Sentencing reforms that will ensure criminals face tougher consequences and victims are prioritised have passed first reading in Parliament today, Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith says.
“Despite a 33 per cent increase in violent crime, there has been a concerning trend where the courts have imposed fewer and shorter prison sentences.
“We must restore confidence in our justice system to denounce and deter criminal activity.
The upcoming reforms will strengthen the criminal justice system by:
- Capping the sentence discounts that judges can apply at 40 per cent when considering mitigating factors unless it would result in manifestly unjust sentencing outcomes.
- Preventing repeat discounts for youth and remorse. Lenient sentences are failing to deter offenders who continue to rely on their youth or expressions of remorse without making serious efforts to reform their behaviour.
- Responding to serious retail crime by introducing a new aggravating factor to address offences against sole charge workers and those whose home and business are interconnected, as committed to in the National-Act coalition agreement.
- Encouraging the use of cumulative sentencing for offences committed while on bail, in custody, or on parole to denounce behaviour that indicates a disregard for the criminal justice system, as committed to in the National-New Zealand First coalition agreement.
- Implementing a sliding scale for early guilty pleas with a maximum sentence discount of 25 per cent, reducing to a maximum of 5 per cent for a guilty plea entered during the trial. This will prevent undue discounts for late-stage guilty pleas and avoid unnecessary trials that are costly and stressful for victims.
- Amending the principles of sentencing to include requirement to take into account any information provided to the court about victims’ interests, as committed to in both coalition agreements.
“Two aggravating factors are also included in the bill,” Mr Goldsmith says.
These respond to:
- Adults who exploit children and young people by aiding or abetting them to offend;
- Offenders who glorify their criminal activities by livestreaming or posting them online.
“Communities and hardworking Kiwis should not be made to live and work in fear of these offenders who clearly have a flagrant disregard for the law, corrections officers and the general public.
“These reforms will help ensure there are 20,000 fewer victims of violent crime by 2029, alongside a 15 per cent reduction in serious repeat youth offending.”