The 3 strikes laws in the Northern Territory and Western Australia were overturned for the following key reasons:
The laws had a disproportionate impact on Indigenous Australians, leading to a racially discriminatory effect on their incarceration rates.
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The laws imposed mandatory minimum sentences that were often disproportionate to the seriousness of the crimes committed, resulting in punishments that did not fit the crime.
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The laws removed judicial discretion in sentencing, leading to arbitrary and inconsistent outcomes, where some offenders received mandatory minimum sentences while others did not for similar crimes.
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The stated objectives of the laws, such as deterrence and incapacitation, were not effectively achieved, as the laws primarily impacted lower-level offenders rather than serious repeat offenders.
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The laws were found to be incompatible with Australia's international human rights obligations, as they disproportionately affected Indigenous Australians and imposed disproportionate punishments.
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In summary, the 3 strikes laws were overturned due to their discriminatory impact, disproportionate sentencing outcomes, and lack of effectiveness in achieving their stated goals, while also violating human rights standards.
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there is compelling evidence from WA that neither the 1992 nor the 1996 laws achieved a deterrent effect’ (Morgan, 2000:172);
indeed ‘there was a leap in residential burglaries immediately after the introduction of the new laws at precisely the time when the greatest reduction would have been expected"; and the ‘irresistible conclusion is that the three strikes home burglary laws had no general deterrent effect’ (Morgan, 2000);
selective incapacitation was not achieved as the WA laws mostly impacted on offenders convicted of relatively trivial offenders. They had relatively little effect on so called hard core serious offenders because they receive long sentences as a matter of the normal sentencing process independently of mandatory sentencing laws;
in terms of reducing recidivism Morgan concludes ‘the statistics on recidivism rates cannot be regarded as indicative of the success of the WA laws, either in general or in terms of the greater efficacy of detention as opposed to conditional release orders (Morgan, 2000: 174).
see - recent Australian experience
the WA and NT laws
