“Three Strikes Law Must Be Repealed” Says Community Organisation

Criminal justice experts and community organisers People Against Prisons Aotearoa say stalled efforts to repeal the controversial three strikes law should be resumed.

“The three strikes law imposes longer minimum sentences on repeat offenders. However, this law has had no measurable deterrent effect on crime. There is no evidence whatsoever that it has had any positive effect at all,” says PAPA spokesperson Emilie Rākete.

“Longer prison sentences do not keep communities safer. Almost everyone who goes to prison is eventually released. Do we want them coming home rehabilitated, or traumatised from time spent in a violent, unsafe, non-therapeutic environment?”

“In our work as community mediators, we have seen firsthand how rehabilitation and mediation between perpetrators and survivors of harm can transform lives. The three strikes law is empty bluster. It’s an attempt to posture as being tough on crime without any actual thought put into solving social problems.”

“The three strikes law should be repealed. The government will have the support of communities around the country once it presents reasonable, evidence-based, and rehabilitative alternatives to longer sentences.”

ENDS

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