| What is custodial sentencing? | Decision made by a court that ounishment for a crime should involve time incarcerated in priosn or some other closed insitution |
| What are the four aims of prison? | Deterrence, incapacitiation, retribution, rehabilitation |
| What is deterrence? | Unpleasent prison experience to put off the individual from engaging in offendering behaviour. Based off the behaviourist approach: vicarious punishment, bed contions and aggressive people |
| What is incapacitation? | Offender is taken out of society to prevent them from reoffending as a means of protecting the public, depends on the severity of the offence and the nature of the offender |
| What is retribution? | Society is enacting revenge for the offecne by making the offender suffer - the level of suffering should be proportionate ot the seriouness of the offence |
| What is rehabilitation? | The main purpose of prison is reform them. Develop opportunities to develop skills and training or to access treatment programes. Allows for them to be better adjusted and ready to take their place back in society |
| What are the consequences of prison? | Prisonisation, Isolation, institutionalisation |
| What is prisonisation? | The prisoners create codes among themselves and behaviour that they have to follow, encourging things like violence nad gang behaviour. Considered unacceptable in the outside world but encouraged and rewarded in prison. |
| What is isolation ? | Rates of depression, suicide and self-harm increase in prison as the risk increases. Stress of the experience which increases the risk of developing psychological disorders after released. |
| What is institutionalisation ? | There is a strict routine within prison, when they are released, the sense of freedom can be hard to deal with, hard to function properly |
| What is a strength of custodial sentencing? | -Provides prisoners with a chance for training and treatment
-The vera institute of Justice claims that offenders who take part in colledge education programmes in prison are 43% less likely to reoffend following release
-Significant because it means that training programmes can improve a prions' ability to rehabilitate prisoners as well as allowing prisoners to gain employment upon release, lowering recidivism rates
-Suggests that prison may be a worthwile experience assuming offenders are able to access these programmes |
| Weakness of custodial sentencing? | -Negative psychological effects on prisoners
-Bartol suggested that imprisonment can be 'brutal demeaning and generally devastating' for inmates. Accoridng to the ministry of justice, 119 people died by suicide, 25% of women and 15% of men experience psychosis (hallucinations) in prison
-Significant because this statistic is equivilant to 9 times the size of suicide rates of the general population. Supports that oppressive prison regimes may be detrimental to the health of inmates, impacting the ability to rehabilitate inmates
-Psychosis makes it harder for convicts to adjust to the outside world once they are released, making them reoffend. |
| Weakness of custodial sentencing? | -Doesn't include the number of inmates experiencing mental health problems before they were incarcerated.
-Significnat because many of those convicted may have pre-exisiting psychological and emotional difficulties at the time they were convicted
-Prisoners may be importing their own pre-exisiting conditions with them into the prison, increasing the likelihood of the suicide rates showing that prison, therefore, prison is not causing psychosis as it is a predisposition.
-Suggesting that there may be confounding variables that links prisons and negative psychological. |
| A weakness of custodial sentencing? | -May learn to become better offenders
-Prisoners may learn new techniques, like smuggling and acquiring criminal contacts, of how to commit crimes from more experienced and older prisoners within the system
-Could consequently undermine any attempt to rehabilitate prisoners and make them more likely to reoffend
-Therefore, suggesting the prisoners may not be an effective way of lowering recidivism rates |
