Tougher sentencing to put 1400 more people in prison

Wednesday, 26 June 2024

The Government will make numerous changes to toughen criminal sentencing and send an estimated 1400 more people to prison.

Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith announced a raft of coming changes to criminal sentences handed down in the court room, as the Government continues to pursue its self-described tough on crime agenda.

He said the changes were estimated to increase prison numbers to between 1480 and 1730 people each year for the coming decade, at an estimated cost of between $165 million and $192m each year. As of March, there were 9508 prisoners, according to Corrections.

“The Budget invested $1.9 billion in extra Corrections facilities. So we’re prepared to make that investment if it means keeping out communities safer.

“Of course, our long-term desire is to see fewer people in prison, because there is less serious crime.”

The changes, campaigned on by the National, ACT, and NZ First parties, included capping sentence discounts that judges can apply to 40%, preventing repeat discounts for youth and remorse, and creating a “sliding scale” for early guilty pleas to encourage such pleas being entered early.

Also planned is a new “aggravating factor” in sentences for crimes which are committed against sole-charge workers or those whose homes and businesses are connected – a response to violent assaults on shopkeepers.

Judges will also be encouraged to hand down cumulative sentences, which add prison sentences onto existing sentences, as opposed to concurrent sentences for offences committed while on bail, in custody, or on parole. NZ First had sought to remove concurrent sentences under such circumstances in the coalition agreement with National.

Principles contained in sentencing law will also be changed to “take into account any information provided to the court about victims’ interests”, something ACT campaigned on and a promise of both ACT and NZ First coalition agreements.

Goldsmith said it was “absolutely appropriate” for Parliament to change the law to reflect the will of the community, which was concerned about violent crime.

Judges could continue to exercise their judgment, he said, but “the clear message we have from the community is there is a concern around undue leniency for sentencing”.

“We see, for example, the imprisonment rate for robbery offences with a maximum of 14 years has dropped from 74% in 2016, down to 58%.

“There's examples right throughout the system where people there's been less prison time for the equivalent offences over the last few years.”

He said overall reducing the number of criminals and victims of crime required the Government to do “a lot of things”.

“Obviously we have to be dealing with broader issues such as better treatment of addictions. If you're looking at the youth space, dealing with truancy. There’s a wide number of things that we need to be looking at as a society but one element is definitely a restoring the real consequences of crime.”

Under the NZ First-National coalition agreement, National also agreed to investigate the introduction of a “degrees of murder” sentencing law, that could create a hierarchy of murder charges akin to the first, second, and third degree murder charges seen in the United States justice system.

Goldsmith said that had not yet been considered by the Government.