The Law of Institute of Victoria has described mandatory sentencing for home invasions and carjacking as ‘populist’ and says it won’t combat Victoria’s crime rates. 

Tom Elliott clashed with the chair of Criminal Law at the Institute, Andrew Halphen, who said the ‘lock them up approach’ is reactive.

He said it would be better to focus on rehabilitation but Tom Elliott said there was much more to be done and the law should be clear.

‘Ultimately any form of mandatory sentencing is likely to lead to higher imprisonment rates,’ Mr Halphen said.

‘Statistics demonstrate that when you have higher imprisonment rates you have higher recidivism rates. 

‘The more you send people to prison, the more likely you are to have people reoffending.’

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