The government wants to repeal the Three Strikes legislation which targets repeat violent offenders. Three Strikes operates on 2 angles – to those it can deter, it deters. To those it can’t deter, it incapacitates for longer periods to protect the public. And criminals are well aware of the law and its consequences. The Three Strikes law attempts to protect families and communities from worsening levels of family harm, violent crimes and gun violence. But do prisons work? Can offenders be deterred from ongoing crime involvement, and rehabilitated? And where does justice fit in to all of this? Dr Anthony Daniels – also known under the nom de plume Theodore Dalrymple – is a retired physician who practiced in a British inner-city hospital and a prison. He is also a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and a contributing editor of City Journal. He has written a column for London-based The Spectator for many years and writes regularly for National Review. Dr Daniels is the author under the name Theodore Dalrymple of “Life at the Bottom: The Worldview That Makes the Underclass” (2003); “Spoilt Rotten: The Toxic Cult of Sentimentality” (2012); and “Admirable Evasions: How Psychology Undermines Morality” (2015). He visited NZ in 2006 with his wife as part of a speaking tour hosted by the Sensible Sentencing Trust. http://threestrikeslaw.nz/
