Imprisonment is the most severe sentencing order available in Victoria. Under this order, an offender’s freedom is restricted by confining them in prison. Courts are required to record a conviction when imposing imprisonment.
Imprisonment is imposed in around 75% of cases in the higher courts (2023–24) and in around 7% of cases in the Magistrates’ Court (2023–24).
Total Effective Sentence and Non-Parole Period
All prison sentences have a total effective sentence. This is the longest period that a person might serve in prison (for example, 9 months).
The court may impose a non-parole period for prison sentences longer than 12 months (1 year). The court must impose a non-parole period if the prison sentence is longer than 2 years. The non-parole period is the minimum time that the person must spend in custody before being eligible to apply for release on parole.
For some offences, a minimum non-parole period must be imposed, unless a special reason exists.
Release from Prison on Parole
Release on parole is not automatic in Victoria. The Adult Parole Board decides whether to grant or cancel parole for adults. If parole is granted, the offender is still under sentence. If the offender does not abide by the parole conditions, the parole board can cancel parole and return the offender to prison.
Dual Track System
Under Victoria’s dual track system, a court may permit a young offender (aged under 21) to serve a custodial sentence in a youth detention centre instead of an adult prison. A court will need to establish the suitability of the young offender for the dual track system.
Pre-Sentence Custody
Some people are held in custody on remand while awaiting sentence. When this happens, section 18 of the Sentencing Act 1991 (Vic) requires courts to deduct the time someone has spent in custody from their sentence. Sometimes, a prison sentence will be equal to the time that the person has already spent in custody, known as time served prison sentences. A significant proportion of prison sentences in Victoria are time served prison sentences (Sentencing Advisory Council (2018) Time Served Prison Sentences).
Prisoner Management
Corrections Victoria is responsible for prison management in Victoria. Corrections facilities include remand centres for people awaiting trial or sentence, minimum security correctional centres and maximum security prisons. Victoria has separate prisons for men and women.
Corrections Victoria publishes monthly statistics on prisoners and offenders in Victoria.
Continuing Detention
The Supreme Court can make a continuing detention order for an offender to remain in detention after they have served a sentence for certain sexual or violent offences. The Supreme Court must be satisfied that the offender poses an unacceptable risk of committing a further sexual or violent offence after release.
A continuing detention order may be made for up to 3 years. The Supreme Court must review a detention order at least once every year. The court may renew the order if the risk of reoffending remains. The Post Sentence Authority is responsible for monitoring people on continuing detention orders.
Sentencing Multiple Offences in the Same Case
Offenders are commonly sentenced for multiple charges (offences) at the same court hearing, especially if they commit multiple crimes at the same time. When this happens, courts have a number of options available to them. When sentencing an offender to imprisonment, the court can impose:
- an aggregate prison sentence, meaning the court imposes a single prison sentence for multiple crimes. The court does not specify how much each crime contributed to the total length of the aggregate prison sentence or
- individual prison sentences for each charge. The court then chooses one crime to receive the base sentence and specifies how much of each sentence is concurrent or cumulative with the base sentence.
Concurrent and Cumulative Sentences
A concurrent sentence is served at the same time as another sentence. A cumulative sentence is served in addition to another sentence. Sometimes part of a sentence will be concurrent and part will be cumulative.
To illustrate how concurrent and cumulative sentencing might work, a prison sentence might be imposed for each of the following three charges, as follows:
Charge 1 results in a 9 month prison sentence (the base sentence)
Charge 2 results in a 6 month prison sentence but is wholly concurrent (this sentence doesn’t add any time to the total sentence)
Charge 3 results in a 3 month prison sentence and is wholly cumulative (all of this sentence is added to the total sentence)
The total effective sentence is 9 months (charge 1) plus 0 months (charge 2) plus 3 months (charge 3). This results in a total prison sentence of 12 months.
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