Given the Rate of Recidivism in Former Prisoners, Is It Possible to Justify an Over-Rising Prison Population - Coursework Example

Given the Rate of Recidivism in Former Prisoners, Is It Possible to Justify an Over-Rising Prison Population? Introduction There is considerable consensus that the penal system in England and Wales has been in a state of ever-deepening crisis since the 1960s. Neither the penal system nor the various governments of the day have begun to genuinely address the structural problems that give rise to the conditions such as overcrowding, brutality, riots, strikes, and so forth. For any improvement in the condition of the system, extensive changes in several areas would be called for. Carrabine et al (2004) state that severe problems in prisons are based on moral and philosophical matters as much as practical and material ones. The penal crisis impacts the ability of the state to maintain order and also challenges moral sensibilities on what the purpose of imprisonment ought to be, as opposed to the purpose of incarceration in reality. Discussion Concerns of the past continue to shape contemporary penal systems, and an outline of the history is essential to understand the problems of the present. History of Imprisonment: Before the eighteenth century, imprisonment was only one element in systems of punishment. Throughout pre-industrial Europe the range of penal measures included from severe corporal or capital punishments to minor corrections, states Spierenburg (1998). The historian Ralph Pugh (1968) observed that in medieval England imprisonment came to serve three main uses; custodial; coercive and punitive: as punishment in its own rights. According to Burke (2005), punishment frequently involved torture, and hanging was the standard form of execution and was the typical punishment for offences ranging from murder to minor theft. During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries emerged secular institutions which recommended rehabilitation and treatment instead of punishing offenders. Contemporary Crisis: The Increasing Prison Population: Fundamentally, the penal crisis is the result of too many offenders and too few prison places; a situation that has given rise to overcrowding, under-staffing, decrepit conditions and poor security. A prison sentence continues to be the harshest penalty available to the courts of England and Wales (Carrabine et al, 2004). Since the 1950s, the growth in the prison population has consistently risen. This is in marked contrast to the inter-war era, when prisons were routinely half full. For instance, in 1928 there were only just over 11,000 prisoners in a system that could offer 20,000 cells (Stern, 1993). Prison overcrowding is predominantly a post-war phenomenon. Currently, around 110,000 offenders are each year committed to the 137 institutions that make up the prison estate, which provides employment for over 43,000 staff. This is in stark contrast to the situation sixty years ago: in 1946 there were about forty prisons, approximately 15,000 prisoners, and around 2,000 staff, states Morgan (2002). The population of public sector prisons in England and Wales at the end of March 2006 was 69,220 including all prisoners (Prison Service, 2006). The reasons for this striking increase are complex, and it is observed from international comparisons that England and Wales consistently use imprisonment to a greater extent than practically every other country in Western Europe (Carrabine et al, 2004). Severely restricted and oppressive regimes are imposed, since there are neither the space, facilities nor resources to provide increasing numbers of prisoners with a range of training, work and educational opportunities. Such abject conditions have been condemned by the Committee for the Prevention of Torture (1991), who concluded that the overcrowding, insanitary facilities and impoverished regimes found at three Victorian local prisons: Brixton, Wandsworth and Leeds amounted to inhuman and degrading treatment. Recidivism: Rational Choice Theory (RCT) did not support the conception of offenders as abnormal and in need of treatment, but viewed the offender as a thinking individual who was behaving logically and with regard to consequences. Criminological interest in RCT has waned because as a model of human motivation and action it is reductionist and unconvincing. On the other hand, Cullen et al (2002: 282) report that punitive interventions are ineffective, “whereas rehabilitative programmes that are not based on rational choice theory have the greatest promise”. They observe that programmes which increase offenders’ human capital and are benefit-oriented: for example, education, occupational skills, etc. are effective because they are channels for prosocial learning, build social bonds, reduce exposure to strains caused by blocked opportunities and so on. Bottoms (2003) and Tibbetts and Gibson (2002) also support the view that RCT would be more useful if integrated with models which investigate individual tendencies linked with crime. Desistance to Recidivism: Agency and subjective factors work in interaction with the social circumstances that ex-offenders face and impact their decision making and choice. Laub