In winter this year, a young Aboriginal man with a history of self-harm who had been remanded in custody in Melbourne was told he would be moving cells.

But he was not shifted across the corridor or to another building nearby: he was driven 300km to the police cells in Wodonga.

He had no connection to the city, in the state’s far north-east. He also had no shoes or socks. Neither his family nor his lawyer were told he would be moved across the state; his lawyer found out after calling the previous cells to be told he’d been moved.

The man was relocated as part of a process called “decanting”: the shuffling of people across prisons and police cells in Victoria as the state balances its tougher bail laws with a shortage of beds and corrections workers.

Victorian police have an agreemen

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