Home detention, community sentences boosted in justice changes

The Government today announced changes to the justice system which include making home detention a sentence in its own right and extending the use of community sentences.

Prime Minister Helen Clark said the changes were being made to address the fast-growing rate of imprisonment.

She said that by June this year the number of inmates had climbed to 7700, compared with 4530 a decade ago, even though the rate of recorded crime was at its lowest in more than 20 years.

As reported by the Herald today, prisoners would become eligible for parole after two-thirds, rather than one-third as at present, of their sentence.

"The Sentencing Act 2002 is delivering longer sentences for serious offenders, but there need to be more alternatives to imprisonment for offenders at the lower end of the scale," Helen Clark said.

"The measures announced today will change how some offenders are sentenced and how they serve those sentences, and should serve to address the fast growing rate of imprisonment New Zealand has been experiencing."

She said the changes, called the Effective Intervention Package, contained measures which were significant and far-reaching.

"The Labour-led Government is committed to a society where all families, young and old, are safe and secure.

"Central to this commitment is having a criminal justice system which protects our communities by more effectively punishing offenders and making better use of our prisoners," she said.

"Over time, the measures being announced today should lower the rate of offending, including recidivism, and the rate of imprisonment which is unacceptably high in comparison with most Western countries."

Key changes:

* A revamp of the sentencing system so that there is a more transparent, consistent and standardised approach to sentencing. This will include the establishment of a Sentencing Council and parole reform.

* Prisoners will have to serve two-thirds of their sentences before being eligible for parole. Judges are expected to hand down shorter sentences - about 25 per cent less - so that the "time served" stays about the same.

* The introduction of home detention as a sentence in its own right for lower-risk offenders.

* The introduction of a new tier of community sentences which will increase the number of sentencing options available to judges. These will be part of a clear hierarchy of community-based sentences so that there is clarity about the relationship between sentences in terms of their severity.

* The new community sentences will include intensive supervision, with more conditions than exist at present, and electronically monitored curfew for low-risk offenders.

* Two new drug and alcohol treatment units in prisons and two further general purpose special treatment units to provide intensive rehabilitative programmes in prisons.

* Two further special treatment units will be established providing intensive rehabilitation for high-risk prisoners.

* More community-based treatment programmes and more district court judges.

- NZPA