former Police Commissioner Shane Patton, who was told last month his contract would not be renewed after losing the support of rank-and-file police officers, told Aunty Donna Nelson he believed it was "important that I publicly acknowledge" the bail laws in their then-current application "started a chain of events that resulted in your daughter being remanded".

"I have also accepted the findings of Coroner McGregor that police incorrectly categorised her risk in the remand application and did not draw the court's attention to your daughter's Aboriginality so that the magistrate could take this consideration into account," Mr Patton wrote.

On Tuesday, the Herald Sun, which has editorialised Victoria's current bail system as "failed", said Mr Patton had lobbied the government in the last weeks of his tenure to strengthen the laws, despite his comments to Aunty Donna.

Mr Patton had also apologised on behalf of the Victorian Police during his appearance at the Yoorrook Justice Commission in 2023, telling the hearing: "As a result of systemic racism, racist attitudes and discriminatory actions of police have gone undetected, unchecked, unpunished or without appropriate sanctions, and have caused significant harm across generations of Aboriginal families."

"For all this, I genuinely and formally apologise as Chief Commissioner and on behalf of Victoria Police. I am sincerely sorry that this has occurred to Aboriginal people," Mr Patton said.

The Victorian government has flagged changes to the laws, with Premier Jacinta Allan last week saying she understood they were "not working" in their current setting.

"It's why the laws need to be changed and they will," she said.

When the changes were first announced, Aunty Donna said it was betrayal of what she was told by Mr Patton and the then attorney-general after the findings into her daughter's death.

"[They] looked me in my eyes and promised to make bail conditions better, because of what Veronica and my family suffered," she said.

"Where are those promises now?"

In the lead up to her death, Ms Nelson pled with guards 49 times to help her, with Coroner McGregor describing the conditions in which she spent her final days as "harrowing".

No one has been charged or found guilty for Ms Nelson's death, nor has a single person been found guilty for the at least 587 Indigenous deaths in custody since 1991.

Last year, WorkSafe Victoria, the state's workplace safety watchdog, declared there was "insufficient evidence" to prosecute the Department of Justice and Community Safety (DJCS), as well as prison healthcare provider Correct Care Australasia (CCA), involved in the death of Ms Nelson.

When the bail laws were finally changed last year, after years of advocacy from the Nelson family, Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service (VALS) chief executive Nerita Waight said they would reduce the number of Indigenous people on remand.

"These laws bring us one step closer to ensuring that what happened to Veronica never happens again," she said.

Data showed fewer Aboriginal people were being remanded since the laws changed, which VALS said was evidence of their effectiveness.