Imprisonment has been the main form of punishment in western societies for the last 200 years. In that period, however, its role, scale, and functions have changed considerably. This chapter discusses the history of prisons; the role and impact of imprisonment; changes in its scale and purpose; and why it has become the dominant form of punishment in Western societies for the last 200 years.
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25. Prisons
Roger Matthews
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8. Community sentences
George Mair
This chapter begins with a brief overview of the history of community sentences as alternatives to custody. It then explores the current situation with regard to community sentences and alternatives to custody, drawing on the most up-to-date research available. The chapter also discusses the political environment in which the probation service finds itself. The concluding section summarizes the key issues around the topic.
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6. Procedure: penalties and leniency arrangements
This chapter explores the financial penalties imposed for breaches of competition law in the EU and the UK. Broadly speaking, enforcers have three kinds of ‘weapons’ in their arsenal to use against those who attack competition: remedies, imprisonment, and fines. The first of these weapons may be the most powerful, and includes conduct, structural, and third-party remedies. Incarceration — the second weapon — is a well-publicized feature of the US system, and has been an option in the UK in relation to hard-core cartel conduct since the entry into force of the Enterprise Act 2002 (EA). The argument in favour of the efficacy of fines, the third weapon, is a persuasive one: companies take part in anti-competitive conduct in order to boost profits; remove those profits and the incentive for illegal conduct vanishes.
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13. Racism and ethnicity in the criminal justice process
Alpa Parmar
This chapter examines the ways in which racism and ethnic diversity influence the process and outcomes of criminal justice. The discussions include how minority ethnic groups are represented across the criminal justice process and the proportions they comprise at each stage of the process; minority ethnic people's experiences as victims, their patterns of offending, policing patterns, and rates of disproportionality; and the representation of minorities in the criminal justice professions. The conclusion examines present and future challenges for the criminal justice process in the UK.
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42. Convict criminology without guarantees: Proposing hard labour for an unfinished criminology
Rod Earle, Danica Darley, Bill Davies, David Honeywell, and Ed Schreeche-Powell
This chapter examines the key concepts of convict criminology. It explains that convict criminology is largely involved with criminological and penological research produced by people who combine first-hand experience of imprisonment with criminological training and insight. Moreover, convict criminology offers an alternative perspective on criminological issues grounded in lived experience while reshaping the degraded image of the prisoner in the public imagination. The subfield subverts the abject status of the convict or prisoner as an object of suspicion circulating darkly in the social depths. The chapter mentions that convict criminologists should be wary of the reductionist convenience of their social position to their epistemological position
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8. Justice in the modern prison
In this chapter we focus on the treatment of adult prisoners, examining a number of aspects of prison life as well as considering the aims of imprisonment. Key developments since 1990 are considered, including the Woolf Report (Woolf and Tumin 1991), managerialism and privatisation, the implications of the Human Rights Act (HRA) 1998 and the impact of the pandemic, to assess whether the just treatment of prisoners has been achieved. While substantial improvements in prison regimes have been made since the early 1990s, there has also been considerable pressure on them from the expanding prison population. The problem of reconciling respect for the rights of prisoners with the administrative needs of the prison system and the deterrent function of prison is highlighted. The potential to reduce the prison population substantially in the current political climate is also discussed.
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31. Understanding penal decision-making: Courts, sentencing, and parole
Nicola Padfield and Cyrus Tata
This chapter expounds on the understanding of penal decision-making under the critical perspective that understands the interplay between courts, sentencing, and parole. It examines key issues in the daily realities of the work of sentencing and parole and their implications for research and policy. Conventional wisdom and popular assumptions about criminal justice have been led by a preoccupation with the most serious, glamorous cases. The chapter highlights the significance of the presumption of innocence, citing that cases are judged as unique and criminal justice agencies work autonomously in penal decision-making. It considers several strategies to reduce the use of imprisonment by promoting community alternatives
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14. Sentencing
This chapter explains the aims of sentencing and discusses the types of sentence that may be imposed upon a convicted offender. The main sentencing options available to a court when an adult is convicted of a criminal offence include: absolute and conditional discharges, fines, community orders, and imprisonment. Custodial sentences include extended determinate sentences, the new sentence for offenders of particular concern, and life sentences, including whole life sentences. A custodial sentence has punishment as its primary purpose, whereas a community order focuses on reform and rehabilitation. The chapter outlines the key types of sentence that can be imposed upon youth offenders and discusses restorative justice initiatives. It explores the factors to which the judge or magistrates must have regard when passing sentence, including maximum/minimum sentences, the nature and seriousness of the offence, sentencing guidelines and pre-sentence reports.
