In most countries, the evidence is clear that they are not. However, a handful of countries are bucking this trend. Similar reoffending rates are seen across the Scandinavian nations. In most countries, including the US and UK, prisons prioritise punishment: they limit access to families, education and employment.
Prisoners can be locked in their cells for 23 hours a day. Overcrowding, drugs, gangs and riots are common, and amenities like food and access to healthcare are basic. But reoffending rates are lowest in prison facilities that minimise the focus on punishment: those that try to mirror life in the outside world.
In these facilities, prisoners can wear their own clothes, live in their own rooms with private showers, cook their own meals, access paid work and receive conjugal visits. Some have internet access throughout. These prisons prioritise relationships and decency: they focus on rehabilitating prisoners through therapeutic interventions, employment and education. They are a far cry from being centres of punishment.
Some cities have already started applying this logic to other public institutions designed to tackle crime, veering away from a punishment and prison-based approach. Glasgow, for example, was branded the European murder capital by the World Health Organisation in Over the past decade, knife crime has plummeted. The shift is not due to an increase in punishment but rather, a major change in the role of the Scottish police force. Over the past decade, they have introduced a public health approach , working collaboratively with health, education and social services.
Before arresting and prosecuting violent perpetrators, they ask what caused the act of violence, how they can reduce the associated risks, and what best practice approaches would prevent future offences.
This approach is tailored, more effective and cheaper, providing city residents with both financial and social benefits. An extension of this approach could see a gradual replacement of the entire traditional police service with an emergency response team, with specialised response units for mental health, neighbourhood disputes, domestic violence, drug crime, and serious violence.
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Order Prospectus Book an Event. How do we assess the effectiveness of prisons? Reform Reform is arguably one of the most important reasons why prisons are vital. Real life examples of the prison being effective and ineffective Education One woman I interviewed explained that none of the education options in the prison were suitable. Relationships Many women stated that they could speak to their loved ones regularly on the phone, which allowed them stay connected.
Racism The final example I want to give comes from several women that highlighted the systemic racism they felt was occurring in the prison. Criminological arguments for prisons One argument for prison is that it is an effective deterrent. Criminological arguments against prisons The first argument would be that prisons do not work.
The adult reoffending rate for the October to December cohort was These are: Human rights, as prison is a deprivation of the basic right to liberty. Imprisonment disproportionately affects individuals and families living in poverty. From the potential loss of income from an individual going to prison, lawyer costs, costs to visit and communicate with that individual, the lack of employment opportunities when released, the marginalisation and so on.
The short-term and small preventative effect of prison means those dollars could be better spent on other violence prevention or public safety strategies.
Second, the high costs of prison combined with concerns about the negative collateral consequences for prisoners, their families, and communities have prompted renewed efforts in states around the country to reduce imprisonment. Yet despite the fact that over half of prison inmates were convicted of a violent crime , most criminal justice reforms exclude those with violent pasts.
The results from this study mean that many people convicted of crimes like robbery and assault could be sentenced to probation rather than prison with little impact on public safety. David J. Already a subscriber? Sign in. Thanks for reading Scientific American. Create your free account or Sign in to continue. See Subscription Options. Discover World-Changing Science. Although some of the people we jail are dangerous, many are not.
Many have mental illnesses and addictions. Some are teenagers who have made bad decisions. Also, decisions about who we put behind bars are prone to biases and disparities. For example, in Canada, even though incarceration rates have fallen, the proportion of prisoners who are Indigenous is growing — 60 per cent of imprisoned teenage girls are Indigenous.
How do law makers decide who is dangerous and truly needs to be locked up? Judges, police, and probation officers make these decisions all the time. They can use one of two approaches — they can either rely on their own intuitions or hunches, or they can use decision-making aids called risk assessment instruments. Historically, professionals had to rely on their hunches about who would be violent.
Prior to the s, research was scarce and there were no guidelines to help professionals. Without guidance, it can be difficult to predict who will be violent — even for experts. Early studies suggested that experts who use their intuitions to decide who will be violent were accurate less than half the time. They would be better off flipping a coin.
They conducted hundreds of studies on factors that predicted violence — for example, substance use and antisocial beliefs. They used these factors to create tools that told professionals what risk factors to consider and how to identify them.
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