custodial sentencing

• CUSTODIAL SENTENCING

  • refers to the sentence given to an offender by a judge that consequently leads them to spent a certain length of time in prisons/young peoples institutions/hospital
• 4 MAIN AIMS OF CUSTODIAL SENTENCING

  DETERRENCE - putting society and individuals off committing crime

  INCAPACITATION - protecting society from offender

  RETRIBUTION - custodial sentencing seen as an 'eye for an eye' whereby offenders punishment depends on the severity of their crime

  REHABILITATION - offenders offered treatment programmes to allow them to understand effects of crime aswell as distal causes which can lower recidivism rates
• NEGATIVES OF CUSTODIAL SENTENCING

  custodial sentencing associated with negative consequences within prisoners such as stress, anxiety, depression and even suicide. - Constantino et al found 7.5% of women and 6.3% of men in prison suffer from depression

  • institutionalisation can also occur ; prisoners develop maladaptive behaviour due to the monotonous rhythm of prison life which makes it hard to adjust to normal life when they are released
  • emphasis on retribution led to high recidivism rates
  • ministry of justice : custodial sentencing leads to 57% of prisoners reoffending within a year
• A03

  +custodial sentencing can lead to more opportunities for learning - for example prisons may provide sex offenders with compulsory cbt to help prevent minimisation as a coping mechanism and allow them to come to terms with their crime. similarly, violent offenders can be offered anger management. therefore, while there are negative affects associated with custodial sentencing, it can provide long term beneficial learning opportunities that can reduce recidivism through allowing offenders to cope with emotions better and understand effects of their crimes
• A03

  -extremely costly - custodial sentencing in England and Wales costs around £46,000 per prisoner annually (shown from 2021/22 stats) . this puts a large strain on the economy where money could be used for investment in education/healthcare. this suggests other methods need to be used instead of punishment as recidivism rates are still high. For example, Norway has one of the lowest European recidivism rates but a far greater focus on rehabilitation, as opposed to traditional punishment. this suggests that punishment is not the most beneficial ways of dealing with offender behaviour.
• A03

  -custodial sentencing may be affected by political motives - the majority of the public favours custodial sentencing as a way of dealing with offender behaviour as they typically want to see the criminal suffer/ be remorseful about their crime. this can lead to political parties toughening up prison systems leading to stronger custodial sentencing as a way of pleasing the public. however, this can lead to even higher recidivism rates so is therefore more costly and ineffective