Persistent Offenders

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30793, 3 July 1965, Page 1

Persistent Offenders

(Parliamentary Reporter)

WELLINGTON, July 2. The problem of the persistent offender is dealt with by the Secretary for Justice (Dr. J. L. Robson), in the annual report of his department, tabled in Parliament today. He says the persistent offender, against whom none of the existing measures of the criminal law have been, or are likely to be, of any avail, has been one of the department’s main concerns in recent years. For these people, the last resort of the law is at present preventive detention, an indeterminate sentence with a maximum of life imprisonment in sexual cases and 14 years in others. This sentence has, however, been the subject of growing concern, both in New Zealand and in Britain where a similar, though not identical, penalty exists, says Dr. Robson.

Although designed mainly to remove persistent and dangerous offenders from the community for a long, indeterminate period, the sentence has been applied to many who are merely irresponsible

and inadequate and its aptness in these cases is doubtful, he says. A British committee has recommended the abolition of the preventive sentence there “and it seems to me that here, too, it mav be necessary to modify the relevant legislation or to find alternatives which will more appropriately deal with all kinds of persistent offending," says Dr. Robson.