and Sampson (2001) urge further research into this issue, since it is essential to find a way to measure individual motivation, free will, and ultimately the decision to initiate and embrace the process of change. Burnett and Maruna (2004) state that The Dynamics of Recidivism is a prospective longitudinal study integrating quantitative and qualitative research methods for identifying motivations for change. It takes into account the various factors in the desistance process. The research was commissioned by the Home Office and carried out at the Oxford Centre for Criminological Research. The qualitative study relied on repeat interviews of the sample. Fifty-eight per cent of the prisoners discharged from prisons in England and Wales were reconvicted of a standard list offence within two years of release (Home Office 2001). Wilson (2006) who supports penal abolition and is of the view that “prisons are unsafe places that constantly fail to uphold the duty of care that the Prison Service has to all prisoners. It is medieval”. Her Majesty’s Prison Service: Focus on Reducing Recidivism The Prison Service is part of the wider Home Office as an Executive Agency since 1993, and receives funding from a range of different sources. Since June 2004, the Service has also been a major part of the National Offender Management Service (NOMS). NOMS will introduce more consistent offender management and focus the effort to reduce reoffending by combining efforts of prisons with similar efforts being made in the community (Prison Service, 2006). The Prison Service is now developing as a provider organisation and has to ensure that it delivers the best possible services to meet the requirements of all its commissioners given the available resources: The Learning and Skills Council (LSC), Regional Offender Managers (ROMs), Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) and the Youth Justice Board (YJB),(Prison Service, 2006). The work of the Prison Service is a vital part of the Government’s overall Delivery Plan for Reducing Re-offending. That delivery plan also spans the work of the Probation Service and Youth Justice Board, and other departments related to education, employment and accommodation. The aim is to maximise the opportunities of the controlled environment in prison to address what are often long-term and deep-seated problems: with drugs, lack of basic skills, attitudinal and behavioural issues - and to plan in a concerted way for prisoners’ resettlement in the community. Despite significant operational pressures during 2005-2006 overall outcomes against the Reducing Reoffending Public Service Agreement targets (Education, Offending Behaviour, Drug Treatment Programmes, Accommodation and Employment/Training/Education) for last year were impressive. With the exception of the Sex Offender Treatment Programme (SOTP) target, all Reducing Re-offending targets have been exceeded. The level of delivery of drug treatment programmes, general Offending Behaviour Programmes (OBP) and basic skills qualification has been outstanding (Prison Services, 2006). The National Probation Service: Probation, or the practice of releasing offenders from court on condition that they behave themselves in future, has been central to the history of community sentences. The national Probation Service plays a key role in the criminal justice process at the sentencing stage. It assists magistrates and judges in their sentencing decisions through the provision of pre-sentence reports and bail information reports (Carrabine, 2004). Theories of Crime and Punishment According to Maguire et al (2007), the discipline of crime and punishment employs various contemporary sociological theories such as Durkheimian and Mertonian (1976) theories of anomie and structural strain and Tannenbaum’s (1938) “labelling theory”. The important contribution made in the anomie-and-opportunity-structures framework, highlights structural location and differential access to opportunities as important institutional parameters. Merton categorizes his own theory of anomie as one focused on deviant behavior, while he views social disorganization theories as examining “the defective arrangement or breakdown of systems of statuses and roles”. Merton’s strain theory supports the fact that structural strain is one way to explain why deviance occurs in the context of anomie. Socio-economic conditions of the prisoner have to be taken into account. The Mertonian paradigm may continue to hold great promise in current theory and research examining deviant behaviour. Tannenbaum (1938) states that in order to understand a career criminal, a criminologist must look at their formative years. According to the theory of dramatization of evil or labeling theory, school behavioral problems lead to truancy, which leads to delinquent activities and gang activities. Societal factors cause crime, by the process of labelling juveniles for minor crimes, which slowly escalate to a life of crime. Can Prison Rehabilitate? Pathfinder projects in community service have been funded under the crime reduction programme in the United Kingdom to determine whether community service can be effective in reducing recidivism (Rex and Gelsthorpe, 2002). The