ACT’s released its tougher on crime sentencing policy today, and I'll be honest with you- even I'm shocked at how little consideration judges have to pay to victims when they sentence offenders. 

ACT has pointed out that at the moment, basically everything is about the offender.

Take a look at the sentencing principles in the Sentencing Act:

Judges must take into account any particular circumstances of the offender that means that a sentence would be disproportionately severe.

They must take into account the offender’s personal, family, whanau, community, and cultural background in imposing a sentence.

And they must impose the least restrictive sentence, as in- the least harsh sentence they can impose.

And as for the victim, just one mention:

Judges must take into account any information provided to the court concerning the effect of the offending on the victim.

And as for the community and the risk to the community for the offender roaming the streets instead of being shoved into jail- absolutely nothing. 

That's nuts, isn’t it? 

How'd we get to this place? How'd we end up in a place where we are so focused on helping the offender live his or her best life, and we give no consideration to the risks to innocent people of that person staying out of jail.

And we give no consideration to the ongoing risk to the victim of that person staying out of jail.

Having pointed that out, ACT wants to change all that and put the victim and the community at the centre of sentencing and scrap the cultural reports, which basically make excuses for bad behaviour.

And you know what? That’ll mean more people in jail. Good.

Clearly, that’s what needs to happen. Our jail population has gone from 10,500 in 2017 to about 8400 now, and it is not working.

More of them in jail should be the goal as a society. Keeping us safe should be the goal.

Helping these bad guys live their best lives- not a priority. 

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