Currently more than 7000 people are held in custody in Victoria's publicly and privately managed prisons, overseen by Corrections Victoria, a business unit of the Department of Justice and Community Safety (DJCS). Many of these prisoners struggle with complex issues including mental health conditions, drug addiction and a history of trauma.

Corrections Victoria's primary purpose is to manage these prisoners and the corrections system in a way that keeps the Victorian community safe. Corrections Victoria is also responsible for the health and safety of prisoners and staff, prisoner rehabilitation to reduce reoffending, the building of a sustainable system, and delivering value for money for the Victorian community.

In 2017, the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission (IBAC) issued a research report on corruption risks associated with the corrections sector. Since that report, IBAC has completed a number of investigations into allegations of corrupt conduct in corrections. This special report focuses on four of those investigations – Operations Rous, Caparra, Nisidia and Molara. However, IBAC considers that the corruption vulnerabilities and the conduct of concern highlighted in these investigations exist more broadly within the corrections sector.