26 November 2019

National is reviewing whether you should do additional time if you carry out multiple crimes, National’s Justice spokesperson Mark Mitchell says.

“National believes victims should be at the heart of the justice system. Victims often report feeling let down at sentencing when the person who committed multiple crimes against them only has to do the time for one offence.

“Concurrent sentencing still has a place, but for multiple serious offences like murder, manslaughter, rape and sexual violation the offender should have to serve each sentence cumulatively. This should also happen if criminals offend while on bail, in custody, or on parole as a disincentive for further offences.

“We know the cycle of crime usually starts at a young age. That’s why we’ve made youth offending a high priority.

“We want to incentivise young people who make a silly mistake to get their lives back on track. We’ll give them a second chance by wiping their conviction if they have been charged with one offence with a sentence of less than two years by doing community work, passing NCEA Level 2, looking for work and not offending again.

“There is a small group of young people who are hardened, dangerous criminals. We will create a new category of offender known as Young Serious Offenders (YSOs). Police tell us there are about 150 of them. We’re proposing more powers for police to detain YSOs, removing bail in favour of monitored release, removing warnings and increasing sentences.

“We believe communities should be kept safe from the most dangerous criminals so there are fewer victims of crime.

“National is doing the work in Opposition so we’re ready to hit the ground running. We are the Party of law and order and all of our justice policies put victims at the heart of the justice system.”
https://img.scoop.co.nz/media/pdfs/1911/Law_and_Order_Discussion_Document.pdf

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