NCJ Number
115407
Journal
Justice Report Volume: 5 Issue: 4 Dated: (Fall 1988) Pages: 1-2,4-5,15
Date Published
1988
Length
5 pages
Annotation
This interview with Dr. Ken Pease, a leading British criminologist, focuses on England's use of alternative sentencing compared to imprisonment along with some of the effects of each.
Abstract
Topics related to alternative sentencing encompass community service orders, probation, fines, and electronic monitoring. British attitudes toward the effectiveness of offender rehabilitation are also considered, as is the public's attitude toward the crime problem in England. In responding to a question about the most significant changes in England's justice system, Dr. Pease notes that the most significant change is political, as the Thatcher government has been characterized by strong law-and-order rhetoric, accompanied by more severe sentencing and the increased use of imprisonment. Other topics considered are research studies on long-term inmates, research uses in policymaking, corrections privatization, parole, and the disproportionate representation of Afro-Caribbean groups in British prisons. Dr. Pease's summation of Britain's use of alternatives to imprisonment is that while the 1970's saw new legislation enhancing alternative sentencing, this initiative has stalled in the 1980's. Alternatives to custody are still officially supported, but the debate surrounds the use of prisons. A leading British criminologist has stated, for example, that 'These days building prisons is a measure of penal reform.'