NCJ Number
119101
Date Published
1988
Length
8 pages
Annotation
Through a focused effort, New Zealand has devised a comprehensive, cohesive range of community-based sentences which provide alternatives to custody.
Abstract
A 1981 penal policy review by a committee appointed by the Minister of Justice concluded that prison was overused and that the range of community-based sentences should be expanded. The Department of Justice drew all the recommendations into a coherent penal philosophy and began implementation. In 1985, legislation flowing from the review was enacted. The range of sentences prescribed included discharge, deferment of sentence, reparation, fines, community service, periodic detention, supervision, community care, corrective training, imprisonment, and preventive detention. This has necessitated a review of workload guidelines for probation staff so that allowance is made for all the range of activities probation staff must now perform and for the assignment of time values to these. What is required and what has yet to be demonstrated in New Zealand is the determination to change sentencing policy to avoid the net widening effects so often warned against in the literature.