However the disadvantages would be that prisoners who are sent to prison spend too much time with other dangerous criminals which can turn that prisoner into a better and more dangerous criminal when they have served their sentence.
Another factor would be the population of the prisons due to the maximum capacity being 80,000 this is still not enough to hold the criminals therefore leading to overcrowding and this can lead to criminals being released before serving their full sentence which is unsafe and unfair.
Prisons are also very expensive to run, it costs £24,000 + per year to keep a prisoner which queries why criminals don’t get given community work to put something back into society.
Prison has been seen as ineffective due to the fact, 55% of adult offenders reoffend within two years and over 70% of young offenders reoffend within two years.
Also prison conditions are poor and therefore there have been many cases of suicide over the last decade. E.g. Ian Huntley
Custodial sentences can also cause severe damages to family life and the criminal’s job. Also when the criminal is released they will find it more difficult to get a job also feel rejected from society and may drive them to suicide.
Prison sentences cannot reform or rehabilitate an offender that suffers either drug or alcohol abuse.
The advantages of community sentences are that criminals are being punished and forced to put something back into society this could be unpaid work which usually consists of 40-300 hours of unpaid work.
Community sentences are also cost effective and are around £2400 per sentence.
It offers treatment for the mentally ill due to the Mental Health Act 1983.
The types of sentences they offer are more suitable for young offenders and also give the right amount of discipline.
Young offenders can learn from community sentences such as unpaid work, curfew requirements, and fines and keep them away from areas with an exclusion requirement which is in the publics’ interest.
The drug rehabilitation requirement allows the offender that may have suffered drug abuse to reform and rehabilitate.
This type of sentence is also less disruptive to family life, employment and this type of perception is widely favoured by the community.
This also resolves partly the overcrowding prisons as less serious offences do not necessarily have to be punished by prison sentences and they have a chance to return something to the community and receive discipline.
Statistics show that in the first two years of electronic tagging 80%+ of offenders completed the tagging period.
The disadvantages of community sentences are that this type of sentence can be seen as too soft and ineffective.
Also this type of sentence is no better at preventing re-offending. In fact could be seen as worse due to some community sentences are not fully completed meaning that the offender may feel that the sentence did not give enough individual deterrence and reoffend.
Some people in the public see it as less favourable compared to custodial sentences which offer imprisonment.
The criminal although supervised is still able exposed to the public therefore they can still be a danger to the public.
There has also been research that in January 2008 many offenders fail to turn up to their community sentence and are avoiding returning to court claiming they overslept or producing their own sick note.
Electronic tagging is quite expensive being estimated at £675 per offender per month.
There is also an issue of unpaid fines which makes fines an ineffective punishment.
Also there are limits on age to different community sentences which can be a disadvantage due to the fact a young offender may be given a less strict sentence.
