Minister defends Vic prison container plan

The Victorian government says prisoners housed in shipping containers will be like miners. Source: AAP

PRISONERS housed in shipping containers because of prison overcrowding will be like miners living in camp, the Victorian government says.

About 100 prisoners at Dhurringile Prison in the state's north could call containers home by Christmas, Corrections Minister Edward O'Donohue said on Tuesday.

The scheme, designed to free up police cells doubling as prisoner accommodation, sparked anger from the opposition and experts.

But Mr O'Donohue said the containers were already used by miners across the country and were good enough for local criminals.

"This is proven accommodation, it works, it provides all the basic services they need," he told reporters.

The containers are also already used in prisons in South Australia, Western Australia and New Zealand, he said.

If successful similar systems will be set up at Langi Kal Kal and Beechworth prisons in early 2014, he said.

The containers have no door locks so GPS technology will be used to track prisoners.

The units will be used while extra permanent prison cells are built state wide.

Acting Opposition Leader James Merlino raised fears about the safety of guards and local communities.

"This is not good management, it is simply incompetence," he said.

"There is no long-term plan just short-term fixes."

Melbourne University prisons expert Associate Professor Stuart Kinner said it would be better to lock up fewer convicted criminals.

"Rather than having to introduce these sorts of sub-optimal, makeshift measures, it would be much cheaper and much more effective to invest more in diverting people away from prisons in the first place," he said.

"I think what we are seeing here is the symptoms of a system that is not investing in diversion and other more effective measures to the extent that it could."

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