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28. Punishment
This chapter discusses the place that punishment occupies as a response to crime. In many ways, the idea of punishment lies at the heart of our thinking about crime and criminal justice. It acts as a kind of balancing factor to the offence and seems like an obvious and natural consequence of a wrongful act, as in the biblical idea of ‘an eye for an eye’. However, the criminologist’s task is precisely to interrogate fundamental assumptions and to question the obvious. As such, there is a need to consider, with a critical eye, some well-established conventions such as the principle of ‘just deserts’ and the idea that we should make ‘the punishment fit the crime’. The chapter explores aspects of the historical development of punishment and its changing role in society and looks at particular forms of penal sanction, notably the death penalty, the use of imprisonment, and community-based alternatives to the deprivation of liberty. The chapter then assesses the role of the judiciary in administering punishments, the consequences of imposing punitive measures, and the criticisms of the use of punishment.
Chapter
14. Sentencing
This chapter explains the aims of sentencing and discusses the types of sentence that may be imposed upon a convicted offender. The main sentencing options available to a court when an adult is convicted of a criminal offence include: absolute and conditional discharges, fines, community orders, and imprisonment. Custodial sentences include extended determinate sentences, the new sentence for offenders of particular concern, and life sentences. A custodial sentence has punishment as its primary purpose, whereas a community order focuses on reform and rehabilitation. The chapter outlines the key types of sentence that can be imposed upon youth offenders and discusses restorative justice initiatives. It explores the factors to which the judge or magistrates must have regard when passing sentence, including maximum/minimum sentences, the nature and seriousness of the offence, sentencing guidelines and pre-sentence reports.
Book
Susan Easton and Christine Piper
This book reviews the philosophical principles which underpin penal policy, sentencing and punishment, as well as examining the practical consequences of the legal principles enshrined in English law with an analysis of imprisonment and community punishment. The first part of the book covers the way sentencing law and guidelines are structured and discusses in detail retributivist and utilitarian justifications for punishment, as well as the current importance of public protection from risk and danger. It also covers those offenders and victims who can be dealt with differently, notably the mentally ill and children, together with ways of dealing with the offenders and their victims using restorative justice. Finally, Part A focuses on ways in which the impact of offending on victims and offenders can be reduced. Part B of the book covers in detail conditions in prison including the impact of the pandemic and the experience of imprisonment, especially in relation to women, BAME prisoners and other groups, where equal treatment is problematic. It also focuses on punishment and rehabilitation in the community, covering the available orders and the current approaches to rehabilitation. The civil and criminal orders available for use with those under 18 years of age, are also considered, as well as the way in which rights have been used to protect children in prison.
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21. Applications: prisoners’ rights
Without assuming prior legal knowledge, books in the Directions series introduce and guide readers through key points of law and legal debate. It discusses European Convention law and relates it to domestic law under the HRA. Questions, discussion points, and thinking points help readers to engage fully with each subject and check their understanding as they progress and knowledge can be tested by self-test questions and exam questions at the chapter end. This chapter considers the application of Convention rights in the field of prisoners’ rights; the impact of Convention rights on prisoners in the UK is considered. Prisoners remain within the protection of the European Convention on Human Rights, though the application of these rights will take their position into account. Prisoners’ rights include not only rights to the non-arbitrary loss of liberty (Article 5) and rights to fair procedures (Articles 5 and 6), but also not to be disproportionately denied the rights and freedoms in Articles 8–11. Imprisonment deprives individuals of their liberty and, therefore, is a public function for which the state is responsible under the Convention. The controversy over prisoners’ right to vote is discussed in Chapter 25.
