Revisionists held more radical views in that they saw correctional institutions as repressive forms of social control, born from class conflict and to protect the vested interests of the wealthy and the governing class. Questions were asked as to the purpose of the prison system was it to be used just as a place of criminal containment? A place where a form of discipline could be used in order to reform the criminal? Or was it to deter potential criminals?
Disillusioned liberalists had good intentions they wanted humanitarian prisons, treating the criminal as a human being that has the potential to be rehabilitated and reformed.
One of the reasons why it was so difficult to reach a public consensus regarding the prison system was because of the criminal containment it encourages criminal careers that can be adopted in the outside world. Prison is used as a deterrent in that it contains criminals so they are not free to offend for the time they are contained, but can recidivism be reduced, what happens when they are released back into the community, will they re-offend?
Michel Foucault describes the ‘carceral society’, which involves the reform of prisons, education of children, confinement of the insane and supervision of the industrial workers, his theory was symbolised by Jeremy Benthams’ (2) 1778 design of a prison that he called the Panopticon, a plan allowing the surveillance of prisoners at any given time without the prisoner knowing, therefore the prisoner would have to behave in a certain way just in case they were ever being watched, although this was never implemented because of the cost, this power and control theory has been adapted to be used in other controlling situations such as schools, factories and hospitals which incorporated inspection, surveillance and power and whose main aim is to observe, inspect and control. Using prison as a prevention strategy would be in the hope that the offender would realise that living a life of crime could mean a prison sentence with their liberty being taken away.
The criminal justice system is a system that involves stages that an offender goes through when they are caught in criminal activity, the state has to respond to the behaviour of the offender, behaviour that is unacceptable and the state must provide a punishment in accordance to the crime that they have committed. There are various stages within the criminal justice system, firstly the offender is charged with an offence, then prosecuted, and they are given a trial hearing date of which they are then sentenced according to the severity of the punishment they may then be eligible for appeal.
A fact that has to be considered when decisions are made to what sentences are given have to take into account the probability that if prisoners have to spend long terms in confinement they are unable to be reformed. The risk of imprisonment may reduce crime, but how severe is the sentence to deter those that have already committed the crime. Professional offenders may take into account the risk of detection that leads to a risk of conviction that inevitably leads to a risk of imprisonment, but what happens to situational crime and crime committed by non professional criminals?
Using prison as a general deterrence, by using an individual criminal as an example to the rest of society is what the state generally tries to accomplish rather than a specific deterrent concentrating on an individual punishment so that they do not re-offend.
The prison system itself has seen a dramatic increase in prisoners over the years as such it has encompassed various problems. The cost of containing prisoners is very high and increasing all the time, this is paid for out of the taxes that we as a society pay. Overcrowding is also seen as a major problem that has profound affects on the prisoners being held.
The highest proportion of prisoners are victims of other failing social factors, they are mostly unemployed, uneducated, homeless, drug addicts, poor parents with poor social skills, they see crime as a more promising prospect than that of unemployment and poverty, of which poverty is the main cause of crime, because of the failed systems of state control deviant individuals are forced to turn to crime, they try and escape the poverty trap, these crimes are products of desperation.
This criminal underclass as described by Feeley and Smith (3) in their description of The New Penology whose main objective is not to punish or rehabilitate but to manage unruly groups. The criminal underclass have their own societies that has rewards for the crimes that they commit, when one criminal is caught another ten are committing crimes elsewhere. The underclass societies are also imminent within the prison, they infiltrate their own economies with the sale of drugs and alcohol, and they have their own rules and regulations.
With the massive increase in incapitation, the crime rates should be lower than ever, but this is not so as the prison population rises so does the crime rates. If prison is used as a deterrent to deter potential criminals why is there so much re-offending? Penal policy is based on the notion that the offender will be punished, but it does not deter all class of criminals. Professional criminals know that the detection and clear up rates are low so there is minimal chance of being caught as such they will continue to commit crimes. The criminal justice system is presently a breeding ground for hardened criminals and more criminal behaviour not as a process for reducing crime.
