One of the core aims of the Victorian prison system is to protect the community via the seclusion of dangerous criminals. Recent figures however, suggest that the current model is simply insufficient due to poor practices, inefficiency and high rates of recidivism. A spike in male-perpetrated crimes has led to a 95 percent increase in inmate admission in Victorian prisons in the last 20 years (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2013). By September 30 2013, the male prison system was operating at 95.8 per cent of its operational capacity with four thousand eight hundred and ninety three beds at Barwon Prison being occupied by inmates (Australian Institute of Criminology, 2013). The fact that Victorian prisons are becoming overpopulated and that the Victorian prison system is at a stall is also illustrated by the poor conditions and level of healthcare offered to the prison’s inhabitants with over 47 percent of inmates suffering from a mental or physical health problem (ABS, 2013). Furthermore, the Victorian prison system provides a lack of sufficient rehabilitation of prisoners resulting in high levels of re-offending and re-incarceration after release. As prisons are the only institutions that…show more content… There is a common conception that incarcerating offenders all within the same vicinity allows some inmates to be exposed to high levels and a wider variety of crime than is necessary (V. General, 1999). In 2013, 40 percent of inmates in Victoria were those who had intended to cause injury, 17 percent were illicit drug offenders, 12 percent had committed unlawful entry with intent and 11 precent had committed sexual assault (Corrections Victoria, 2013). These statistics demonstrate the degree of assimilation, which necessarily occurs in the Victorian prison system and the level of exposure those convicted of petty crimes may