John Munro: Criminal defence lawyer on gang-affiliated offenders sentenced to home detention increasing by 60pc in six years

The number of gang-affiliated offenders sentenced to home detention has increased by nearly 60 per cent in six years, according to Department of Corrections data.

The National Party says the rise is concerning from a “public safety” perspective and believes its policy of making gang membership an aggravating factor at sentencing will make it more likely they will spend time in prison, rather than home detention.

Labour says National’s policy “just tinkers with the status quo”, and the party is “dangerously straying into the territory of disregarding” constitutional arrangements.

Answers to Written Parliamentary Questions from National’s Justice spokesperson Paul Goldsmith regarding the number of people who were sentenced to home detention and were identified to be gang-affiliated each financial year since 2017/18 reveal a 59 per cent increase, with 623 people with gang affiliations being sentenced to home detention in the 2022/23 financial year.

The figures, provided to the Herald, do not include a breakdown of what offences each person was sentenced for.

Home detention can only be granted by a judge and is used as an alternative to imprisonment. It is intended for offenders who would receive a jail term of two years or less.

Corrections said home detention was “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.

“Offenders on home detention must also complete programmes designed to address the causes of their offending.”

Between 2017 to 2022 the number of people being sentenced to home detention overall decreased by 15 per cent, according to Ministry of Justice figures.

The increase in gang affiliates being sentenced to home detention coincides with a 61 per cent increase in the gang population in New Zealand since 2017.

National Party's justice spokesman Paul Goldsmith. Photo / Mark Mitchell.

Goldsmith told the Herald the increase in gang-affiliated people being sentenced to home detention was “concerning”. He also cited a 33 per cent increase in violent crime during the same period.

“Ultimately our concern is for public safety and as we’ve seen in recent cases home detention doesn’t necessarily mean being at home all the time, it can, well, mean going off to work, and for certain people that may well be appropriate ... there are certain circumstances, particularly for non-violent crimes or for ones that don’t involve serious violence that may make sense, but what we worry about is when it extends to those more serious crimes and gang activity.

“Our particular concern around gang activity is for the overwhelmingly negative impact that they have on our communities.”

He believed National’s policy of making gang membership an aggravating factor at sentencing, and limiting judges’ ability to reduce sentences, with a maximum discount of 40 per cent, would reduce the likelihood that sentences were downgraded from imprisonment to home detention for gang members.

“There will be circumstances where [home detention] is appropriate but what I would point to is the significant increase in violent crime over the same period, a significant increase in gang membership ov