Kerre Woodham: It's time to get tough on home detention

Well, the stats speak for themselves, really don't they?

Since October 2017, there has been an 83 percent increase in sexual offenders serving an electronically monitored sentence and a 133 percent increase in gang members sentenced for violence offences serving an electronically monitored sentence.

As at the 30th of June 2023, there are 917 people serving an electronically monitored sentence in the community for violent offending. 

You'll remember the teen Mongrel Mob member who broke into the home of a pregnant woman and sexually assaulted her - he was sentenced to 12 months home detention - and on his way out, put up his hand and  yelled ‘yeah, cracked it.’ 

He wasn't seeing this as an opportunity to rehabilitate. He wasn't seeing this as an opportunity to put a life of crime behind him. He wasn't seeing this as an opportunity to turn his life around.

He knew it got off lightly.  

2035 breaches of home detention in the year to June and those are only the ones they've caught. There are plenty they haven't. 

Don't get me wrong. There are many people who do use the opportunity of a non-custodial sentence to continue to work, to rehabilitate themselves, to not let a moment of madness destroy their lives, their families forever. I get that. But others are just having a laugh.

The damage they do, however, is not very funny as we've seen with recent events. Criminal lawyer Steve Cullen was on the Mike Hosking breakfast this morning, and he says home detention should continue to be an option. But the answer is a separate entity to monitor those on electronic bail.

A 133 percent increase in gang members being given home detention, doesn't that tell you something? This is how they make their living. They commit crime. It's time to get tough. 

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