pathfinder projects have been implemented in ten probation areas across England, and incorporate the following elements: encouraging socially responsible attitudes and behaviour, developing and providing awards for employable skills, and using community service to tackle the problems contributing to offending. Offending behaviour programme run by probation staff for offenders who are most likely to benefit from rehabilitative intervention, is an accredited programme. The policy aim is to secure accreditation for community service also, so that it makes an equal contribution to getting thousands of offenders through accredited programmes. Further research on how the prisoners’ undertaking community work can have a constructive impact on them, is essential. (Rex and Gelsthorpe, 2002). Interventions Towards Rehabilitation: Killias et al (2000) conducted a study to assess the comparative effects of community service and prison sentences of up to 14 days, through a controlled experiment in Switzerland to which 123 convicts had been randomly assigned. The results show no difference with respect to later employment history and social and private life circumstances. However, re-arrest by the police was more frequent by those randomly assigned to prison than among those selected for community service. A study conducted by Loza and Loza-Fanous (1999), targeting anger for the treatment of violent offenders and rapists observed that these programmes did not have much effect on reducing recidivism. Thornton et al (2004) studied the the relationship between self-esteem and recidivism. Self esteem was first assessed prior to treatment using the Self-Esteem Scale. Sexual recidivism was explored in two samples of adult male sex offenders, 53 of whom were beginning treatment in the community and 172 of whom were beginning treatment in prison. Sexual reconviction rates were obtained for both samples. Lower levels of self-esteem were associated with higher sexual recidivism rates; both samples showed similar trends. Self-esteem was concluded to be a predictor for recidivism, and as a target for treatment. CARAT (Counselling, Assessment, Referral, Advice and Throughcare) schemes have been operational in prisons throughout England and Wales for five and a half years, designed to increase the support available to drug-using prisoners both during custody and on release. Harmon and Paylor (2005) employed semistructured interviews to ascertain the beliefs and experiences of drug users and those working with them on either side of the prison gate. Reasoning and Rehabilitation is a cognitive-behavioual training programme for measuring reconviction based on attitudinal change (Wilkinson, 2005). This programme did not prove to have specific beneficial outcomes. Over the past decade, as a direct result of meta-analytic studies of treatment effectiveness, there has been a shift in the management of offenders, from a punitive approach to a treatment/rehabilitative approach, taking into account the cognitive behavioural Friendship et al (2003) described treatment efficacy for a sample of 647 sexual offenders who had undertaken treatment in United Kingdom prisons, and for a retrospectively selected comparison group of 1,910 sexual offenders. The outcomes under observation in this study were sexual, sexual and/or violent, and general reconviction. Treatment impact was also examined in relation to offenders’ risk of reconviction. The treatment group had slightly lower 2-year sexual reconviction rates than the comparison group, but these differences were not statistically significant. Significant differences were found between the treatment and comparison group for sexual and/or violent reconviction. Further analysis suggested that treatment produced a reduction in the probability of sexual and/or violent reconviction when other relevant variables were controlled. General reconviction rates were consistently but not very significantly lower in the treatment group (Friendship et al, 2003). Harrison (2007) considers current sentencing options for high-risk, highly deviant sexual predators in England and Wales. In terms of public protection considerations, the focus is on whether chemical castration should be an option and evalutates the effectiveness of such treatment. Chemical castration is not as invasive or barbaric as surgical castration. The effects of chemical castration are also reversible. The drug treatment must be combined with either psychotherapy or other forms of counselling. Paedophiles: Groth et al (1982) found that dangerous sex offenders usually commit their first sexual assault during adolescence; they persist in this criminal behavior and are convicted several times. In the study in which an anonymous questionnaire was administered to a sample of 83 convicted rapists and 54 convicted child molesters, the offenders admitted to having committed two to five times as many sex crimes, for which they were not apprehended. However, since the offence has low visibility, recidivism as judged by rearrests, is not a dependable measure of rehabilitation of the sexual offender. Difficulties that the use of negative coping strategies combined with insecure attachment could cause in the development of a