Custodial sentencing Flashcards
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Custodial sentencing is holding convicted criminals in a secure facility like a prison or if appropriate a young offenders institution or psychiatric hospital.
The aims of custodial sentencing
Deterrence: To stop criminals reoffending and members of society committing crimes.
Incapacitation: Protects society from the criminal’s actions behaviour while in prison.
Retribution: Providing the victim and society a sense criminals have paid for crime.
Rehabilitation: Opportunity to learn new skills (training) and behaviour (therapy)
Research has revealed several psychological effects associated with serving time in prison:
• Stress and Depression: Suicide rates are considerably higher in prison than in the general population, as are incident of self-mutilation and self-harm. The stress of the prison experience also increases the risk of psychological disturbance following release.
• Institutionalisation: Having adapted to the norms and routines of prison life, inmates may become so accustomed to these that they are no longer able to function the outside.
• Prisonisation: Refers to the way in which prisoners are socialised into adopting an ‘inmate code’. Behaviour that may be considered unacceptable in the outside world may be encouraged and rewarded inside the walls of the institution.
Recidivism is when an offender re-offends after release. This could be due to institutionalisation or developing pro-criminal attitudes while in prison (differential association). Other risk factors are homelessness and drug addiction. Recidivism is a large problem in a study following UK criminals over 18 years, 77% of ex-inmates went on to reoffended.
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As so many ex-inmates reoffend, 77% according to one 2020 study, prisons may not deter or reform offenders and only incapacitate for the time they are in prison. However as reoffending rates are much higher for short sentences of less than 6 months at 84.9% compared to more than 4 years at 32.2% it could argued that short sentences are not long enough to deter or reform.
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Considering the implications of differential association, custodial sentencing may be counter productive, it could be that putting large numbers of criminals together reinforces pro-criminal attitudes and the sharing of criminal skills.
Custodial sentencing is expensive, The cost per prisoner per year in the UK in 2020 is over £42,000*. As recidivism rates are so high, from a cost benefit analysis it may be better to try different approaches to protect society from offenders.
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Many members of wider society think giving offenders long custodial sentences, especially in difficult prison environments is an appropriate punishment for crimes. This provides suitable retribution for the victims. Other approaches lacking in severe retribution are often considered as “soft” options.
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There are several psychological effects associated with custodial sentencing.
One of the biggest problems is stress and depression. Suicide rates are considerably higher in prison than in the general population, as are incidents of self-mutilation and self-harm. Abramson et al. 1989) suggests that depression is mainly caused by both feelings of helplessness and hopelessness. The stress of the prison experience also increases the risk of developing psychological disorder during incarceration and following release from prison.
Another issue is institutionalisation. This refers to the process of adapting to the norms and routines of prison life. Inmates can become so accustomed to these routines that they are no longer able to function on the outside. This can explain the development of psychological problems after release, as well as the high levels of recidivism, which is as high as 45% in the UK (Yukhnenko et al. 2019) |
One final issue is prisonisation. This refers to the way in which prisoners are socialised into adopting an ‘inmate code’. Behaviour that may be considered unacceptable in the outside world may be encouraged and rewarded inside the walls of the institution. This could also be implicated in high reoffending rates and the development of psychological illness upon release.
Research supports the idea that custodial sentencing has negative psychological effects on prisoners. Bartol (1995) reported that for many offenders imprisonment can be brutal, demeaning and generally devastating. Research has found that 119 people committed suicide in prisons in England and Wales in 2016, which equates to one suicide every three days and is almost 9 times higher than in the general population. Furthermore, the prison reform trust (2014) found that 25% of women and 15% of men reported symptoms of psychosis. This supports the idea that the oppressive regimes imprisons may be detrimental to psychological health which could impact on rehabilitation.
However, it must also be said that the figures in the prison reform trust do not include the number of inmates who were experiencing symptoms before they were incarcerated. Many convicts may have pre-existing psychological and emotional difficulties, which could also explain offending behaviour in the first place. The importation model (Irwin & Cressey, 1962) argues that prisoners may bring some of their psychological problems with them, so we don’t know if it is the prison regime or something else e.g., the trauma of being locked away, that causes the issues. This suggests there may be confounding variables that influence the link between prison and it’s psychological effects.
Finally, the cost of prison care and the problems associated with custodial sentencing means that alternatives, such as probation, community service, and anti-social behaviour orders, may in fact be better. Evidence suggests, for example, that cautions are more effective deterrents that arrests (Klein, et al. 1977) and that offenders given community rehabilitation rather than a prison sentence are less likely to reoffend (Home Office, 2005). Alongside the reduction in reoffending, non-custodial sentencing would also help to avoid some of the psychological problems that can come about as a result of incarceration, suggesting that these forms of dealing with offenders could be better and more effective in the long-term.
