Middle NZ: Criminals don't care about consequences

Is home detention working? Photo / NZME

Two elderly ladies go out for the afternoon.

The next sentence should be: They thought they might try their luck at the pokies, had lots of fun and got home around 4pm.

Instead the afternoon ended in a terrifying experience as they were attacked on their way home with one of them ending up in hospital.

What is happening to our society?

Last week seemed full of nasty incidents.

Gunshots were fired in our streets. Yes, shots fired in our streets.

Then early on Friday morning some idiots decided to ram raid Stirling Sports in Napier and about 15 minutes later the same thing happened to the Westshore Corner Store.

They were using stolen cars.

Just about every day I see posts on social media from people who have had their cars pinched or caught people sneaking around their cars or property.

It is just unbelievable and frightening.

Linda Hall is assistant editor, at Hawke's Bay Today.

So many people have security systems in place in their own homes now. Alarms and cameras. It's sad that we don't feel safe in our own homes without them.

Luckily Stirling Sport had a fantastic security fence installed. CCTV footage showed that the ram raiders were not happy about that at all as they tried unsuccessfully to get under it, over it and through it.

One of the biggest problems is that there are no consequences for these people.

They just don't give a toss about who they hurt.

They have no respect for other people's possessions, no empathy no compassion. They think only of themselves.

They know if they get caught nothing will happen to them. They might get home detention but that means nothing.

I have heard plenty of people say they have seen people walking around town proudly wearing an ankle bracelet.

Electronic monitoring is simply not working.

According to the Department of Corrections website "Home detention is both a punitive and rehabilitation sentence. It requires an offender to remain at a suitable and approved residence at all times and be monitored 24 hours a day, seven days a week."

That's sure not happening.

People in isolation because of Covid are staying home for the benefit of their family, friends and work colleagues. They aren't out on the streets in the middle of the night looking for trouble.

I understand that staffing for Corrections is most likely part of the reason the monitoring is not happening all the time.

Staff problems are an ongoing issue for many businesses and organisations at the moment.

However, a solution has to be found before someone dies. Locking every criminal up is not going to work either.

Perhaps a stint in the army might do the trick. Six weeks of hard out training would also help with drug addictions which is a huge motive for people to steal. It's the only way they can pay for their drugs.

• Linda Hall is assistant editor at Hawke's Bay Today