Sly of the Underworld: The idea to fix Victoria’s court ‘crisis’

Courts have been swamped during the pandemic, with COVID-19 leading to massive backlogs of court cases.

There are 1600 trials currently awaiting to start in the County Court, while in the Magistrates Court the number of trials waiting finalisation have doubled.

John ‘Sly’ Silvester says it’s a “crisis”.

But he says it’s possible to speed up the process without compromising its legitimacy.

“We do things the way we always have, because we always have,” he said.

Sly says court should be held inside prisons, to remove the need to transport prisoners.

“All these sort of efficiencies can be done,

“You could halve that time without a problem, without affecting justice whatsoever.”