therapeutic relationship, and psychological approaches for engaging paedophiles in treatment were studied. Kear-Colwell and Sawle (2001) investigated the use of coping styles in 25 pedophiles and how that use might differ in 22 non-offending victims and a control group of 23 persons from the general population. The results indicate significant differences. The pedophiles, although employing positive coping strategies with the same frequency as the other two groups, also employ significantly more negative coping strategies than the other two groups; namely, escape-avoidance, distancing, and confrontive coping (Kear-Colwell and Sawle, 2001). Serial Killers: Soothill et al (2004) state that the bulk of the ‘mega-cases’ and serial murders quickly come under focus because they are shocking, disturbing and hardest for a society to reconcile itself with. They stand out from other cases, perhaps in the quantity of victims or betrayal of duty and trust. Serial killers are psychopathic criminals who plan and execute the crimes cleverly, and are difficult to catch. When incarcerated, serial killers and paedophiles are among the hard-core convicts. HMP Grendon: A Therapeutic Community Prison: HMP Grendon, a medium security prison, was opened as the first prison based therapeutic community for offenders. Over 200 adult male prisoners are accommodated, all of them volunteers from other prisons. In clinical or diagnostic terms Grendon’s population has been described as some of the most difficult in the prison system, personality disordered or psychopathic, and as being characterized by high levels of comorbidity. Many of its members have suffered physical or sexual abuse during childhood, have histories of substance abuse, self harm and suicide attempts and have been involved in persistent institutional rule breaking. The prisoners tend to be serving significantly longer sentences, and have committed sexual and violent crimes rather than the more common property offences (Genders, 2003). Wilson and McCabe (2002) state that Grendon is divided into five wings, each of which operates as a therapeutic community, and accommodates 40 prisoners. These communities are based on four key principles: responsibility, empowerment, support and confrontation. These principles are brought to life by seven core and six supplementary procedures at work in the prison. Small therapy groups are the backbone of the prison’s regime. Feedbacks inform as many community members as possible about what has taken place in the small groups, highlighting traumatic or sensitive issues. Community meetings include staff, and are used for resolving problems, etc. Supplementary procedures include wing socials and open days when families and other outsiders can be invited by the prisoners. Cullen (1994) and Taylor (2000) demonstrated that time in therapy was significantly related to rates of reconviction, with 18 months being the threshold for the greatest improvement. Despite the fact that the prevalence of psychopathy in HMP Grendon is high compared to other prison populations, there are strong indications that it is still able to make a significant impact on their rates of reconviction. Recognition of one’s problem, motivation to change, understanding, insight and testing or putting into practice new ways of coping are the five stages of the therapeutic career model (Wilson and McCabe, 2002). It has been demonstrated at Grendon that there are real human beings at the heart of the therapeutic enterprise, and even if they have been damaged and disturbed and often caused a lot of pain, they are capable of changing. Conclusion This paper has highlighted the problems caused by expanding prison populations and overcrowding which have reached crisis proportions. These have made rehabilitation and correctional strategies of the prisoners difficult to implement. The history of imprisonment, various theories of crime and punishment, offender profiling and research studies for providing therapy to the prisoners have been outlined. The functions of Prison Service in reducing recidivism, and promoting rehabilitation are presented. Hard-core convicts like serial killers and paedophiles, and the role of HMP Grendon: a therapeutic community prison in helping to transform prisoners to pursue a crime-free life, are discussed. It can be stated that the rate of recidivism may be one of the main reasons for the over-rising prison population. The criminal justice system should continue to work on improving rehabilitation. There is immense scope for further research, especially in the areas of successful cognitive therapy for offenders, and the reduction of recidivism by methods from multidisciplinary fields. ------------------------------------------------ References Burke, R. H. (2005). An Introduction to Criminological Theory. 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Retrieved August 18, 2007 from http://society.guardian.co.uk/crimeandpunishment/story/0,,1709611,00.html Wilson, D., McCabe, S. (2002). “How HMP Grendon ‘works’ in the words of those undergoing Therapy”. The Howard Journal, 41(3): 279-291. . Wilkinson, J. (2005). “Effectiveness of the reasoning and rehabilitation programme”. The Howard Journal, 44(1): 70-85. Read More