Its duty is:
• To look after prisoners with humanity and help them lead law-abiding and useful lives in custody and after release.
• To protect the public
• To hold prisoners securely
• To reduce the risk of prisoners re-offending
• To provide safe and well-ordered establishments in which prisoners are humanely, decently and lawfully treated
Prison
Summary
Population statistics
Rehabilitation
Correspondence
Prisons 'to remain at bursting'
See also
Summary
A prison, penitentiary, or correctional facility is a place in which individuals are physically confined or interned and usually deprived of a range of personal freedoms. Prisons are conventionally institutions, which form part of the criminal justice system of a country, such that imprisonment or incarceration is a legal penalty that may be imposed by the state for the commission of a crime. In popular parlance of many countries, the term gaol (jail) is considered synonymous with prison, although legally these are often distinct institutions: typically jails are intended to hold persons awaiting trials or serving sentences of less than one year, whereas prisons host prisoners serving longer sentences.
A criminal suspect who has been charged with or is likely to be charged with a criminal offense may be held on remand in prison if he or she is denied, refused or unable to meet conditions of bail, or is unable to post bail. This may also occur where the court determines that the suspect is at risk of absconding before the trial, or is otherwise a risk to society. A criminal defendant may also be held in prison while awaiting trial or a trial verdict. If found guilty, a defendant will be convicted and may receive a custodial sentence requiring imprisonment.
Prisons may also be used as a tool of political repression to detain political prisoners, prisoners of conscience, and "enemies of the state", particularly by authoritarian regimes. In times of war or conflict, prisoners of war may also be detained in prisons. A prison system is the organizational arrangement of the provision and operation of prisons, and depending on their nature, may invoke a corrections system. Although people have been imprisoned throughout history, they have also regularly been able to perform prison escapes.
For most of history, imprisoning has not been a punishment in itself, but rather a way to lock up criminals until corporal or capital punishment. There were prisons used for detention in Jerusalem in Old Testament times. Dungeons were used to hold prisoners; those who were not killed or left to die there often became galley slaves or faced penal transportations. In other cases debtors were often thrown into debtor's prisons, until they paid their jailers enough money in exchange for a limited degree of freedom. Only in the 19th century did prisons as we know them today become commonplace. The first "modern" prisons of the early 19th Century were sometimes known by the term "penitentiary" (a term still used by some prisons in the USA today): as the name suggests, the goal of these facilities was that of penance by the prisoners, through a regimen of strict disciplines, silent reflections, and maybe forced labor on treadwheels and the like. This "Auburn system" of prisoner management was often reinforced by elaborate prison architectures, such as the separate system and the panopticon. It was not until the late 19th Century did rehabilitation through education and skilled labor become the standard goal of prisons.
Population statistics
As of 2006, it is estimated that at least 9.25 million people are currently imprisoned worldwide. It is believed that this number is likely to be much higher, in view of general under-reporting and a lack of data from various countries, especially authoritarian regimes. In absolute terms, the United States currently has the largest inmate population in the world, with more than 2½ million or more than one in a hundred adults in prison and jails, even though violent crime and property crime have been declining since the 1990s according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics. Although the United States represents less than 5% of the world's population, over 25% of the people incarcerated around the world are housed in the American prison system. Pulitzer Prize winning author Joseph T. Hallinan wrote in his book Going Up the River: Travels in a Prison Nation, "so common is the prison experience that the federal government predicts one in eleven men will be incarcerated in his lifetime, one in four if he is black." In 2002, both Russia and China also had prison populations in excess of 1 million. By October 2006, the Russian prison population declined to 869,814 which translated into 611 prisoners per 100,000 population.
As a percentage of total population, the United States also has the largest imprisoned population, with 738 people per 100,000 serving time, awaiting trial or otherwise detained.
In March 2007, the United Kingdom had 80,000 inmates (up from 73,000 in 2003 and 44,000 in 1985) in its facilities, one of the highest rates among the western members of the European Union (EU) (a record formerly held by Portugal). The highest imprisonment rates among the larger EU members include that of Poland, which in August 2007 had about 90,000 inmates, i.e. 234 prisoners per 100,000 inhabitants, while the highest rates are in the Baltic states Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania with estimated rates of 240, 292 and 333 respectively in 2006.
The high proportion of prisoners in some developed countries is from various causes, but the attitude towards drug-taking plays a considerable part. In undeveloped countries, rates of incarceration are often lower, though this is not a rule. In general, such societies have less goods to steal and a more community based social system, with less judicial law-enforcement. Also their economies may not support the high cost of incarceration.
Rehabilitation
Meta-analysis of previous studies shows that prison sentences do not reduce future offenses, when compared to non-residential sanctions. This meta-analysis of one hundred separate studies found that post-release offenses were around 7% higher after imprisonment compared with non-residential sanctions, at statistically significant levels. Another meta-analysis of 101 separate tests of the impact of prison on crime found a 3% increase in offending after imprisonment. Longer periods of time in prison make outcomes worse, not better; offending increases by around 3% as prison sentences increase in length.
