Barrister pans three-strikes law

The length of time criminals should be up to a Parole Board according to a Rotorua barrister. Photo/Thinkstock

The length of time criminals remain in prison should be up to the Parole Board, not the "three-strikes" sentencing law, a Rotorua barrister says.

The worst criminals in the Bay of Plenty and Coromandel have notched up 229 "strikes" under the hardline three-strikes legislation - two of whom received their second and "final" warning last year.

The law imposes heavier penalties on repeat violent or sexual offenders, ensuring they receive the maximum allowable sentence for their crimes.

Convicted offenders receive a standard sentence after the first strike, a sentence without parole on their second, and the maximum sentence without parole for their final strike offence.

Sexual offences made up the majority of "strike one" warnings in the Bay of Plenty/Coromandel with 97, followed by robbery and extortion with 70.

Violent crimes causing injury accounted for 48 of the strikes, while five were for abduction or harassment.

The two "second strikes" were for sex offences and were recorded last year.

Since the legislation was introduced in June 2010, the total number of warnings issued in the Bay of Plenty/Coromandel has risen year-on-year.

Rotorua defence lawyer Rob Vigor-Brown said he didn't agree with the three-strikes law.

"I consider the Parole Board [to be] the appropriate venue to decide whether an offender can be safely released into the community."

Parole hearings were extremely thorough, he said.

"Excellent" rehabilitation courses existed for prisoners, such as the Te Piriti sex-offender treatment programme - which had produced "outstanding results".

"That is because people do change," Mr Vigor-Brown said.

Since the three-strikes law came into force, more than 3700 first strikes have been slapped on offenders nationwide, and 29 convicted criminals are on their second, or "final" warning.

No third strikes have been recorded so far.

Minister of Justice Judith Collins said it was too early to assess the legislation's full impact.

The rise in the number of strikes since 2010 was largely thanks to "lag time" in the legislation's implementation, she said.

Garth McVicar, of the Sensible Sentencing Trust, said the low number of second offences showed the policy was working.