NSW prisoners population at six year low as ‘favourable’ Covid bail conditions kick in

New data shows fewer people are going to jail, but a NSW MP says “woke” emergency bail measures could risk public safety.

NSW’s jail population remains at the lowest level in six years – a legacy of emergency measures brought in to combat Covid, including “more favourable” bail measures for accused crooks.

But One Nation MP Mark Latham says it is not in the best interests of public safety to let so many offenders “out on the streets”.

He blamed a “woke” Attorney-General Mark Speakman. “There’s no evidence that Covid has had a miracle effect and made the crims more law abiding,” Mr Latham said.

One Nation NSW MP Mark Latham. Picture: Christian Gilles

Attorney-General Mark Speakman. Picture: Tim Hunter

Even the state’s youth detention numbers are at historic lows, according to the latest figures from the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research (BOCSAR).

And the number of Indigenous young people in custody has also fallen a whopping 43 per cent in that time.

The remarkable 11 per cent fall in adult prisoner numbers began with crisis measures introduced back in March 2020, when more charged people were released from remand while waiting for court cases.

There was also a dip in the number of charges laid by police, and “more favourable bail decisions by both police and courts”, BOCSAR admitted at the time.

The NSW adult prison population is the lowest since 2015, with just 12,166 prisoners in jail in December last year, compared with a high of 13,974 in February 2020. Picture: Zak Simmonds

Mr Latham said he argued against the special measures being brought in, but they were passed and appear to now be “administrative practice”.

“We thought these measures were ridiculous,” he said. “But this government is very woke and Mr Speakman is soft and this is the path they have gone down. It’s not in the interests of public safety.

“A lot of the measures were geared for the benefit of the Indigenous, with lefty lawyers out there saying we shouldn’t have any Indigenous incarceration.”

Mr Latham said Mr Speakman had a stated objective of reducing Indigenous incarceration rates, “but the justice system is supposed to be blind to skin colour”. “But the woke ideology has unpicked those principles,” he said.

Mr Speakman said the fall in prison population “has not been associated with an overall increase in crime”.

“To the contrary, several major categories of offences have shown significant declines during lockdown periods,” Mr Speakman said.

ALP spokeswoman on corrections Tara Moriarty said she believed the drop in prison numbers and youth incarceration was due to more government support during the pandemic.

“If the government provides proper support for young people early rather than sending them to detention centres you can avoid an entire life of problems.”