12M analyses success of non-custodial

Question 1

cost

Answer 1

• Non-custodial responses to crime are successful as a result of it being a potentially more cost-effective alternative.
• This can be seen by the increased use of community interventions such as the Community Payback Orders (CPO) being a more cost effective alternative particularly as the Ministry of Justice has costed CPOs at £1858 per individual per year which is a fraction of the cost of prison.
• Furthermore, there is evidence of a high rate of non-custodial punishments such as fines being used, which doesn’t cost much if anything.
• Evidence of this is gov.uk website, where it states in 2022, there were over 830,000 fines handed out to criminals.
• Arguably, this shows that criminals being punished with fines is advantageous, as it does not cost the state any money, therefore being an economically efficient method of punishing criminals.

Question 2

health and safety

Answer 2

• It can be argued through non custodial sentences such as Home Detention Curfews, there is less chance of overcrowding in prisons as criminals have to stay at home.
• Evidence of this is 8,695 offenders were released on HDC in 2022.
• In contrast, non-custodial responses to crime such as HDC are proven to be less effective.
• This is evident in the case of James Wright who had been put on HDC after having been found carrying a knife but went on to murder a father of 3 in Paisley in June 2018 after breaking his tag 6 months before.
• Arguably, this shows why non-custodial sentences are often not so effective, as proven in the heinous case of James Wright who broke his HDC and committed murder.

Question 3

reoffending rates

Answer 3

• It can be argued that non-custodial responses to crime are successful as they lower reoffending rates which are decreasing.
• This can be seen by the you.gov reconviction rate of 25.1% in 2019-20, a decrease from the stable rates of previous years.
• However, it can be argued that non-custodial sentences such as HDC result in higher reoffending rates.
• Evidence of this is from the you.gov website where the reoffending rates for Home Detention Curfews was 39%.
• Arguably, this shows that non-custodial sentences such as HDC are not an effective method of sentencing due to the high rate of reoffending from said criminals.

Question 4

more serious crimes

Answer 4

It can be argued that non-custodial sentences are not effective when considering probation. This is evidenced by Joshua Jaques case in 2022, he was released on probation and went on to murder his girlfriend and 3 of her family members with a knife. Furthermore, there is evidence of serious failures when considering the non-custodial sentence of electronic tagging. Evidence of this is in 2022 Charlie Hurd, a teenage drug dealer, ripped off his electronic tag before travelling 300 miles and stabbing a youth worker to death. Arguably this shows that non custodial is not an effective way when dealing with serious crime as seen by Charlie Hurd after removing his tag, showing the tagging system is unable to prevent serious crimes from happening.