Repeat killers

The Sunday Star-Times reports that nine convicted killers are repeat killers. Very timely story as we debate whether to go with National’s two strikes and no parole law or ACT’s three strikes and life with minimum 25 years no parole law.

I got sent a while back the calculations for Rodney’s claim that 77 Kiwis would still be alive if ACT’s three strikes law had been in place previously. It is:

• There are currently 391 offenders serving life sentences in prison. Of these, 68 had three sentence episodes for violence prior to the imposition of the current life sentence.
• There are currently 79 sentenced offenders in prison for whom manslaughter is the major offence. Of these, nine (or 11%) had served three prior sentences for violence before imposition of the current sentence.

So 68 + 9 = 77 people who would still be alive if their killers had been given life after their third serious violent offence. And this is just for those who are still in prison.

So the murder rate would drop by 17% and the manslaughter rate by 11% if the three strikes law had been in place.

What I would find interesting is how many people (in say last 15 years) have been sentenced to three seperate jail terms for violence (and would now be serving a life sentence if the three strikes law had been in place). Also how many of those stopped offending after the third jail sentence for violence and how many carried on offending?