Custodial sentencing

• • custodial sentencing involves a convicted offender spending time in prison or another closed institution
• There are 4 main reasons for custodial sentencing

  1. Deterrence
  2. Incapacitation
  3. Retribution
  4. Rehabilitation
• Deterrence

  • Unpleasant prison experience is designed to put off individuals committing crime. It works in 2 ways
  • General deterrence: sends a broad message to society that crime will not be tolerated
  • Individual deterrence prevents individuals from repeating the same behaviour
  • Based on behaviourist view of conditioning through vicarious punishment.
• Incapacitation

  • Offender is taken out of society to prevent them reoffending as a way of protecting the public
  • The need for incapacitation will depend on the severity of the offence
  • For example people will need more protection from serial killers than people who refuse to pay taxes
• Retribution

  • Society is enacting revenge by making the offender suffer, level of suffering should be proportionate to the level of offence
  • 'eye for an eye'
  • Most people see prison as the best option for this
• Rehabilitation

  • Some people think prison's main objective should be not to punish but reform
  • Upon release offenders should leave prison better adjusted and ready to take a place back in society
  • Prison should provide opportunities to develop skill and access to development programmes such as anger management
  • Gives offender chance to reflect on their actions
• Psychological affects of custodial sentencing

  • Stress and depression
  • Institutionalisation
  • Prisonisation
• Psychological affects: Stress and depression

  • Suicide rates and self harm are considerably higher in prison than the general population
  • Stress of prison also increases the risk of developing psychological disorders following release
• Psychological effects: institutionalisation

  • Having adapted to norms and routines of prison life inmates may no longer be able to function outside
• Psychological effects: Prisonisation

  • Refers to the way in which prisoners are socialised into adopting an 'inmate code'
  • Behaviour which may be unacceptable in the outside would be encouraged and rewarded inside the prison
• Problems with recidivism

  • Recidivism refers to reoffending
  • recidivism rates can tell us the extent to which prison is an effective deterrent
  • It is diffeicult to obtain figures of recidivism, may not be caught, what time period do you use
  • Recent years recidivism rates have been 45% for one year after release
  • In the US rates exceed 60% whereas in Norway rates may be as low as 20%
• • Percentage of recidivism in Norway being lower than 20% is due to them focusing on rehabilitation and skill development and less emphasis on punishment
• A03: Limitation of custodial sentencing is the negative psychological effects

  • Bartol suggested that for many offenders prison can be too brutal and demeaning
  • 119 people killed themselves in prison in 2016 an increase of 32% of the previous year, one every 3 days.
  • 9x higher than the general population
  • Most at risk are young single men during the first 24hrs of confinement
  • A study conducted by the Prison Reform Trust found that 25% of women and 15% of men in prison reported symptoms of psychosis ( schizophrenia )
  • Suggests prison may be detrimental to psychological health which can impact rehabilitation
• CC: figures from the Prison Reform Trust does not account for prisoners who were already experiencing psychotic symptoms before they were put in prison

  • Many convicts may have pre-existing psychological problems at the time they were convicted
  • suggesting the figures may not be as bad as they seem due to the problem not actually being with the prison regime
  • Suggests there is confounding variables that influence the link between prison and its psychological effects
• A03: One strength of custodial sentencing is that it provides an opportunity for training and treatment

  • Rehabilitation means offenders have the opportunity to become better people during prison
  • This may lead to them living a crime-free life after they leave prison
  • Access to education in prisons means they are more likely to be able to find employment upon release
  • Offenders who take part in college education programmes are 43% less likely to reoffend
  • Suggests prison is a worthwhile experience if they have access to these programmes
• A03: another limitation is that offenders may learn to become better offenders in prison

  • young offenders may spend time with long-term experienced offenders and therefore learn 'tricks of the trade' from them
  • Offenders may also acquire criminal contact whilst in prison that they may follow up on after release
  • This may undermine attempts at rehabilitation for prisoners and make reoffending more likely