Custodial Sentancing

• •There are many ways in which different societies deal with offending behaviour. Four of them are:

  •Custodial sentencing•Behaviour modification in custody•Anger management•Restorative justice
• Custodial Sentancing

  •Custodial sentencing involves a convicted offender being punished by serving time in prison (incarceration) or another closed institution such as a young offender’s institute or psychiatric hospital.
• Aims of Custodial Sentencing

  • Deterrence
  • Incapacitation
  • Retribution
  • Rehabilitation
• Deterrence

  The unpleasant prison experience is designed to put off the individual (individual deterrence), and society at large (general deterrence), from engaging in offending behaviour. Individual deterrence is based on punishment from operant conditioning and general deterrence is based on vicarious punishment from SLT.
• Incapacitation

  The offender is taken out of society to prevent them from reoffending in order to protect the public, especially from those who may not be capable of controlling their behaviour.
• Retribution

  Society is enacting revenge for the crime by making the offender suffer, and this should be proportionate to the seriousness of the crime. The victim/family tend to feel a sense of justice being done.
• Rehabilitation

  The offender can be reformed and made into a better person through some form of education (skills or training) or therapy. They should leave prison better adjusted and ready to take their place back in society.
• The psychological effects of custodial sentencing

  •Stress and depression (including self-harm and suicide)•Institutionalisation•Prisonisation•Overcrowding and lack of privacy•Deindividuation•Effects on the family•Labelling•Positive effects - resulting from opportunities, treatment, rehabilitation, remorse etc.•
• Recidivism

  •Recidivism is the problem of reoffending – a tendency to relapse into a previous way of behaving (i.e. commit more crimes).•The Prison Reform Trust (2014) reports that 46% of adults are reconvicted within one year of release and over 67% of under 18s are reconvicted within a year.•In 2007, 14 prisons recorded reoffending rates of over 70%.•The cost of such re-offending is at least £9.5 billion per year for the economy.•Recidivism rates suggest that punishment (and rehabilitation) doesn’t work.
• In the last 20 years, suicide rates among offenders tend to approximately 15 times higher than those in the general population
• Offenders most at risk

  • Young single men
  • In the first 24 hours of confinement
• A recent study by the Prison Reform Trust (2014) found that 25% of women and 15% of men in prison reported symptoms indicative of psychosis
• The oppressive prison regime

  May trigger psychological disorders in those who are vulnerable
• Custodial sentencing is not effective in rehabilitating the individual, particularly those who are psychologically vulnerable
• The length of sentence, reason for imprisonment and previous experience of prison may affect how the offender reacts
• It is difficult to make general conclusions about the effectiveness of custodial sentences for every prisoner in every prison
• The high rates of recidivism suggest that for at least 50% of the prison population, punishment (and rehabilitation) doesn't work
• Punishment

  Most effective when it occurs immediately, which doesn't happen in the case of a custodial sentence
• An offender may see the sentence as punishment for being caught rather than for the offence itself
• What they learn is to avoid being caught
• The severity of the punishment is expected to act as a deterrent, but US statistics show that murder rates are not lower in states with the death penalty
• The threat of punishment in the form of custodial sentencing is not effective and so custodial sentencing does not achieve what it is what designed to
• Reoffending

  •Prison may increase the likelihood of reoffending rather than decrease it.•Differential association theory suggests that offenders would associate with people who have pro-criminal attitudes and may learn particular techniques for committing crime in prison.•Latessa and Lowenkamp (2006) concluded that placing low-risk offenders (in terms of recidivism) with high-risk offenders makes it more likely that low-risk offenders will reoffend.••This may undermine attempts to rehabilitate prisoners, suggesting that custodial sentencing may not be effective as a result.
• Support After Release

  • Many prisoners access education and training whilst in prison, increasing the possibility that they will find employment upon release
  • Treatment programmes such as anger management schemes and social skills training may give offenders insight into their behaviour, reducing the likelihood of recidivism
• Prison may be a worthwhile experience

  Assuming that offenders are able to access rehabilitation programmes, as it may help to rehabilitate them and reduce recidivism rates
• Many prisons lack the resources to provide these programmes
• Evidence to support the long-term benefits of such schemes is not conclusive
• Comparison To Alternatives

  •The cost of prison care and the problems associated with it means alternatives might be preferred.•Evidence suggests that cautions are more effective deterrents than arrests and that offenders sentenced to community rehabilitation were less likely to reoffend.•A further advantage of this is that some of the problems that occur in prison (e.g. prisonisation, deindividuation, suicide, lack of employment and effects on the family) can be avoided by non-custodial sentences.