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Law and Order

Ross Crosby became a member of SST in 2004. He is the webmaster's number one assistant and motivator and helps with the Offender Databases.
The reasons why Ross joined SST is because he is against lenient sentences for serious violent offenders, he wants to help lobby for victim's rights. Also he enjoys helping the webmaster work on the Offender Databases and is a specialist in youth offenders and has an interest in the mental health system.

These are his comments;

One thing that disappoints me about the NZ Justice system is that they're sending people to jail for very petty crimes, and yet they're giving out lenient sentences to violent criminals and sex offenders. The only people who should be primarily sent to jail are those who are danger to society. A lot of these criminals really are no danger to the public, some of these people are in prison because they have got mental health problems or drug and alcohol addictions - but have no record of violent or sexual offending.

Even though crime has been declining since 1996, and the re-offending rate is higher for people who are finally released from prison having not been paroled, I still believe serious violent offenders should serve all or most of the judge given sentence. They most certainly should not be able to apply for back-end home detention or be eligible for parole at one-third of their prison sentence. I don't think it's necessary to keep someone in jail if they no longer pose an undue risk to the safety of the community, as it would be doubling the prison population and wasting the taxpayer's money - but I do think repeat violent offenders and sex offenders need to be kept away for longer.

I was furious to find out Paul Bailey the convicted killer of Kylie Smith was sentenced to just three years jail for sexually molesting and repeatedly raping a 12 year old girl at knife-point - this does not make sense!!! Another thing is a mentally ill woman was arrested after being found under a bed of a hostel because she had no place to live - she was sentenced to two weeks in prison. It was her first offence - this also doesn't make sense!!! Compared to Bailey this woman is not actually a true criminal.

Here are ten changes I would like see to NZ legislation;

1. Life sentence with a mandatory 30 year minimum period for aggravated murder replacing the discretionary 17 year non-parole period.
2. End parole eligibility at one-third of a prison sentence and replace with parole eligibility at two-thirds of the sentence.
3. The Crown to have same legal opportunity as the defence to appeal a not guilty verdict
4. Put victims' rights before criminals - true restitution and reparation for victims by criminals, plus real support for victims.
5. Tougher penalties for those who commit physical attacks on police officers in the line of duty
6. Remove being under the influence of drugs or alcohol while committing a crime as a mitigating factor in sentencing.
7. All alleged serious violent offenders to be automatically denied bail
8. Review of the Privacy Act to remove obstacles to data-sharing and reporting of the identity of young offenders.
9. The police to have right to warn communities of potentially dangerous offenders
10. Breaches of sentence or release conditions to be punished by immediate extra penalty

So far things are pretty good in the NZ Justice system, but still could improve. The reality is that releasing some on parole is better than releasing someone at the end of their prison sentence without any supervision or conditions at all. The legislation just needs to be changed so that violent criminals and sex offenders are not eligible for parole at 33 percent of a jail term.