Warning: This report discusses suicide, mental health, and abuse. If you or anyone you know is affected, there are helplines at the end of the article.

The story includes the names of First Nations people who have died.

Indigenous legal advocates have labelled the second tranche of Victoria's proposed bail law reforms as a "disaster waiting to happen" that will "inevitably result in more Aboriginal deaths in custody".

Expected to be introduced by the Labor Government in the coming weeks, the changes follow the first round of bail laws passed earlier this year — labelled "dangerous and discriminatory" by legal advocates.

Those initial reforms scrapped key protections, including the principle that remand should be a "last resort" for youth offenders. They also made it an offence to breach bail conditions or commit an indictable offence while on bail.

Since then, incarceration rates have surged.

Nerita Waight, Chief Executive of the Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service (VALS), said the impact is already severe, noting 60 per cent of youth in detention and 40 per cent of adults in custody are currently unsentenced and being held on remand.

"We have seen a 300 per cent increase in our Balit Ngulu clients being denied bail over the past year," Ms Waight said, calling it a "reckless approach to community safety when we know how deeply unsafe corrections facilities can be".

"The prison system is already overwhelmed and inundated, with base levels of care not being met for people who are currently incarcerated. The amendments of tranche two are reckless and will inevitably result in more Aboriginal deaths in custody."

Further changes expected in the second tranche include the so-called High Harm Test — which has resulted in over 90 per cent of Aboriginal children being denied bail in New South Wales — and the Two Strike Test (previously the uplift mechanism), which was described as an "unmitigated disaster" by the coroner during the inquest into the 2020 death in custody of Veronica Nelson.

Ms Nelson, a Gunditjmara, Dja Dja Wurrung, Wiradjuri, and Yorta Yorta woman, died in a "vomit-ridden" cell from a rare gastrointestinal condition after being arrested for alleged shoplifting and denied bail.

Although changes to bail laws followed advocacy from Ms Nelson's family in 2023, Premier Jacinta Allan this year said those changes were "wrong".

First Nations Director at the Human Rights Law Centre, Maggie Munn, said: "Bail saves lives, yet the Allan Government is pursuing legislation that will put even more people behind bars."

"Victoria's regressive and discriminatory bail laws are already driving up the number of people in prison and condemning generations of children and adults to the trauma of pre-trial detention," Munn said.

They added: "The Allan Government should abandon the second tranche of dangerous bail laws and instead implement Poccum's [Ms Nelson's childhood nickname] Law in full to make Victoria's bail laws safer and fairer for everyone."

Ms Waight said it should not take "another coronial inquest" to demonstrate how dangerous the new laws will be for Aboriginal people, who already face higher levels of criminalisation.

"Our message is clear — it is fundamentally irresponsible to progress with Tranche Two. The risk to human life is too high," she said.

Greens Justice spokesperson Katherine Copsey agreed, arguing that "Labor's knee-jerk bail laws are already causing harm across the community and disproportionately affect Indigenous Victorians".

"Tranche two are a disaster waiting to happen, and we urge Labor to withdraw them."

The backlash comes as Victoria's prison system faces severe strain.

In April, National Indigenous Times revealed staff shortages have triggered rolling lockdowns, resulting in multiple suicide attempts, at Dame Phyllis Frost Centre (DPFC), the state's only women's high-security prison. VALS says the facility has been in lockdown for 249 of the past 303 days, with an average lockdown duration of over three hours.

One former inmate said inmates are "being held back" from cultural sessions — their "only connection to Aunties and Country" —and witnesses multiple suicide attempts, including one by a woman two cells down from her.

"I am suffering trauma and I have nightmares about her attempt…My heart is breaking for her. I want to cry for her. No one should ever feel this isolated," they said.

Ms Waight says solitary confinement is a punishment that is being inflicted on inmates because the government can't "adequately staff their facilities for the population increase that they have single-handedly caused".

"It is unacceptable to punish the women further for the sheer incompetence of the department to manage its staffing requirements," she said.

Lawyers have told National Indigenous Times some Aboriginal clients have been unable to attend their Koorie Court bail applications due to a lack of transport or space in courthouse cells, keeping them on remand even longer. Despite this, earlier this year, the government seemingly celebrated the increase in the number of people being held behind bars.

Ms Waight urged the government to reconsider its approach, saying the proposed reforms will not improve public safety.

"Punitive, regressive policies do not work. Broken systems don't heal trauma. Instead, they will cause significant harm to our community as we see legal and corrections systems pushed to breaking point," she said.