Prisons are not effective

• One argument on why prisons are not effective is because the reoffending rates are high. A lot of time and money is wasted in convicting criminals and housing prisoners the first time let along the second. The fact that so many reoffend suggests that prion in ineffective. For example, the Scottish Government has had to ban courts from issuing short sentences of 12 months or less as over half of offenders given short term sentences are re-convicted and 39% of prisoners are back within a year.
• Another argument on why prisons are not effective is because of the cost. It costs a lot of money to keep someone in prison that could be put to better use by spent on health care, education and that criminals might then end up on benefits costing us more. For example, according to the Scottish Government it costs around £35,000 a year to keep someone in prison in 2019.