Custodial Sentencing

• what is supportive evidence a strength of effects of custodial sentencing?

  - Bartol found suicides rates 15x higher than general population

  +ve - supportive evidence for psychological effects of custodial sentencing

  -ve - suggests custodial sentencing not effective at rehabilitating individuals
• what is the psychological effect of prisonisation?

  - prisoners are socialised into a certain social role

  - adopt the 'inmate code' ad perform behaviours acceptable and rewarded in prisons but not in outside world e.g. obedience, violence
• what is the psychological effect of institutionalisation?

  - institutionalisation : adapted to norms and routines of prison life - no longer able to function in every day life
• what is the psychological effect of stress and depression?

  - 27% of deaths in 2021 were self-inflicted (Office for National Statistics)- high stress of prison experience increases risk of developing psychological disorders post-release
• what are the psychological effects of custodial sentencing?

  - stress and depression- institutionalisation- prisonisation
• how does custodial sentencing achieve the aim of promoting rehabilitation?

  - some people see the main aim of prison to rehabilitate offenders so they become reformed and repent for the suffering they caused

  - should they leave prison ready to take their place in society

  - prisons should provide opportunities to develop skills, receive training, access treatment/ therapy e.g. drug addiction, conduct disorder, anger management etc

  - rehabilitation only true way to prevent recidivism of offenders
• what is recidivism?

  reoffending- rates in ex-prisoners tell us to what extent prison has been an effective deterrent
• how does custodial sentencing achieve the aims of preventing recidivism and put off?

  - both aims to act as a deterrent to the offender who committed the crime and the rest of society from engaging in offending behaviour - 2 levels of deterrent :-- general deterrent - sends message to society that the crime will not be tolerated-- individual deterrent - prevent the individual fro repeating their offending behaviour - based on learning theory principles : either direct punishment to reduce likelihood of behaviour re-occuring or vicarious reinforcement
• how does custodial sentencing achieve the aim of protect the public?

  - incapacitate the offender - removed from society- need for incapacitation depends on severity of crime and type of offender
• how does custodial sentencing achieve the aim of punishment?

  - retribution - society getting revenge through the offender suffering for the harm they caused - level of suffering should be proportionate to severity of crime ''an eye for an eye''- people see prison was the option that enacts the most suffering - other options are soft- CJS has a large forces on imprisonment to punish offenders - the only government spending in recent years is for more prison place (national offender management service, 2018)
• what are the aims of custodial sentencing?

  - punish

  - protect the public

  - prevent recidivism

  - put off other offenders

  - promote rehabilittaion
• what is custodial sentencing?

  involves punishing an individual for their offending behaviour by ordering them to spend a fixed period of time in custody, most commonly in prison- also therapeutic institutions or educational institutions