October 22, 2024

Three strikes you’re out? McKee reckons we need to toughen up

Matthew Tukaki Posted On October 22, 2024

The Associate Justice Minister, Nicole McKee is looking to review the three strikes law indicating that if violent criminals “locked up in prison” they will not be in communities “creating harm and creating more victims”. The three strikes law in New Zealand was introduced by the Sentencing and Parole Reform Act 2010. It aimed to deter repeat offenders by imposing progressively longer mandatory prison terms for those who continued to re-offend. Under this law, three qualifying offenses would result in the maximum sentence being handed down.

McKee has previously said “The intention is to limit the new three-strikes regime to serious repeat offenders without capturing the low-level offending. We intend to provide narrow exceptions to allow judicial discretion not to impose the mandatory sentence or parole requirements when it would be manifestly unjust to do so.”