The ACT Party is accusing the Government of going light on child sex offenders by letting more serve their sentences at home.
Over the past five years, the number of child sex offenders on home detention has increased by 75 percent.
And the number of people tampering with their electronic bracelets is also hitting new highs.
Home detention is meant to be an option for those with a sentence of less than two years. But ACT claims the Government is using it as a way of reducing the prison population.
"We have a Minister and a Government who has directed the judiciary to lower the numbers of prisoners in the prisons so they will offer home detention to those criminals that they think deserve it," said ACT's justice spokesperson Nicole McKee.
Written parliamentary questions reveal that 396 child sex offenders are being electronically monitored at home - up from 226 in 2017.
"Do our communities know about that, have they been asked about that and whereabouts are these people?" McKee asked.
"So I think it's concerning questions that need to be asked of the Minister."
But the Government said politicians do not decide who is or isn't sent to jail.
"Our goal around reducing the prison population is very much focused on doing so through preventing reoffending and stopping further re-victimisation by decreasing crime," Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said.
Minister of Corrections Kelvin Davis called any suggestion the Government is influencing the judiciary in its sentencing decisions "an insult to their independence".
"Neither politicians or Corrections decide who is sent to jail or who is granted bail, or how long those sentences are for. Those decisions are made by the judiciary and the Parole Board," he told Newshub in a statement.
"Until the Three Strikes Bill was repealed last week, no sentencing laws have been changed since we formed the Government. People who commit serious crimes are still being sentenced at similar rates to those over the past decade.
"What the Government has done to reduce a prison population that was bursting at the seams are initiatives such as funding more supported bail accommodation so those who are eligible have options when they apply."
Since 2017 there has been a year-on-year increase in the number of home detention sentences imposed by the courts with Corrections managing around 4500 people. And with the increase also comes a rise in people trying to thwart the monitoring.
In 2017, 49 people tampered with their electronic bracelet. This number doubled in 2018 to 105, before climbing to 430 in 2021. And of those 430, 53 were child sex offenders.
"As our technology increases we get better at identifying these things and we can respond quickly to keep our communities safe," said Corrections deputy national commissioner Leigh Marsh.
"Regarding bracelet tampering, Corrections are responsible for monitoring EM Bail and Police for enforcing any breaches. Corrections have assured me that every alert triggered by someone tampering with their device is responded to immediately," Davis added.
Corrections said it is rolling out new upgraded bracelets that should be harder for offenders to tamper with.
