Criminal Justice - Imprisonment

Assessment 1: 1500 Word Essay

My essay is going to based on the question ‘What are the purposes of imprisonment?  To what extent could it be argued that prison ‘works’?’ In the United Kingdom today, the prison population stands at 85,476 which has risen a substantial amount since the year 2000 where the population stood at 64,600 (Gov UK, 2017). The prison population keeps rising from year to year and this is causing problems as they are getting extremely overcrowded. Because of this is it fair to say that prison is working as the dominant form of punishment in the UK or should other alternatives of punishment be used.

According to Christianson (2002: 1168) prison can be defined as “any institution or device that holds a captive in custody”. Imprisonment is the United Kingdom’s dominant form of punishment for those that are found guilty. In today’s society, the use of prisons and taking away an individual’s freedom has become normalized and accepted in a way that serves justice to victims and their families. However, before prisons were built and became a way of controlling crime, capital punishment (the death penalty) was used in the United Kingdom to dispose of criminals and to hopefully deter future offenders. Before it was abolished in 1965 under the Murder (Abolition of the Death Penalty) Act, the death penalty was the main form of punishment therefore prisons weren’t necessarily needed as if an individual was found guilty they were sentenced to death whereas if they were found innocent they were simply let go. According to Scott and Flynn (2014: 9) ‘the way in which we deal with offenders is a major indication of the level of civilisation and commitment to human rights and civil liberties in our society’. Society as a whole is expected to protect human life and to minimize pain and suffering if possible therefore it appears that punishment in the United Kingdom has become more humane and morally acceptable since the days of the death penalty with the use of imprisonment. However, just because the use of imprisonment has been normalized and accepted, is it justifiable to say that prison ‘works’ and should other ways of punishing offenders be introduced as an alternative.

According to the Policy Green Paper (2008) 'Prisons should reduce crime in three principal ways: by incapacitating offenders, by punishing and thereby deterring others who would commit crimes, and by rehabilitating offenders.' This suggests that prisons aren’t completely focused on solidly punishing offenders but also helping them by providing rehabilitation and support to reduce the risk of reoffending. There are positive aspects to using prisons to incapacitate criminals as they effectively remove dangerous individuals from society therefore keeping the public safe which is seen as severely important in relation to punishing. By punishing offenders and serving justice it gives society a sense of social solidarity, this is reflected in Durkheim’s work revolving punishment as he ‘developed a theory of the relation between the nature of punishment and the nature of society, and the importance for social solidarity’ (Hudson 2003: 98). By punishing the wrong doers, it reinforces our collective morality therefore society feels as though they have achieved something and feel more bound together as justice has been served. If we didn’t punish offenders, then more people would commit crimes and act in a deviant way as there would be no consequences. Therefore, punishing forms a more controlled society that has moral order. Also, prison is said to deter future offenders for example if a child has one of their parents in prison it may deter them from offending in the future because of what they have been through in their childhood and having to grow up without a parent. Punishing offenders and giving prison sentences shows the public that the law is to be respected and if you contribute in illegal behaviours then there will be consequences that take place therefore this also acts as a deterrent.

The use of prisons in general divides the population as there are many who agree with prisons as punishment and many that disagree and are against using them. The media has a huge part to play in the way that prisons in the United Kingdom are represented as there are constant ‘scandals’ and stories being printed in the newspaper and plastered all over the internet regarding the effectiveness and the failure of the prison system. For example, The Daily Mail, a very popular newspaper in the United Kingdom, posted the headline ‘Shocking photos reveal prisoners boasting about their cushy lives in jail - enjoying vodka, drugs and TAKEAWAY fish and chips’ (Mail Online, 2016). The public who then go on to read this article will form a negative view of the prison system as they may believe everything that is presented to them in a newspaper. However, the majority of the time newspapers don’t publish completely factual information therefore this article isn’t reliable or truthful and shouldn’t be used to form opinions. The article goes on to state how prisoners are having a good time whilst serving their sentences and the prisoners are living ‘like students’. It does however forget to mention the lives of those who are struggling in prison and are going through things such as depression and bullying. According to the Prison Reform Trust (2013) ‘49% of women and 23% of male prisoners in a Ministry of Justice study were assessed as suffering from anxiety and depression.’ This suggests that prisoners are not ‘living like students’ but are suffering in the conditions that they’re in however the media don’t mention this aspect of prison life therefore it gets overlooked. The Prison Reform trust works to ensure that prisons are humane and effective therefore have done a lot of research to make sure that prisoners are getting the correct treatment and living conditions. Can it be classed as humane to take away someone’s freedom and take them away from their family and friends. It could be that depression and suicidal thoughts in prison may stem from the fact that they are lonely and have been taken away from what their ‘normal’ environment. Sykes (2007) states that ‘The mere fact that the individual's movements are restricted, however, is far less serious than the fact that imprisonment means that the inmate is cut off from family, relatives, and friends, not in the self-isolation of the hermit or the misanthrope, but in the involuntary seclusion of the outlaw.’