Custodial sentencing

Custodial sentencing definition

• Refers to the sentence given by a judge, which results in offender being sent to prison/young offenders institution/secure hospital

• Custodial sentences proportionate to degree of crime & can be influenced by aggravating/mitigating factors

Aims of sentencing

• Incapacitation (removing offender from society to protect innocent members of society)

• Deterence (specific deterrence putting off offender from committing further crime & general deterrence other people from committing crime by showing negative consequences)

• Retribution (taking revenge for punishment committed, punishment an eye for an eye)

• Rehabilitation (changing the offender into a better person to help them adjust to life once released & reduce recidivism rates through training, education & CBT)

Strengths

Limitations

• P - high recidivism rates

• E - If prison successfully rehabilitated offenders and deterred crime, reoffending rates would be expected to be much lower. In practice, many offenders return to criminal behaviour after release, indicating that imprisonment may fail to address the underlying causes of offending. The UK has one of the world’s highest recidivism rates as 46% of prisoners go on to commit crime within one year of being released. Furthermore, within 5 years of release, ¾ of released prisoners were rearrested. Alternatively, Norway places a large emphasis on rehabilitation and gaining skills and has the world’s lowest recidivism rates at 20%.

• T - this suggests a flaw in the UK’s custodial sentencing, which places a large emphasis on incarceration and retribution, suggesting that perhaps rehabilitation is more effective in reducing recidivism. Therefore, high recividim rates challenge the effectiveness of custodial sentencing and imply that prisons may not achieve their aim of reducing future criminal behaviour.

• P - fails to acknowledge individual differences

• E - it assumes imprisonment has a similar effect on all offenders, when in reality individuals respond very differently to prison. Some offenders may benefit from rehabilitation programmes and be deterred from future crime, whereas others may experience negative psychological effects such as institutionalisation, depression or prisonisation. Factors such as age, personality, type of offence and mental health influence how an individual copes with imprisonment.

• T - custodial sentencing may be effective for some individuals but ineffective or even harmful for others, reducing its overall effectiveness as a method of reducing crime.

• P - psychological effects

• E - many prisoners experience stress, anxiety, depression and a loss of autonomy due to the restrictive nature of prison life. Hawton found that self-harm (particularly for female offenders) and suicide rates are much higher in the prison population compared to the general population. In addition, offenders may become institutionalised, meaning they become accustomed to the routines and structure of prison and struggle to cope with independent life after release. They may also undergo prisonisation, where they adopt the norms and values of the prison subculture, which can reinforce criminal attitudes rather than reduce them\

• T - imprisonment may hinder successful reintegration into society and contribute to continued offending, suggesting that custodial sentencing does not always achieve its rehabilitative aims.

• P - expensive

• E - Governments must fund prison staff, security and accommodation ,resulting in substantial costs to taxpayers. Approximately, it costs the UK £48,000 per year for a single inmate. Because prison maintenance absorbs the bulk of the criminal justice budget, there is limited funding left for mandatory education, employment training, or specialized psychological therapies, reducing the chances of rehabilitation which has shown to be effective in reducing recidivism rates.

• T - may increase recidivism rates, as many offenders go on to reoffend after release, meaning society repeatedly pays to incarcerate the same individuals without achieving long-term behavioural change. This suggests that custodial sentencing is ineffective and economically inefficient