Engaging in criminal activities deserve punishment, retribution justifies the notion of imprisonment, when the offender enters into the prison system they are to be rehabilitated.
Prisons are now adapted to try and teach criminals on how to behave in society with education and life and job skills. Although there is only a small percentage of violent and dangerous offenders in prison security and control are of paramount importance over deterrence.
Judges and authorities are more likely to send people to prison than in earlier years which only adds to the stress of the prison system. The criminal justice system is failing, prisons cannot perform their duties of reforming and rehabilitating because of the overcrowding, educational and job opportunities are providing little or no opportunities to prepare offenders for the outside world.
UK policies are trying to encapsulate the use of deterrence, retribution, incapitation, rehabilitation and crime prevention in practical terms though various ways such as treatment and training of offenders and making custody more positive for those that have offended. Prisons are units of human confinement, marginally successful on the managerial efficiency of the prison whilst managing its security and control.
Prisoners getting their ‘just desserts’ depending on the gravity of the offence and giving the appropriate sentence to the crime shows authoritarian populism, the public are the ones mainly responsible for the criminal justice system, in order to satisfy public unease, political parties will concentrate on criminalization and penalization. By increasing the offenders awareness of the consequences of committing crimes restorative justice can allow the offender to make amends to their victims and within their communities.
Comparing the rates in two countries that of the United Kingdom and America it is evident that by sending people to prison will not reduce crime. Americans incarcerated more people, crime rates fell, when UK incarcerated less people the crime rate rose. Young (4) describes the difference in the criminal justice system within the two schools of thought; the ‘deterministic model’ where social influences from external forces outside of the criminal justice system influence ones behaviour these can be economic conditions for example. Rusche and Kirkchiemier (5) explains the ‘deterministic model’ as being the level of imprisonment in any country is due to the labour market conditions, therefore more crime would be committed in times of economical upheaval.
The second model that of ‘policy choice model’ involved the values, attitudes and beliefs of the criminal justice system decision makers. Judges and penal policy makers may see unemployment and being economically inactive is the reason why the offender committed a crime and this may be taken into account when given the severity of the sentencing. This model was demonstrated by Downes (6) when he compared the penal policy in Netherlands with that of the UK, although the two countries are similar in crime rates and social problems, the Dutch decided to eliminate prison sentences for petty crime, they developed a culture of tolerance, they believed in rehabilitation rather than imprisonment. They now have a better penal system than ours and are able to control their crime problems a lot easier than us.
Risk assessments are carried out on all criminals and are very important within the criminal justice system as it assesses the risk of criminals participating in more crime. It also assesses the risk of non-criminals becoming criminals.
Therapy programmes previously used in America and have proved successful for some offenders, have been introduced into the UK.
For there to be a reduction in crime would mean less people incarcerated for this to be accomplished there needs to be a rethinking of the present prison system with the introduction of the probation service this can be an alternative to prison, other alternatives to prison include tagging, reparation and drug treatment and testing. Classification of prisoners to enable the appropriate security is already implemented in most prisons. Segregating hardened criminals from the petty ones can only happen if the overcrowding in prisons is addressed.
Within the prison establishment they now offer Enhanced Thinking Skills, (ETS), courses, which have proved invaluable to some of the prisoners, but with the problem of overcrowding it, is making it difficult for some to access the courses. (7)
According to Claudia Strut (8) head of Erlestoke prison, shows how important managerial processes are in prisons, Claudia emphasis the need to prepare offenders for resettlement into the community to ensure the offender does not re-offend. For this to work 3 main conditions need to be provided. The offender needs to know that there is human contact on the outside, there needs to be an assurance that family and friend support is eminent on their release. The second is shelter to provide physical well being, and finally money or a basis to earn their own legal money, with these 3 things in place the offender is less likely to return to prison.
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