Critically evaluate the idea that imprisonment will ‘cure’ offending.
According to the House of Commons Library, every year approximately 85 Thousand people are sent to prison in England and Wales alone. For every 100,000 people of the general population, 179 are prisoners, and as of May 2018, we’ve learnt that 58% of prisons in England and wales are overcrowded [Sturge, G. (2018, July 23)]. With so many Offenders coming into and leaving the system everyday , it is clear that imprisonment is far from the ‘cure’ to offending. Prisons are institutions designed to house and ‘punish’ those people who have been deemed guilty of committing a crime/breaking a law of the particular community to which they belong. Many people have different beliefs as to what prisons are exactly for. Dennis Howitt sheds more light on this by stating how ‘Retribution holds that prison is for punishment, utilitarianism suggests that prison should produce changes that reduce the risk of reoffending; and humanitarianism suggests that the role should be rehabilitation of casualties of social deprivation and victimization’ [Howitt, D., & Howitt, D. (2002)].
Many people question how effective the prison system is, particularly the idea that imprisonment will cure offending. According to David Cameron, ’46% of all prisoners will reoffend within a year of release. 60% of short sentenced prisoners will reoffend within the same period.’ The cost to the tax payer of reoffending is estimated to be 9.5 to 13 Billion GBP per year. Around half of
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all crime is committed by people who have already been through the system [2010 to 2015 government policy: Reoffending and rehabilitation].
According to Charles Murray ‘The broad proposition that ‘prison works’ is not in question. Of course prison can work. If it is used with sufficient ruthlessness. Can prison deter crime? Of course it can. If everyone who shoplifted were caught and immediately carted off to gaol for a year, Shoplifting would become exceeding rare. Deterrence fails only because the odds being caught and imprisoned aren't high enough or because the sentence is not harsh enough.’ [Murray, C., Davies, M., & Rutherford, A. (1997)].
Prison provides a form of punishment for offenders and may give some satisfaction to the victims and general population. But we must take into account how much punishment is appropriate. Other forms retribution could be used that are better suited, i.e. community service. The role of the victim in the sentencing process is very important, hence Restorative justice.
Approximately half of those imprisoned would return within two years. It was seen how imprisonment further marginalized ex prisoners. Prisoners can act as ‘schools of crime’.
While people are in prison they can not commit crime. However, the benefits of incapacitation may be overstated as people tend to get imprisoned at the peak of offending.
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Imprisonment has major psychological effects on people. Men, women and juvenile offenders, all go through psychological changes as they suffer from sub-par living conditions, psychical, psychological and in some cases even sexual abuse due to the hands of fellow inmates and prison officials. Being locked away from friends, family, and all of society in general, being stripped of your individual identity and being forced to live among some of the worst members of society who have committed a variety of offenses ranging from petty theft, sexual crimes to manslaughter. All these factors effect how offenders respond to their reintegration into society upon their release. The way to ensure that imprisonment reduces reoffending is by investing in Rehabilitation.
Rehabilitation is the process through which an incarcerated prisoner is able to learn how to reintegrate into society. A big reason as to why ex convicts return to a life of crime is because it is the only thing they think they know how to do. Upon release, ex-convicts are labelled and seen as nothing but. Hence they feel that this is their only choice in life. However, Rehabilitation gives them the ability to be more, as this process focuses on providing psychological, psychiatric, social and educational services to counter habitual offending and criminal recidivism. However, many prisons do not have rehabilitation facilities as there is a lack of the needed financial resources to pay for it, especially due to rising prison populations [Howitt, D., & Howitt, D. (2002)].
There are a lot of critiques on the process of Rehabilitation. Many question the effects of ‘total institutions’, malpractices, extending the length of punishment and how it as theoretically
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flawed, offenders seen as pathological. However there are many who defend Rehabilitation, without rehabilitation no one would care. Rehabilitation opposes conservation view that increased repression reduces crime. Rehabilitation continues to receive considerably support from the public. [Toby, J. (1964)].
Another alternative method that goes further towards ‘curing’ offending that imprisonment does is the process of Restorative Justice. Restorative Justice is another system of Criminal Justice that focuses on the rehabilitation of offenders through reconciliation with their victims as well as the community in general [Roche, D. (2006)].
Crime causes harm to people, relationships and the community. According to The Center for Justice and Reconciliation, the foundational principles of restorative justice are as follows, ‘Crime causes harm and justice should focus on repairing that harm. The people most affected by the crime should be able to participate in its resolution. And the responsibility of the government is to maintain order and of the community to build peace’. In other words it is the ‘inclusion of all parties, encountering the other side, making amends for the harm and reintegration of the parties into their communities’ [Lesson 1: What Is Restorative Justice?].
According to the Campbell Collaboration’ website, ‘Restorative justice works. The evidence shows that restorative justice meets the needs of victims and reduces the frequency of reoffending.
