Prisons are the new face of public housing in Victoria.

Department of Treasury and Finance figures show that over the last four years spending on jails increased 44 percent to $816 million annually. Outlays on public housing, however, were cut from $1.2 billion to just $436 million.

Annual finance reports reveal that Prison expenditures are now almost double the amount spent on public housing – despite there being an estimated 40,000 people on public housing waiting lists in Melbourne.

The prison population is rising every month as more and more human beings are isolated and brutalised in metal cages where they are subject to rape, intimidation and horrendous physical and psychological abuse. According to the Victorian Ombudsman’s Investigation into deaths and harm in custody, released in March, “Approximately 55 percent of the prison population have an identified suicide/self-harm risk rating, while 42 percent have a psychiatric risk rating indicating mental health concerns.”

The vast bulk of people being locked away are the same who require decent housing: the oppressed and the long term unemployed who have been pushed to the margins by a society that values only profit and those who can generate it. It’s no accident that First Nations people continue to be overrepresented. Victorian Aboriginal community development funding has been cut 33 percent over four years.

It isn’t just those inside who suffer. The redirection of state funds away from public housing is exacerbating the homelessness crisis. One of the hardest hit groups is single mothers. The Council of Single Mothers and their Children had to turn away almost 250 families from its Emergency Relief Program for food and housing over the last year.

“The lack of affordable, safe and appropriate housing is a key issue for single mothers and their families”, the Council said in its annual report. “The Support Line has seen an increase in the number of women experiencing reoccurring homelessness as families search for affordable rents … Unfortunately our homeless figures may be an underestimation as many mothers are unwilling to divulge this type of information.”

While politicians and the senior ranks of Victoria Police have been feigning concern for people’s welfare – in recent times particularly women at risk of violence – government spending priorities show that the real agenda is to keep a section of the population vulnerable, desperate and impoverished. And potentially locked out of sight and abused.

This is the law and order agenda in action. They call it “community safety”.