Lesson 9 – Custodial Sentencing

Question 1

What is custodial sentencing?

Answer 1

Custodial sentencing- involves convicted offender spending time in prison or another closed institution e.g. young offenders institute or psychiatric hospital

Question 2

What is deterrence?

Answer 2

Deterrence- unpleasant prison experience designed to put individual off engaging in offending 🏃‍♂️ in future
Deterrence works on 2 levels:
1) General deterrence- aims to send broad message to members of society that crime will ✖️ be tolerated
2) Individual deterrence- should prevent individual from repeating same crime

Question 3

What is incapacitation?

Answer 3

Incapacitation- offender taken out of society to prevent them from reoffending as a means of protecting the public- need for incapacitation depends on severity of offence and nature of offender

Question 5

What is retribution?

Answer 5

Retribution- society enacting revenge for crime by making offender suffer and level of suffering should be proportionate to crime committed

Question 6

How many psychological effects are there of serving time in prison?

Answer 6

4

Question 7

What are the psychological effects associated with serving time in prison?

Answer 7

1) Psychological Disorders
2) Institutionalisation
3) Brutalisation
4) Labelling

Question 8

How can prison time lead to psychological disorders?

Answer 8

Psychological Disorders- prisons have ⬆️er incidences of mental illness e.g. depression, anxiety, self-harm, suicide, and low self-esteem
Study by Prison Reform Trust (2014) found that 25% of 👩 and 15% of 👨 in prison reported symptoms of psychosis- oppressive prison regime can-> psychological disorders

Question 9

How can prison time lead to institutionalisation?

Answer 9

Institutionalisation- spending time in prison-> lack of autonomy (independence), conforming to role of prisoner and dependency on prison culture

Question 10

How can prison time lead to brutalisation?

Answer 10

Brutalisation- prison acts as school for crime and reinforces criminal
lifestyle and criminal norms-> reoffending (70% of young offenders re-offend within 2 years)

Question 11

How can prison time lead to labelling?

Answer 11

Labelling- prisoners often lose touch with previous social contacts and
find it difficult to gain employment because labelled as criminal

Question 12

What are the evaluation points of custodial sentencing?

Answer 12

👍- custodial sentencing can be useful- shows that justice has been done and limits danger to public- ALSO prisoners access education and training whilst in prison-> ⬆️ chance they will find employment upon release
ALSO treatment programmes e.g. 😡 management therapy and social skills training may help offenders modify their 🏃‍♂️ and so avoid reoffending
👎- suicide rates are 15% ⬆️er in prison population than they are in general population- BUT difficult to demonstrate that psychological disorders are caused by imprisonment- prisoners with psychiatric conditions may have had problems before institutionalised
👎- courts need to be selective about who they send to prison AS 8–10% of criminals commit 50% of all crimes (Peterson 1981) … custodial sentencing best reserved for repeat offenders
👎- crime prevention ⬆️ effective than custodial sentencing- avoids labelling person as criminal AND avoids ➖ consequences of prison- alternative sentences e.g. community service ⬆️ effective for ⬇️-risk offenders because they can keep their social contacts and their job

Question 13

What is rehabilitation?

Answer 13

Rehabilitation- upon release prisoners should be better adjusted and
ready to take their place in society- prison should provide opportunities to develop skills, receive training or to access treatment programs for addiction
ALSO receive counselling and have opportunity to reflect on their crime