Greens amendments to stop people being shuffled indefinitely between police cells have passed Victoria’s Upper House, putting a maximum 14-day limit on the time people can be held in dangerous conditions in police gaols and preventing transfers within police cells from resetting the clock.
The Victorian Greens have successfully amended the Corrections Amendment Bill 2026 to close the loophole allowing people to be moved around between police stations for weeks or even months at a stretch, a problematic practice known as ‘decanting’.
Lawyers have reported losing track of clients as they are moved around the state, sometimes hundreds of kilometres from their families, communities and legal representatives. One example involved a person who was transferred between police gaols every fortnight for nine months.
The Greens secured amendments to:
- legislate an upper limit of 14 days for detention in police gaols, except in extraordinary emergencies; and
- ensure that all time spent in police gaols counts towards the 14 day limit
The Greens say police cells were designed for overnight and short-term detention, not to function as makeshift prisons for weeks or months.Victoria Police has itself acknowledged that prolonged detention in police cells is inappropriate and previously sought to reduce the transfer period from 14 days to seven days.
Earlier this year, Greens justice spokesperson Katherine Copsey introduced the Corrections Amendment (Stop the Legal Loophole – Better Rights in Police Custody) Bill 2026 to end decanting and strengthen health care and other basic protections for people held in police custody.
Despite securing the amendment the Greens opposed Labor’s draconian No Open Air in Prisons bill which seeks to stop people in prison from having at least one hour in the open air each day, standing alongside First Nations, legal and human rights organisations.
As stated by Victorian Greens justice spokesperson Katherine Copsey:
“Police cells were built for short-term and overnight stays. People should never be warehoused in them for weeks or months just because Labor has overloaded corrections settings with their race-to-the-bottom politics on justice. The Greens amendments will stop the dangerous practice of shuffling people between police gaols which denies people access to legal and medical supports, wastes police resources and drastically raises the risk of further deaths in custody.”
“Labor ignored the evidence and ignored the warnings. They have cut crime prevention programs, underfunded support services and are demolishing public housing while homelessness gets worse. Instead of investing in the things we know improve community safety, they chose reactionary politics and now we’re facing a dangerous overcrowding crisis in both police cells and prisons.
“Let’s be clear, Labor’s ‘No Open Air in Prisons’ Bill is absolutely barbaric. You don’t rehabilitate people by locking them in a cell and denying them fresh air. You don’t make communities safer by treating people as less than human.”
