Government wins public support over sentencing changes

The public supports Government plans to reduce the number of offenders sent to jail, a Herald survey has found.

At the same time the Law Society has come out opposed to plans to establish a sentencing council.

The Government proposes a raft of changes to the sentencing regime, driven at least partly by the spiralling prison population.

It wants a sentencing council to provide judges with guidelines on sentence lengths, arguing there are inconsistencies. It also plans to return parole eligibility from one to two-thirds of a sentence, but to reduce the length of the actual sentence to restore greater "truth in sentencing".

Several new community sentences were also announced, with a plan to make home detention a sentence in its own right.

The new community sentences are likely to divert several thousand offenders from a jail sentence each year and save the Government from paying for an extra 400 beds or the equivalent of a new prison.

A Herald Digipoll survey asked voters if they supported or opposed the Government's desire for "more sentences such as home detention for non-violent criminals, to cut the prison population?"

More than - 54.1 per cent - backed the plan, while 38.5 opposed it.

The Law Society's latest Law Talk magazine says its criminal law committee believes the sentencing council will undermine the independence of the judiciary.