Effective rehabilitation programs reduce the likelihood of re-offense and recidivism. Effective programs are characterised by three things: first, they provide more hours for people with known offense risk factors (the Risk Principle); secondly, they address problems and needs that have a proven causal link to offending (the Needs Principle); and thirdly, they use cognitive-behavioural approaches (the Responsivity Principle). Providing rehabilitation to people at lower risk of reoffending results in a 3% reduction in reoffending, while providing rehabilitation to people with a high risk of reoffending is three times as effective, resulting in a 10% reduction in subsequent offending.Risk factors for reoffending are: age at first offense, number of prior offenses, level of family and personal problems in childhood and other historical factors, along with level of current needs related to offending. Those individuals who had many personal and family problems in childhood (particularly 19 or more), started offending before puberty, and have committed multiple priors are more likely to reoffend in future, according to longitudinal studies internationally.
In support of the Needs Principle:
• Programs that specifically target criminogenic needs (causal needs and problems), see a 19% reduction in reoffending.
In support of the Responsivity Principle:
• There is a 23% reduction in reoffending after participating in programs that use cognitive-behavioural methods to bring about changes in behaviour, thinking, and relationships.
When all three of these principles are effectively applied, the impact on offending is a 26-32% reduction.This is in comparison to a 3-7% increase in offending that is found with imprisonment.
Residential approaches—whether in prison or some other live-in option—tend to be less effective than non-residential approaches. These researchers found that effective programs delivered in the community were followed by a 35% reduction in reoffending, whereas effective programs delivered in residential settings (such as prisons and halfway houses) were followed by a 17% reduction in reoffending. One very likely reason for this is that for teens and adults, mixing with antisocial peers increases the risk of offending. In prison or residences inmates spend a great deal of time with other people immersed in criminal pursuits and beliefs, whereas in community-based programs there is more opportunity to mix with people involved in constructive, law-abiding activities. Antisocial peers in prisons and residences can form a very powerful pressure group, subtly and not so subtly influencing the behavior of other inmates.
Correspondence
Research indicates that inmates who maintain contact with family and friends in the outside world are less likely to offend and usually have an easier reintegration period back into society. Many institutions encourage friends and families to send letters, especially when they are unable to visit regularly. However, guidelines exist as to what constitutes acceptable mail, and these policies are strictly enforced.
Mail sent to inmates in violation of prison policies can cost inmates "gain time" and even lead to punishment. Most Department of Corrections websites provide detailed information regarding mail policies. These rules can even vary within a single prison depending on which part of the prison an inmate is housed. For example, death row and maximum security inmates are usually under stricter mail guidelines for security reasons.
There have been several notable challenges to prison corresponding services. The Missouri Department of Corrections (DOC) stated that effective June 1, 2007, inmates would be prohibited from using pen pal websites citing concerns of fraud. Service providers such as WriteAPrisoner.com, together with the ACLU, plan to challenge the ban in Federal Court. Similar bans on an inmate's rights or a website's right to post such information has been ruled unconstitutional in other courts, citing First Amendment freedoms. Since most DOCs already post inmate information on their websites, critics claim this is a moot point. Inmates' ability to mail letters to other inmates has been limited by the courts. Inmate correspondence with members of society is typically encouraged because of the positive impact it can have on inmates, albeit under the guidelines of each institution and availability of letter writers.
Prisons will be at bursting point for the next two years, Jack Straw, the Justice Secretary, has admitted. His disclosure will prompt fears that emergency measures, such as the use of police cells to house prisoners and early release schemes, are here to stay. The prison population reached a record 82,000 in February and is being managed on a short-term basis by prisons and the police.
Mr Straw said that there was unlikely to be an improvement until the supply of spare cells in prisons outstrips demand - which the Government says will be 2010.In a speech to the Royal Society for the Encouragement of the Arts, Mr Straw said: "Prisons will continue to operate at or near capacity until our building programme puts us in a position whereby supply outstrips demand. "We have committed to providing a further 16,000 net places, which will bring total capacity to 96,000 by 2014."
A Government review of prisons by Lord Carter of Coles said in December that new super-prisons and other jails were unlikely to be ready "before 2010 at the earliest".Last night, Juliet Lyon, the director of the Prison Reform Trust, said: "Unless this Government is prepared to get to grips at long last with the underlying causes of crime, it remains condemned to wasting billions of public money on futile attempts to build its way out of trouble."
Nick Herbert, the shadow justice secretary, said: "With a rising prison population, the Government's building programme will do no more than keep prisons at their current, overcrowded levels."
Mr Straw also said prison governors should have a "more visible presence" in the community, giving talks on their projects to combat reoffending.
See also
Inspection report on Saughton Prison
Hundreds of lawyers 'bugged on prison visits'
No room at the Inn