2.3✅

• punishment can have several different aims
• this topic looks at how far the sentences handed down by the courts meet these different aims of punishment
• the Criminal Justice Act 2003 set out 5 aims of sentencing: the punishment of offenders (retribution), crime reduction-including through deterrence, rehabilitation of offenders, protection of the public (incapacitation) + reparation to victims
• any or all of these aims may be relevant in a given case and it is for the judge or the magistrate to decided how they apply
• the sentencing framework: there are 4 basic types of sentence that the courts can use to punish offenders, there are: imprisonment, community sentences, fines and discharges
• imprisonment: prison sentences are handed down by courts for the most serious offences or when the court believed that the public must be protected by removing the offender from society
• imprisonment: for example almost 1/2 of all prisoners in the UK were convicted of sex or violence offences
• imprisonment: there are 3 kinds of prison sentence = indeterminate and determinate sentences + suspended sentences
• life sentences: a life sentence is the most serious punishment a UK court can hand down
• life sentences: the judge sets the minimum time that the offender must spend in prison before they can be considered for release by the Parole Board
• life sentences: the Board then assesses whether their release is safe and suitable, if so they are released on licence and have to follow specific rules or conditions and be supervised by the probation service
• life sentences: the offender remains on licence for the rest of their life, if at any time they break the terms of their licence they will be called back to prison
• mandatory (compulsory) life sentence: must be given to offenders who are found guilty of murder, discretionary life sentences can also be given for other serious offences such as rape
• mandatory (compulsory) life sentence: in some very serious cases a judge may sentences an offender to a whole life term, this means they will never be released
• indeterminate sentences: there set a minimum time the offender must serve in prison
• indeterminate sentences: offenders have no automatic right to be released after the minimum term has been served, instead the Parole Board will decide if the offender is suitable to be released on licence
• indeterminate sentences: in 2018 there were around 10,000 prisoners serving indeterminate sentences, indeterminate sentences account for around 14% of the prison population - by far the highest in Europe
• indeterminate sentences: some of these are IPP or ‘imprisonment for public protection’ prisoners
• indeterminate sentences: the Criminal Justice Act 2003 allowed offenders to continue to be detained indefinitely after they had served their minimum sentence, if they were regarded as potentially too dangerous to be released
• indeterminate sentences: however IPP sentences were rules unlawful in 2012 and the sentence was abolished for new cases, in 2019 there were still about 2,200 IPP prisoners
• determinate sentences: a determinate sentence is one w/ a fixed length, most prisoners in the UK serve determinate sentences (about 65-70,000 in 2021), in most cases not all the sentence is served in prison
• determinate sentences: if the sentence is under 12 months, the offender is normally released halfway through
• determinate sentences: if the sentence is 12 months of more = the offender spends the 1st half in prison and the 2nd half in the community on licence, the licence is supervised by the probation service and includes the conditions they must meet (e.g. undergo driug treatment + testing) if they break any of their licence conditions the offender could be recalled to prison for all or part of their sentence
• determinate sentences: offenders sentences to less than 2 years are released on post-sentence supervision for 12 months w/ regular meetings w/ a probation officer and specified requirements
• suspended sentences: in a suspended sentence the offender is given a prison sentence but does not go directly to prison
• suspended sentences: they may recieve a suspended sentence if they would otherwise be given a prison sentence of less than 12 months
• suspended sentences: sentences can be suspended for up to 2 years, the court may also impose requirements such as probation or drug addiction treatment
• suspended sentences: the offender must meet these requirements and must not commit any further offence during the suspension period
• suspended sentences: if they do the court can send them to prison to serve their original sentence, in 2019, 15% of those convicted of a serious (indictable) offence received a suspended prison sentence
• does punishing offenders w/ imprisonment work in terms of the 5 aims of punishment set out in the Criminal Justice Act 2003?
• retribution: this is the idea that offending deserves to be punished and that the punishment should fit the crime
• retribution: prison punishes people for their crimes by taking away their freedom (and often also imposes unpleasant living conditions on them)
• retribution: however it is difficult to say whether imprisonment gives offenders their ‘just deserts’
• retribution: e.g. how do we decide exactly what length of sentence ‘fits’ different crimes? society disagrees about whether sentences are too long or too short and about which offences or offenders deserve prison
• deterrence: it is argued that the risk of being sent to prison deters would-be offenders from committing crimes and actual offenders from committing further crimes
• deterrence: however high re-offending rates by ex-prisoners suggest that prison is not an effective deterrent for many e.g. nearly 1/2 of adult prisoners are re-convicted within a year of being released from jail
• deterrence: deterrence only works if would-be offenders are capable of thinking and acting rationally
• deterrence: but many offences are committed under the influence of drugs or alcohol and many offenders are poorly educated or have mental health problems
• deterrence: in these circumstances they may not carefully consider the risk of being sent to prison when they commit an offence
• public protection (incapacitation): 1 argument for imprisonment is that it protects the public by taking offenders out of circulations