Prisons in modern society Flashcards
overview
Without the death penalty, imprisonment is regarded as the most severe form of punishment. However, it is not an effective method of rehabilitation for most – about 65% of prisoners reoffend (known as recidivism) within the first two years of release, as do 71% of young offenders. Many critics argue prison is simply an expensive way of making bad people worse.
Despite this, since the 1980s there has been a move towards politicians seeking electoral popularity by calling for tougher sentences. E.g. New Labour’s 1997 promise of being ‘tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime’ where prison has been increasing used as a deterrent for persistent petty offenders. As a result, the prison population has swollen to record sizes and we have long operated well over uncrowded capacity in prisons which often takes away from any intended rehabilitation of prisoners as there is not the room, time or money to do any true rehabilitation any justice.
mass incarceration
According to Garland (2001), the USA, & to a lesser extent the UK, is moving into an era of mass incarceration. In the USA, over 3% of the adult population are either in prison or under the supervision of the CJS (e.g. on probation). Garland argues that the system has now become “the systematic imprisonment of whole groups of the population” – in the USA the group concerned being young black males. E.g. while black Americans are only 13% of the US population, they make up 37% of the prison population.
does prison work?
American right realist social scientists such as Charles Murray believe that prison is effective simply because of incapacitation (taking frequent offenders off the streets).
However, Liebling & Crewe (2012) do suggest some flaws in this argument:
(i) The experience of prison may make recidivism more likely – a period in prison may disrupt the prisoner’s family life & employment causing instability & making it more likely they reoffend.
(ii) In line with labelling theory, the stigmatisation associated with having served a prison sentence
could make reoffending more likely as inmates develop a self-concept in which they see themselves as criminals.
(iii) Prisons are environments in which prisoners may be socialised into the values of other criminals, rather than into those of the law-abiding. They can be schools for crime, where people learn both justifications for criminality & criminal techniques
Alternatives to prison
In recent years there has been a growth in the range of community-based controls, such as curfews, community service orders, treatment orders & electronic tagging. However, at the same time, the numbers in custody have been rising steadily, especially among the young. Far from diverting young people from the CJS, community controls may divert them into it. E.g. some argue that the police use ASBOs as a way of fast-tracking young offenders into custodial sentences.
Additionally, these alternatives generally have the same re-offending rates as prison so they are perhaps no more effective but they are substantially cheape
