NCJ Number
177077
Date Published
1998
Length
180 pages
Annotation
In examining British sentencing policy, this book traces the developments that have led to prison overcrowding, before suggesting the direction for a sustainable solution to the expensive and detrimental overuse of prisons.
Abstract
The first chapter presents the current views among mainstream informed opinion in England about the purposes of imprisonment and its effectiveness in achieving its measurable purposes. The second chapter summarizes the main developments in the last two decades that have led to the current large-scale use of imprisonment. This is followed by a chapter that provides an overview of what is involved in the effective and constructive management of a prison. It notes, however, that high standards of prison management are difficult to maintain, such that prisons typically deteriorate into institutions that further reinforce criminal and delinquent behavior. The authors also include a comparison of the United States and European experience in sentencing, along with a detailed account of the different attempts to control sentencing in the British Criminal Justice Acts of 1982 and 1991 and the Crime (Sentences) Act of 1997. The authors further describe how financial constraints inevitably tend to negate the programs that are most effective in preventing recidivism. The current overcrowding in British prisons is attributed to the escalation of punitive political rhetoric during the 1990's. Noting that imprisonment is by far the most costly type of intervention, the authors recommend that it be used only for genuinely dangerous offenders, while expanding the use of and investment in community-based alternatives to imprisonment. They also advocate taking money saved from the curtailment of prison-building and investing it in crime prevention and the targeting of youth most at risk for delinquency. Chapter notes and a subject index