National’s law & order policy discussion document
National have released their law & order policy discussion document. It is dramatically different to what Labour and NZ First are doing, as one might expect with a party led by a former crown prosecutor.
Some of the major proposals:
- Using social investment to reduce offending and prevent crime and harm
- A specialist anti-gang taskforce within Police
- Gang members whose offending is gang-related lose eligibility for parole
- Gang-related offending to be added as an aggravating factor in the Sentencing Act
- Possibly remove the ability of the court to do concurrent sentences for the most serious offending (ie if you rape three people you get three sentences for rape, not one sentence which is only slightly longer)
- Make victim notifications when criminals are released the default (ie opt out, not opt in)
- Murderers who don’t reveal where bodies are, lose parole eligibility
- Will wider clean slate scheme for young offenders so offences wiped at age 18 if they have only one minor conviction, they do extra community service, get Level 2 NCEA numeracy and literacy and stay out of trouble until they are 25
- All prisoners (unless dangerous) to be in work, education or training
- Parole eligibility for low and medium level offenders to require NCEA Stage 2 literacy and numeracy