Doors close on high-risk criminals

New preventive detention laws introduced in 2002 increased the use of the sentence for high-risk criminals.

Justice Minister Phil Goff said in the 2 1/2 years since the Sentencing Act 2002 came into force, 56 offenders had been given preventive detention, compared with 58 in the previous five years.

Last year, 34 were sentenced to preventive detention, nearly twice the previous high of 18 in 2000.

"Preventive detention is an indeterminate, life-long sentence which is imposed on the highest-risk offenders and which means they need never be released from jail if they are still considered a risk to the community," Mr Goff said.

"Those who are released can be recalled at any point for the rest of their lives."

Sensible Sentencing Trust spokesman Garth McVicar said the increase in sentences was encouraging.

"It is great to see that some of our judges are picking up on the message, but we are still hugely concerned that there are some judges who are letting the team down," he said.

Mr Goff said a much wider range of offences was being dealt with, and judges were using preventive detention for aggravated robbery, kidnapping, wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm and aggravated wounding.

Previously, preventive detention was used for sexual offenders and it was imposed only once for a non-sexual offence before 2002, he said.

The Sentencing Act 2002 significantly broadened the ability of judges to impose preventive detention, extending the qualifying sexual offences from 12 to 20 and the number of qualifying violent offences from five to 18.

"Had the sentence been more widely available and applied in the 1990s, the community would have been spared a great deal of anguish over a number of habitual paedophiles who received finite sentences and who, under the law, had to be put back into the community at the end of their sentence."

National Party law and order spokesman Tony Ryall said that National believed preventive detention could be further extended and applied to career criminals.

- Staff Reporter, NZPA