The National Party is being urged to rethink its promise to limit the ability of judges to downgrade prison sentences to home detention.
One man on electronic monitoring credits being away from prison with helping to turn his life around.
This is what home detention looks like - your movements tracked 24/7. This man's been in and out of prison for years - his latest charges relate to driving offences. But his life's now taking a different direction.
"I've gotten out of prison on electronic monitoring, found myself a job, started contributing. I've now got a KiwiSaver," he told Newshub.
That's because he's around family, can only leave the house under approved conditions, and cannot associate with certain people.
"In prison, we're surrounded by other inmates and some wouldn't have the same mind frame as myself," he said.
But the National Party is promising to make it harder to get home detention by imposing a new 40 percent limit on how far a judge can reduce a sentence.
"What we're hearing from the community is real concerns around law and order and public safety," said National's justice spokesperson Paul Goldsmith.
National cites the 37 percent reduction in the prisoner population between 2018 and last year. Meanwhile, the number of charges for breaching home detention has reached a high of 2035.
And the deadly mass shooting in central Auckland last month was carried out by a man on electronic monitoring - several reviews are ongoing.
The Ministry of Justice told Newshub no decisions will be taken in relation to the sentence of home detention until those reviews are complete.
It's been more than a decade since the ministry last reviewed that law and that one concluded it had operated "very successfully" since its introduction in 2007, so National is being urged to pump the brakes on change until we have more information.
"We need to investigate and research why these breaches are happening and how the home detention system can be improved to keep people safe," said Auckland University senior law lecturer Dylan Asafo.
"We need to be led by research and evidence, not standalone statistics taken out of context for political gain."
"Bail is a privilege and it should be protected," the man on home detention added.
A privilege that gives offenders a glimpse of what life could be like once their shackles are free.
