Prisons

• Prisons - Strengths

  • Protect the public from harm
  • Help people who have been convicted of offenders to rehabilitate so they can contribute positively to society
  • Hold prisoners securely and implement the sentences and orders of the court
• Prisons - Strengths

  • Main agencies of social control in the UK
  • Challenging the lives of offenders through rehabilitation while protecting the public from dangerous offenders
• Prisons - Strengths

  • Token economies aims to achieve social control be re - shaping inmates behaviour patterns so they conform to what the institution requires
  • Operant learning theory, UK prisons use the incentive and earned priviledges scheme
• Prison - Strengths

  • USA found that behaviour change lasted throughout the 12 month study
  • Offenders return to crime more slowly compared with those who have not undergone the programme
• Prisons - Weaknesses

  • Bromley Briefings - 61% of adults are convicted within 1 year of release
  • Estimated annual total estimated economic and social cost of reoffending as £18.1 billion
• Prisons - Weaknesses

  Prison population rising

  • Prison population has risen by 75% in the last 30 years
  • Projected to rise by around 16,500 people by 2026
  • Scotland, England and Wales have the highest imprisonment rates
• Prisons - Weaknesses

  • Overcrowding - 43,000 people sent to prison to serve a sentence in June 2022
  • Drugs problem - Birmingham Prison Riot 2016
• Prisons - Weaknesses

  Unrest and violence with prisons:

  • Birmingham Prison Riot 2016
  • 1,095 people were transferred from prison to a secure hospital in 2021