In 2001, the government funded a £7 million, seven year research programme into restorative justice. The independent evaluation, published by the Ministry of Justice, found that in a randomised control trial of the use of restorative justice with adult offenders: The majority of victims chose to participate in face to face meetings with the offender, when offered by a trained facilitator. 85% of victims who took part were satisfied with the process.Restorative justice reduced the frequency of reoffending, leading to £8 in savings to the criminal justice system for every £1 spent on restorative justice.
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The government’s analysis of this research has concluded that restorative justice reduces the frequency of reoffending by 14%. Systematic review of the evidence on the effectiveness of restorative justice was published by the Campbell Collaboration in 2013. It concludes that restorative justice both reduces reoffending and improves victim satisfaction.’ [Sitemap, RJC, & Restorative Justice Council. (2016)]
The prison system is designed to work as a place of punishment, to give offenders time to think about their crimes. A place inhabited where those deemed unsuitable to live in and abide by societies rules and laws. The prison system is designed to help the offender ‘rehabilitate’ themselves and help prepare them to rejoin society upon their release. Prisons offer courses inmates can take to complete and even further their education while serving their sentences. Vocational training is also offered to make it easier for offenders to find work as they will leave prison qualified. Moreover, prisons offer inmates paid job positions within the prison such as woking to maintain grounds, in the kitchen staff cleaning and so on. Offenders are able to get clean from drugs, support groups and rehab facilities are available for inmates to use. They become accustomed to adhering to a proper schedule as in a prison environment, meal times, rest times, work times are all planned out and followed to a strict daily schedule. Prison was meant to be a place where offenders could repent for their crimes, a place where they could be fixed. However this is not how prison really is. Prisons are filled with offenders who have committed horrible crimes. From thieves to sexual predators and killers. The prison community is like its own society. With its own rule and social hierarchy. Physical strength and masculinity keeps you at the top of the food chain, in control, the dominant members. Where as those deemed weak and effeminate, find themselves as victims of ridicule, abuse and in some cases, sexual violence. Living conditions in prisons are bad. Shared cells, and toilets. Lack of hygiene, spread of germs
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and disease. Guards and those in authority positions at prisons abuse their power and use it to tale advantage of the inmates who will not speak out against them.
Different types of criminals have different experiences in prison.
For example Pedophiles, who are cowardly and timid in general hence prey on young vulnerable children who can not fight back and are easy to overtake. Find themselves to be at the bottom of the social ladder in the prison. They face ridicule and humiliation causing them become stressed and suicidal. Many people like this do not usually survive prison and die in the system. Criminals who know they are not likely to survive prison or know that they are not ‘prison material’, will try to avoid committing large scale crimes that could lead them to end up in prison. However this is more a fear of being in a prison setting surrounded by abusive guards and fellow dangerous inmates, rather than fear of incarceration itself.
Many people who come to prison on petty crimes, are thrown face to face with some of the worst people they will ever meet, all under one roof. They learn the ‘tricks of the trade’ and may use their prison connections, friends they made while serving their sentence, and things they learnt to further commit crimes one released and this time, learn from their mistake and evade capture. Many suffer psychological trauma, that leads them to project their own abuse once released. Many ex convicts find themselves alienated. They are unable to find jobs, their friends and family members gradually leave them or no longer want to be associated with them and the only place they feel ‘at home’ is among other criminals going criminal activity and hence find themselves back in the system. Many are born into the cycle. Their parents abusive, working class, bad at school, in and out of social care. People like these grow up and feel the their only
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choice is to lead a life of crime. For people like these prison is just a hiccup down the road. Not a place to be ‘cured’. Many feel that instead of curing imprisonment makes offending worse by giving it a breeding ground to branch out and network. Many have found that by incarcerating certain offenders, they were exposed to more harm than good as the psychological trauma they suffer whilst incarcerated plays a role on their future reoffending.
There are many alternatives to imprisonment that appear to have a much higher rate of success in terms of ‘battling’ offending. Those who have broken a law, are sentenced to either: probation, fines, restitution, community service and/or specialized programs i.e. restorative justice.
According to the house of commons website we learn of how other alternatives such as Community Sentencing allows offenders to take part in Rehabilitative Programs and also gives them the opportunity to, under the surveillance of the probation service, work in the community. The Criminal Justice Act 2003 brought about the ‘generic community sentencing’ known also as the ‘community order’. The Act allowed judges and magistrates to put together different orders to ‘create’ a sentence best suited for the particular offender in question [Committee Office, & House of Commons].
Community Sentences make it possible for lover risk offenders to be able to reach the point of rehabilitation far more effectively than a prison sentence would.
According to an online article by the Independent by legal affairs correspondent Robert Verkaik ‘Research shows that the "short, sharp shock" popularly associated with reducing re-offending
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rates does not work. Reconviction rates for those serving community sentences are 14 per cent lower than for those serving time in jail, according to the Howard League for Penal Reform."For the majority of non-dangerous offenders, community sentences are more likely to reduce the seriousness and frequency of re-offending. They help a person to take responsibility for their actions and put something back into the community, rather than sitting out their time lying on a prison bunk," says Frances Crook, director of the Howard League.’ [Correspondent, L. A. (2011, September 17)]. Many people may be against community sentencing as they feel it is ‘too soft’ a punishment for crimes committed against society or a particular victim. However, strict conditions are applied to these offenders. We’re given information that ‘Many offenders given a community sentence must also abide by strict curfews or prohibitions on who they can meet or what they can do. Offenders under the age of 25 may be required to attend a centre at a specified time for between 12 and 36 hours, over the course of their sentence. Those subject to drug rehabilitation orders face random testing for up to three years.’ [Correspondent, L. A. (2011, September 17)].
