'Three strikes' law comes a cropper

Rodney Hide used 77 coffin lids placed against the walls of Mt Eden Prison last year as an election stunt. Photo / Martin Sykes

Not one of the 423 prisoners serving life sentences would have been stopped by the proposed "three strikes" law, official information reveals.

The Department of Corrections has released information that shows none of the prisoners would have been "struck out" before the offence that earned the life sentence.

The information is based on the definition of a "strike" in the Sentencing and Parole Reform Bill - one of a list of violent offences where the offender has been given a sentence of five years or more.

Corrections said that under the current definition none of the 423 prisoners serving a life sentence had three qualifying sentences for serious violent offences (or strikes) before their most recent life sentence.

Corrections also said that neither RSA killer William Bell nor samurai sword killer Antonie Dixon would have "struck out" before their crimes.

The information was provided under the Official Information Act to Rethinking Crime and Punishment's Kim Workman, one of the biggest opponents of three strikes.

Mr Workman said the information showed claims by Act and its hardline MP David Garrett that 77 lives would be saved by three strikes was wrong.

Act has campaigned on this, and leader Rodney Hide took part in a pre-election stunt where 77 coffin lids were placed alongside Mt Eden jail, representing the 77 killed by people who would have been "banged up" by three strikes.

Act's figures were also based on information from Corrections, but based on a much broader list of "violent offences", and also did not have the five-year hurdle. Mr Workman said Act needed to put things right.

Mr Hide said the different figures had come about because three strikes had been merged with National's sentencing measures in the Sentencing and Parole Bill.