The Sensible Sentencing Trust says the 'Three Strikes' law is the only law to have reduced serious offending. This follows Minister of Justice Andrew Little's recent announcement of a proposal that will be put forward to Cabinet to repeal the legislation.
The Sensible Sentencing Trust (SST) say they're opposed to Justice Minister Andrew Little's moves to scrap the law.
SST Founder Garth McVicar says, "As far as we're concerned three strikes is working incredibly well, there's been a 34% reduction with offending with the category of offender that gets a strike offence."
Plans to scrap the law were first announced last year.
"The three strikes law isn't working. It's been on the statute books for eight years now; actually serious offending rates have gone up, our prison population is going up."
The minister is pushing for inmates sentenced for less than two years to be served home detention. The overhaul is part of Labour's effort to curb New Zealand's growing prison population which sits just under 11,000 and is reported to increase by 2000 within the next decade.
McVicar says, "At present, the typical inmate has 46 prior convictions, so who are we going to let out of prison when we get [rid of] three strikes are we going to let the recidivist offender out? It appears we are and that's scary to me."
The Act Party, who established the law says repealing it would send the wrong message to offenders.
In a statement to Te Kāea Act leader David Seymour says, "The Justice Minister's suggestion that the law is contributing to prison overcrowding is also incorrect. Only a handful of inmates are on second and third strikes."
Te Kāea contacted Little for comment but he was unavailable. It has been reported that a proposal to repeal the law will be put to Cabinet within the next fortnight.