Reason Party leader Fiona Patten is driving prison reform in Victoria.
She told Neil Mitchell the state should be focusing on a rehabilitation-focus approach, for some offences, rather than jail.
“It wouldn’t be sexual offences, it wouldn’t be violent offences,” Ms Patten told Neil Mitchell.
“What we want is a safer community and what we are doing now is not achieving that.”
She said Victoria should not be building more prisons.
“If we keep going at this rate, we are looking at spending billions and billions and billions of dollars on prisons,” she said.
The Reason Party leader, who has been an advocate for the supervised drug injecting facility at North Richmond, also addressed the “frightening” discovery of a bag of heroin with a street value of over $5000.
“I’m grateful somebody found it before somebody was hurt,” she said.
Press PLAY below to hear Fiona Patten speak with Neil Mitchell