Male and Female offenders have different experiences while incarcerated. Women tend to general go to prison for committing crimes of passion or need. Either a one time crime where a particular targeted victim was selected and harmed, or as a means to provide for dependents as these women are usually single mothers with young children to support. When women go to prison, they have a lot more to lose than men. Their children are taken away from them sometimes permanently put into the foster care system and they are deemed unfit mothers. The
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social stigma attached to female ex convicts is far worse than that for men. A female offender is more likely to be ‘cured’ by imprisonment as she will not want to risk being in the situation where they are surrounded by other dangerous women in violent situations , and they ‘learn their lesson’ better than male offenders do. A study done in the British Journal of Psychiatry gave us information about medium secure mental health facilities, another alternative that shows it can ‘cure’ offending better than imprisonment Medium Secure Mental Health services ‘provide treatment and rehabilitation for people who may be exhibiting dangerous and challenging behavior due to their severe and enduring mental health problem.’ [Medium Secure Mental Health].
According to the British Journal of Psychiatry study titled, Gender differences in reoffending after discharge from medium secure units, a National cohort study done in England and Wales ‘Women were less likely than men to be reconnected within 2 years of
discharge (9% v.16%,OR=0.49,95% CI 0.25^0.98). Adjustments for history of self- harm, drug or alcohol problems and previous offending substantially reduced the gender difference. In the full model the OR was 0.97 (95% CI 0.45^2.12).’ The aims of this study were to ‘investigate gender differences in reoffending after discharge from medium-secure psychiatric units’ [Maden, A., Skapinakis, P., Lewis, G., Scott, F., Burnett, R., & Jamieson, E. (2006)].
‘This study found that women were less likely to be reconvicted than men, but adjustment for a number of variables substantially reduced the gender difference. Logistic regression analysis showed that the gender difference in reconviction was partly explained by the increased level of
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self-harm in women, together with less pre- vious offending and reduced drug problems in comparison with men. This study also found significant univariate differences be- tween men and women in a number of de- mographic, clinical and forensic variables, with women being less criminal and more likely to have a past psychiatric history than men.’ [Maden, A., Skapinakis, P., Lewis, G., Scott, F., Burnett, R., & Jamieson, E. (2006)]
Additionally, Juvenile offenders, have a much different experience in imprisonment than adult offenders do. These children are more at risk of being affected psychologically as they are still developing in terms of personality and identity. They usually go into the system for petty crimes i.e. vandalism, petty theft etc. A study in the US National Library of Medicine revealed information on the ‘relevance of the judicial concept of general deterrence of juvenile delinquency. A comparison of attitudes of high-school boys, in areas of low and high delinquency, towards the likelihood of apprehension and the painfulness of punishment for criminal offences, and of the boys' factual knowledge of judicial punishment, did not support the hypothesis that potential juvenile offenders are deterred by fear of apprehension and punishment, or by having an objective knowledge of penal measures. The attitudes of the boys were found to vary with different combinations of socio-economic status and delinquency levels in their geographic areas. It was concluded that prevention of juvenile delinquency should be based on the acquisition of appropriate social values at home and in school, and not on fear of judicial retribution.’ [Kraus, J. (1976)]
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Restorative Justice is a particularly effective alternative to imprisonment in juvenile offender situations ,’An independent expert analysis of the economic benefits of restorative justice, carried out by Matrix, found that diverting young offenders from community orders to a pre-court restorative justice conferencing scheme would produce a life time saving to society of almost £275 million (£7,050 per offender). The cost of implementing the scheme would be paid back in the first year and during the course of two parliaments society would benefit by over £1 billion.’ [Sitemap, RJC, & Restorative Justice Council. (2016)]
Logically, the more people that are put into prison system, leads to fewer crimes being committed. A greater use of prison ensures that criminals will take notice of the maxim, crime doesn't pay. Prison is the best way to satisfy the general community who believes that those who commit crimes against particular people of the society in general should be punished severely and the prison system is a general agreed upon way to receive retribution. However, Imprisonment is far from being the ‘cure’ for offending. The best way to tackle offending is by investing in alternatives that promote rehabilitation and restorative justice. As both these processes are best achieved by community help. They are able in rejoin society and make amends for the pain that they have caused. By adding a human face to the crimes committed, it changes the dynamic for the offender as they are now fully aware how their actions have real life effects on real people, also helping in diverting people from prosecution. Community sentences can cut crime by 14 per cent, and in 2004 had a success rate of 61 per cent. Imprisonment is
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expensive, The cost of a year in a young offenders' institution is twice as high as the annual fees for Eton. [Correspondent, L. A. (2011, September 17)]