Prisons did not come to existence in a vacuum. They exist because society decided that they should be used as a method of responding to crime. The early 12th century prisons served a custodial function. A prison’s effectiveness was measured by its success in holding people (Muncie, 2001: 159) . In the 18th century, though the prison population remained mainly debtors, the rationale behind prison changed to one of punishment rather than containment. Towards the end of the 18th century saw the rise of the penitentiary in which prisoners were categorised into groups in a regime of punishment, and were subjected to severe physical labour and moral reformation (Muncie, 2001: 164). Things changed drastically over time, and issues such as justice and rehabilitation ascended in the prison system. Benevolent societies were committed to ushering in better conditions, useful employment and good habits of behaviour through discipline and compassion (Muncie, 2001: 169). The debate on whether prisons should have the primary purpose of rehabilitation or punishment has been controversial and will be examined in this essay.
Oxford dictionary defines rehabilitation as; ‘the action of restoring someone to health or normal life through training and therapy after imprisonment, addiction or illness.’ Through education, cognitive remediation training, social skills training, support groups, psychiatric therapy etc, it aims to change the behaviour of the offender and helps them to reintegrate and become a better functioning member of society, upon release from prison. ‘The concept of rehabilitation rests on the assumption that criminal behaviour is caused by a person’s social surroundings, psychological development, or biological make up.’ It therefore aims to teach induvial behavioural patterns that are more in line with societies expectations of a law-abiding citizen. Rehabilitation is a long-term solution to crime punishment. It promotes self-independence by allowing convicts to gain the skills they lacked, which made them commit an offence in the first instance.
Prisons should have the primary purpose of rehabilitation because it reduces the rate of reoffending. When offenders go through the rehabilitation process, such as social skills trainings, they leave the prison in a better state that prevents them from going back to crime for whatever reason. This has been evident in prison systems in countries such as Norway, who focus heavily on rehabilitation and have seen a low rate of re offending, compared to counties such as USA, who focus more on punishment. When individuals reoffend, it is not only a deprivation of their freedom and integrity, but it costs the taxpayers who fund the prisons, as well as socio-economic problems, caused also to the victims of those crimes. ‘The Royal society of Arts UK, said the service needed to be overhauled to reduce reoffending rates that cost the tax payer billions of pounds.’ A high rate of reoffending causes overcrowding in prisons, which is a problem currently being faced by the United Kingdom.
Rehabilitation is also considered to be more morally righteous than punishment, which is another reason why prisons should primarily focus on rehabilitation. Rehabilitation helps reshape the already tarnished image of the convict when they leave prison, if they have been able to acquire education or skills during the rehabilitation process. They are more likely to been more welcomed back into society as reformed individuals if they have been rehabilitated. Employers, for example will be more willing to hire an ex-convict that has been rehabilitated than one that has just been punished. ‘Tens of thousands of people are leaving prison and falling straight back to their old lives. This is because of habits and surroundings that lead them to commit the crime in the first place.’
The general idea of punishment is very controversial. What is considered as a criminal offence in one place, might not ben in another so the act of punishing someone by inflicting harm on them rather than teaching them what is correct, can be seen as immoral. The offender may not even be at fault for the crime committed. Many major world religions such as Christianity and Islam teach that as imperfect beings we should not judge and punish others. Teaching, through rehabilitation is more in line with these religious doctrines. One must also consider the fact that there are many cases of false imprisonment. This is when someone has been falsely accused of a crime and is serving time in prison for a crime he did not commit. For example, cases of drug smuggling at the airport, when someone puts drugs in another person’s belongings without their knowledge and they get caught with drug possession. For people who are victims of this rehabilitation is a much more tolerable verdict than punishment. However, despite the positive effects of rehabilitation on recidivism, rehabilitation remains secondary to the facilities’ primary functions: control and confinement
However, despite these facts, many argue that prisons should have the primary purpose of punishment. An argument in support of this is the fact that criminals should be held responsible for their actions. Unlike those for rehabilitation who blame external factors, such as the persons social environment, punishment deals with holding the individual responsible for their actions and sanctioning them for doing so. Punishment depends on criminals making a rational choice. It is more of a moral argument because it is believed that the person did something wrong and must be disciplined for it in a sort of revenge. Committing a crime means they have harmed or deprived a member of society, breaking the social contract, and for that they must be deprived their freedom and it should not be beneficial to them in any way.
Rehabilitation can be seen as ‘not harsh enough’. It can be argued to not be a good enough deterrent for committing crimes. If people believe that when they go to prison it would be a nice place for them to acquire new skills, then it won’t really be viewed in such as negative way as it should be. If prison is not so pleasant, no one would want to end up there in the first place. Punishing criminals is a proven effective way to dissuade prisoners from committing future crimes, as well as a deterrent for other member of society, who are not in jail. For example, it can be argued that the consequence of two months in prison is enough to stop a person from stealing £200 but not from stealing £200,000. To deter an individual from stealing that amount the punishment will have to be several years in prison and not rehabilitation.
In conclusion, punishment sanctions offenders for their wrong doing and is good as a deterrence because it makes people not commit crimes, with the knowledge that they will be punished in prison for doing so. However, the primary focus of prisons should be rehabilitation. Punishment as a deterrence in practice, doesn’t really work. People who commit crimes, know that they might end up in prison but still do so anyway, by balancing the costs and benefits. If the problem is that they were born into poverty and struggle to eat, they’d still rather turn to crime than die of hunger. Also, high rates of reoffending in punishment criminal justice systems, such as America, indicate that not many had learnt their lesson from the punishment. According to Miles Harder, in 1987 40.8% of former inmates had either been re-arrested or had their parole revoked (1995, P.98). It becomes a spiral of deviation. Once there was more focus on rehabilitation in those prisons, there was a 30-60% reduction in recidivism rates in well run programmes. Rehabilitation as a primary focus of prison systems, also has economic benefits. According to David Farrington, Anthony Hetrosino and Brandon Welsh, in their study conducted in 1989, the benefit cost ratios ranged from a low of $1.13 to a high of $7.14c meaning that for each dollar spent on the programme the government or tax payer or victim received $1.14c in various savings. Rehabilitation gives the offender a sense of belonging and like the system actually cares about them, rather than them leaving prison in a worse off state that leaves them helpless and angry at society. This me be especially so if they do not even feel like they ended up in prison due to factors in their control, such as being brought up in poverty and needing to commit a crime in order to survive. It is hereby evident that prisons should have the primary purpose of rehabilitation as it is both advantageous for the individual and society at large.