Fine Gael has pledged to remove the current system of early release for prisoners, saying they should "earn" remission.
The party also promised to bring in immediate measures to ensure electronic tagging of prisoners on bail.
As the general election campaign entered its 10 thday, Fine Gael justice spokesman Jim O'Keeffe outlined the party's crime policy.
Speaking in Dublin, he said the past 10 years had a year-on-year rise in crime and that detection rates had fallen.
Mr O'Keeffe said there are 1,300 more burglaries per year, and that of the €400 million or so of property stolen every year, only €15 million has been recovered.
On sentencing, he said: "We will remove the system of automatic remission or early release of prisoners that has continued under Fianna Fáil. If prisoners are to gain remission, we believe that they should earn it by taking part in rehabilitation and training programmes."
Mr O'Keeffe said Fine Gael would put in place sentencing guidelines to "make it clear to judges" that the sentence should be for a given period.
"Judges will still have the right to depart from the guideline, but where they do, they will have to explain why in open court. The DPP will also be able to point out aggravating circumstances to the judge before the sentence is decided."
On the bail issue, Mr O'Keeffee said his party would immediately put measures in place to "make electronic tagging of persons on bail a reality.
"We will reform the witness protection programme and put it on a statutory footing so that it takes vulnerable witnesses out of harm's way. "[Minister for Justice] Michael McDowell simply does not understand that the programme needs to be managed and applied properly."
Fine Gael said it was committed to putting at least 2,000 more gardaí on the streets through new recruiting and a civilianisation programme for non-policing jobs in the force.