Sending more people to prison is short-sighted, costly, and will do nothing to address community fears around safety, experts have said.

Coming in the wake of the Victorian government's decision to strengthen bail laws following a campaign around youth crime from the opposition, Victorian Police and sections of the media, several Indigenous, human rights and legal experts have slammed a move which Premier Jacinta Allan admits will see more people incarcerated on remand.

"Granting bail saves lives, but the Allan Government has today announced some of the most dangerous, discriminatory and unjust bail laws in the country," Maggie Munn, the First Nations Justice Director at the Human Rights Law Centre, said.

"It is really concerning that Allan Government's proposed changes to bail laws fly in the face of findings from past coronial inquests into Aboriginal deaths in custody, as well as countless recommendations, reports, and minimum standards at a national and international level."

Little more than a year after a concerted campaign by Indigenous woman Veronica Nelson's family led to wholesale bail law changes, the new "toughest" bail laws in the country means remanding youth offenders in custody will no longer be a last resort, with community safety now becoming the "overarching principle" when deciding on bail for both children and adults.

"These changes will see more people on remand. These changes will tackle the heart of the issue, which is repeat offending that is of grave concern to Victorians," Premier Allan said on Wednesday.

She also said the laws introduced after campaigning by Ms Nelson's family, were in retrospect, "wrong".

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 in the days after she had been arrested and denied bail for alleged shoplifting.

An inquest into her death heard Coroner Simon McGregor describe the then-bail laws as an "unmitigated disaster".

On Tuesday, National Indigenous Times revealed former Police Commissioner Shane Patton told Veronica's mother, Aunty Donna Nelson, the old bail laws contributed to her daughter being incarcerated, which ultimately led to her death.

"The Allan Government has refused to learn from past policy failures and is instead hellbent on reviving and entrenching harmful bail laws that have led to high numbers of Aboriginal people in custody," Munn said.

"Victoria's already broken bail laws have ripped apart families and communities, and instead of fixing them, the Allan Government is doubling down on laws that will put even more Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people behind bars."

The Allan Govt's announcement on bail reflects political desperation. We know that detention is criminogenic. It makes people more likely to reoffend and us all less safe in the long run. And we also know that prisons are especially unsafe for First Nations peoples. #springst

— Liberty Victoria (@LibertyVic) March 11, 2025

Privately, several government figures and legal experts have expressed concern at the decision, fearful it will only perpetuate trauma and cycles of crime. Others, however, have said whilst it was a hard decision, the optics of youth crime on the front pages of newspapers every day was too difficult to ignore.

These include the Herald Sun's "Suburbs Under Siege" campaign and a "Bring on Bail Reform" petition by FM radio hosts Fifi, Fev and Nick, both of which garnered much publicity.

Officials have previously admitted the overall number of offenders is only a small, core group of repeat offenders, rather than a growing number of new ones. Crimes committed by youths have reached a 15-year high in the past 12 months.

On X (formerly Twitter), Ali Besiroglu, the head of legal services at the Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service (VALS) said: "300 kids, that's it. Overhaul the entirety of the bail system for 300 children (with 25 kids being responsible for a quarter of those offences). Unbelievable!"

On the Herald Sun's campaign, he noted: "Unbiased journalism out the window."

Victorian Greens spokesperson for Justice, Katherine Copsey, argued more children being held on remand will fail to make the community safer, instead arguing it "significantly increases the chance of a young person reoffending and results in First Nations children being disproportionately incarcerated".

Data from the Sentencing Advisory Council of Victoria shows the state's recidivism rate sits at 46 per cent, with the Justice Reform Initiative's Executive Director Dr Mindy Sotiri noting across the country, the number of unsentenced prisoners had risen 130 per cent since 2013.

"The evidence is very clear that punitive bail laws do not deter crime, and locking people up on remand does not ultimately make the community safer," Dr Sotiri said.

"The experience of any form of imprisonment (regardless of whether someone is sentenced or on remand) is criminogenic – that is, it increases the likelihood of ongoing criminal justice system involvement."

Opposition has also come from legal circles, with The Australian Lawyers Alliance, Federation of Community Legal Centres, Liberty Victoria, and Victorian Legal Aid all condemning the decision.

"It's counterproductive and will make the situation worse," president of Liberty Victoria, Michelle Bennet, said, arguing the proposed laws contradicted the principle of innocence until proven guilty.

The powerful Police union welcomed the proposed changes, however, with Police Association Secretary Wayne Gatt arguing they would "swing the pendulum back in the favour of good, innocent people and families".

The laws are expected to pass parliament next week.