Custodial sentencing

• Custodial sentencing involves a convicted offender spending time in prison or another closed institution.
• Deterrence is the unpleasant prison experience designed to put off the individual or society from engaging in offending behaviour. General deterrence aims to send a broad message to members of a given society that crime will not be tolerated. Individual deterrence should prevent the individual from repeating the same offences. It is based on the behaviourist idea of conditioning and vicarious punishment.
• Incapacitation is where the offender is taken out of society to prevent them from reoffending to protect the public. It depends on the severity of the offence and the nature of the offender.
• Retribution is where society enacts revenge for the offence by making the offender suffer, and the level of suffering should depend on the seriousness of the crime. They believe the offender should pay for their actions.
• Rehabilitation is the idea that prisons should not just punish, but reform offenders. Prison should provide opportunities to develop skills and training or to access treatment programmes.
• There are psychological effects of custodial sentencing. Suicide rates are higher in prison than in the general population and the stress of prison increases the risk of developing psychological disorders following release.
• Institutionalisation refers to how inmates adopt the norms of prison life so are no longer able to function on the outside.
• Prisonisation refers to the way in which prisoners are socialised into adopting an inmate code. Behaviour considered unacceptable on the outside may be encouraged in the walls of the institution.
• Recidivism refers to reoffending. The UK figure is 45%, The US, Australia and Denmark record rates are 60%. Norway is as low as 20% which is significant as Norway focus on rehabilitation.
• A limitation of custodial sentencing is the negative psychological effects on prisoners. 119 people killed themselves in England and Wales prisons equating to a suicide of one every three days, almost 9 times higher than general population. Most at risk are young single men. Prison reform trust study found that 25% of women, 15% of men reported symptoms of psychosis. Supports view that prison may e detrimental to mental health.
• The prison reform trust study does not include the number of inmates who had pre existing psychotic symptoms, and many had pre existing psychological difficulties. Suggests there are confounding variables that influence the link between prison and it's psychological effect.
• One strength of custodial sentencing is that it provides opportunities for training and treatment due to the objective of rehabilitation. Offenders may become better people in prison which may lead them to lead a crime free life. One study found that 43% of offenders who took part in college education programmes were less likely to offend.
• A limitation of custodial sentencing is that offenders may learn to become better offenders due to spending time with long term offenders who may give younger offenders opportunities to learn tricks of the trade. This may make reoffending more likely.