Custodial Sentencing:
- Convicted offender spends time in prison or another closed institution such as a young offender’s institute or psychiatric hospital
- 4 Aims:
- Deterrence – puts of offender or society at large from offending. General deterrence – send out broad message
to members of society at large that crime will not be tolerated. Individual Deterrence – prevents individual from repeating same crime. Based on behaviourist view of conditioning through punishment. - Incapacitation – a means of protecting the public from offender, need for this depends on severity of crime, eg: society may require more protection from a serial killer or rapist than someone who won’t pay council tax
- Retribution – enacting revenge by making offender suffer, should be proportionate to seriousness of crime, ‘an eye for an eye’, alternatives considered soft options
- Rehabilitation – many commentators see aim of prison as to reform, offenders should leave prison better adjusted to society, should provide opportunities to develop skills or to access rehabilitation programs for drug addiction, for example
- Psychological Effects of Custodial Sentancing:
- Stress and Depression: Suicide rates, self-mutilation and self-harm in prison considerably higher, increased risk of psychological disturbance following release
- Institutionalisation: may adapt to norms and routines of prison life, inmates may become to accustomed to function in normal society
- Prisonisation: prisoners are socialised into adopting ‘inmate code’, behaviour that is unacceptable outside prison may be encouraged and rewarded inside prison.
- Recidivism
- Means reoffending
- Ministry of Justice (2013 statistics – 57% of UK offender will reoffend within a year of release
- In 2007, 14 prisons in England and Wales recorded reoffending rates of over 70%.
UK and US have among the highest rates of recidivism in the world, in contrast to those in Norway which are very low. Norwegian Prisons – focus on rehabilitation and skills development.
| Opportunities for Training and Treatment – many prisoners access education and training, anger management schemes, social skills training, reducing the likelihood of recidivism (link to Norway) – prison may be a worthwhile experience if offenders can access these programmes. | Individual Differences – different prisons have different regimes, also consider length of sentence and reason for incarceration, many of those convicted may have pre-existing emotional or psychological difficulties – can’t generalise prison experience, difficult to make conclusions that apply to every prisoner.
Can Have Psychological Effects – study conducted by Prison Reform Trust (2014) – 25% of women and 15% of men reported symptoms indicative of psychosis – oppressive regime that can trigger psychological disorders, may do more harm than good. Can Have Psychological Effects – Bartol (1995) – in the last 20 years, suicide rates have been found to be 15 times higher than the general population – may do more harm than good. Can Result in More Crime – Sutherland’s Differentiation Theory – prison can mean criminals undergo an ‘education in crime’, can ‘learn tricks of the trade’ – Latessa and Lowenkamp (2006) – placing offenders at low-risk of recidivism with high-risk prisoners makes it more likely they will offend – prison may not be effective in reducing crime and rehabilitating individuals. Biased Perceptions – Judge Geoffrey Davis and K M Raymond (2000) – government ministers may exaggerate the benefits of custodial sentencing to appear tough on crime, prison may actually do little to deter offenders – custodial sentencing may not be as beneficial as we think
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