The Greens’ Shane Rattenbury is courageously trying to introduce some rationality to the rush for longer sentencing options for judges (presented to us as “tougher sentences”).
The ACT Greens are calling for a full review of criminal sentencing in the ACT in light of the current raft of bills before the Assembly to increase penalties.
There will be three different Bills before the Assembly from the ALP and the Liberals that propose increases to sentences for more than 20 offences.
“Rather than doing sentencing reform in this piecemeal way, the Greens propose a full review of sentencing in the ACT to ensure that our sentencing regime is up to date and reflects community attitudes to justice”, said Shane Rattenbury, ACT Greens Attorney General spokesperson.
“We would propose this be done by an expert body such as the Australian Institute of Criminology who could be asked to look at:
— The effectiveness of the current sentencing regime in meeting the objectives of the Crimes (Sentencing) Act, including gathering statistical evidence;
— Comparisons with other State and Territory penalty regimes;
— Community attitudes to current sentencing outcomes, including discussion with key stakeholder groups such as police, victims, civil liberties groups and the legal profession;
— Any necessary changes in light of these investigations.
The view from here in the Eagle’s Nest is that sentencing in the ACT falls down when dealing with a small group of recidivist scum.
The sentencing of these psychopaths should, in my opinion, not be intended to either punish or rehabilitate, but simply to remove their capacity to cause further harm to the community.
Having said that one suspects that token chest beating and posturing by the major parties will be what we get.