Victorian government proposes prisoner labor for road maintenance to fix potholes

Victorian prisoners will be put to work on road maintenance as part of Labor’s plan to fix the state’s potholes if re-elected.

The state’s premier, Ben Carroll, outlined the plan on Monday off the back of an announcement on Sunday that the government would be increasing the road maintenance budget by $352m to fix 500,000 potholes by the end of January.

The funding is on top of the more than $1bn budgeted for road maintenance in May, and is partially offset by delaying planned level-crossing removals in Melbourne’s south-east – two in Highett and one in Mentone.

Carroll said that if Labor wins the November election, it would work with Corrections Victoria to develop a pilot program to put supervised, minimum-security prisoners to work performing roadside maintenance.

The plan would include having prisoners take over “basic” duties such as mowing lawns, controlling weeds, removing graffiti and picking up rubbish, allowing more skilled crews to focus on fixing potholes.

The government said the work of prisoners “will not replace paid jobs” but instead “supplement the workforce where there are skill and capacity shortages”.

“Low-level prisoners want to be doing something that will benefit the whole of the state,” Carroll told reporters on Monday.

“We’ve seen the work that they do on graffiti removal. We’ve seen the work that they do on weeding and supporting our road network more broadly. But working with our crews and really increasing the labour capacity does mean we can fix up more potholes sooner, faster and better.”

However, Australian Lawyers Alliance criminal justice spokesperson and barrister Greg Barns SC described the plan as a “cynical short-term solution to a political problem for the government”.

“Whilst it’s always pleasing to see prisoners given the opportunity to work, unless they are paid the appropriate wage for this work, then it simply amounts to cheap labour and, in this case, for a political purpose,” he said.

According to Corrections Victoria, people in prison are paid between $7.15 to $9.80 per day depending on the complexity of their work. This is significantly below the minimum wage.

The government also compulsorily sets aside 20% of the money earned by individuals in prison as savings, which is only available to them upon their release. When this is factored in, people in prison make less than $40 per week to spend while incarcerated.

Barns said prisoners involved in this work should be paid the award rate, with some funds set aside for their release.

“It is important for prisoners’ stability and to lower recidivism rates that when they return to the community, they have some financial buffer,” he said.

“There also should be a link between this work and future employment placement.”

Carroll on Monday also committed to bringing responsibility for road maintenance “back in-house”, meaning less reliance on private contractors, and setting up a website that will allow Victorians to take a photo of a pothole, request it be repaired and monitor progress.

“What we are doing today, [is] making sure the buck stops with the government,” he said.

It comes as the condition of the state’s roads emerges as a significant issue in the lead-up to the election, particularly for regional Victorians.

Last month, the state opposition pledged to invest $5bn to repair and rebuild the state’s roads and patch 1m potholes if it wins in November.