Custodial Sentencing

Custodial Sentencing Meaning

Custodial sentencing occurs when a convicted felon is committed to a prison or other institution, such as a mental facility or young offender’s institute, to deter, incapacitate, or rehabilitate offenders, where the time is set out by the court. Custodial sentence length varies depending on the crime committed.

Types of Custodial Sentencing

Custodial sentencing is when a person is sent to prison to serve their punishment. There are different types of custodial sentences, as a result, which vary depending on the severity of the crime committed.

• Life sentences.
• Suspended sentences.
• Determinate sentences.

They differ in length and when the person goes to prison.

Purposes of Custodial Sentencing

Custodial sentencing has multiple purposes. Specifically, its purposes are incapacitation, retribution, deterrence, rehabilitation, and denunciation.

Incapacitation

Since prison removes the offender from society, they cannot re-offend, and thus prisons protect the public. The need for incapacitation depends on the severity and nature of the crime.

Retribution

By making the offender experience prison, an unpleasant affair, custodial sentencing acts as revenge on behalf of society and the victims, affording them a sense of justice. The punishment should therefore be proportionate to the magnitude of the crime.

Many people consider prison the most desirable option.

Deterrence

The unpleasant experience of prison is meant to deter people from committing crimes. There are two types of deterrence: general deterrence, where prison acts as a crime deterrent to society. In contrast, individual/specific deterrence is when a negative experience in prison deters an individual.

Rehabilitation

Many commentators state that prison should serve to deter, punish, or incapacitate and prevent further crime through rehabilitation, allowing prisoners to adjust better and take back their place in society once their prison sentence is served through treatment and education.

Denunciation

These are the four main objectives of custodial sentencing, but there is also the aspect of denunciation. Here, custodial sentencing is a means to show the public that the offender’s actions were wrong and condemned by society to deter crime.

Psychological Effects of Custodial Sentencing

There are many psychological effects associated with custodial sentencing, especially in cases where criminals are in solitary confinement or other similar conditions.

Stress and Depression

Due to harsh prison conditions, including separation from family and friends and feelings of guilt, people in prison often suffer from stress and depression.

Institutionalisation

When prisoners are sentenced to long prison terms, they become so accustomed to the routines and norms of prison life that they find it difficult to adapt to life on the outside; they are ‘institutionalised’ and have lost their autonomy. Zimbardo is a good example of conformity to roles. In his prison study, people quickly adapted to their assigned roles and lost their autonomy.

Prisonisation

Similarly, the prison socialises the prisoners to behave according to the ‘inmate code’, meaning they behave in ways that are considered acceptable or even rewarded within the prison walls.

Stigma

Unfortunately, after criminal sentencing, many offenders face still face the stigma of having once been sentenced to prison time. Finding work and establishing social circles becomes difficult, significantly affecting mental health overall and resulting in recidivism.

Fig. 2 - Custodial sentencing can have psychological effects on prisoners.

Recidivism

Recidivism, simply put, means repeat offending. In the UK, 25.2% of prisoners re-offend. This statistic, along with the recidivism rate in the US, is one of the highest in the world, but what might that be due to? To understand why the recidivism rate in the UK and US is so high, we can look at countries with low recidivism rates.

Self-Efficacy and Commitment to Change

Suppose offenders have some level of self-efficacy and are committed to changing their behaviour while having a strong social support network. In that case, recidivism rates should decrease, and these behaviours should be encouraged as a result.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Custodial Sentences

Given the impact of custodial sentencing, it is important to understand how well it achieves what it sets out to do.

Evidence Supporting the Psychological Effects of Prison

According to Bartol (1995), prison can be brutal, humiliating, and devastating, leading to profound psychological effects. Evidence of this is the increase in suicides among prison inmates, whose rate is about 15 times higher than that of the general population.

• Recently, a study by the Prison Reform Trust (2012) showed that 25% of female prisoners and 15% of male prisoners reported psychosis, suggesting that prison can cause psychological disorders.

Opportunities for training and treatment

Many prisoners can participate in education, training, and treatment programmes while incarcerated to rehabilitate themselves and lead crime-free lives upon release. Some prisons offer rehabilitation services, such as university courses, skills development, and anger management classes. However, these services are unavailable in every prison, explaining recidivism rates.

Weaknesses

Some weaknesses to consider are prison as a way of learning to participate in crimes and individual differences in prisoners.

Prison as a Crime School

Apart from productive habits that would promote rehabilitation, prisoners can learn to re-offend. Younger prisoners can be ‘educated’ in criminal behaviour by older, more experienced criminals to leave prison and not only become delinquent but also commit a more skilled crime.

Individual Differences

Although time in prison can be difficult for many prisoners, the intensity can vary depending on personal characteristics or the facility they have been in. Someone in prison focused on rehabilitation, such as in Norway, may not experience as severe a psychological impact as someone in the United Kingdom. People may also have a predisposition to mental illness or have pre-existing problems that make them more vulnerable to mental disorders in prison.

Alternatives to Custodial Sentencing: Non-Custodial Sentence

Davies and Raymond (2000) found officials exaggerate the impact of prisons to make it appear they are ‘tough on crime’. Their review found prisons do little to rehabilitate prisoners or deter others

Davies and Raymond (2000) suggest alternatives to custodial sentencing, such as restorative justice (where victims and offenders meet with the goal of reconciliation) and community service, examples of non-custodial

Behaviour Modification in Custody

How can we change criminal behaviour? Is it possible to reform criminals in custody? Behaviour modification uses the behaviourist principles of operant conditioning to modify an offender’s behaviour. Positive and negative reinforcement are used to replace undesirable behaviour.

This approach assumes all behaviour is learned, and we can replace undesirable criminal behaviour with positive behaviour through operant conditioning. The goal is to encourage obedience until dysfunctional behaviours disappear.

Examples can be seen in a token economy system.

Token Economy

The token economy is an example of operant conditioning, where rewards reinforce behaviours. In this case, the reward is a secondary reinforcer, and prisoners earn tokens through good behaviours to be exchanged for rewards.

Punishment is an example of negative reinforcement through operant conditioning. The desired behaviours must be clearly defined and only rewarded with tokens whose value is specified for the token economy to work.

Fig. 3 - Token economies encourage good behaviours.

Hobbs and Holt (1976)

This study aimed to investigate whether token economy programmes are an effective method of behaviour change in a group of 125 young offenders.

Hobbs and Holt introduced a small-scale token economy to four groups of young offenders housed in prison for 14 months. Another group served as a control group without a token economy.

They focused on social behaviour (interacting with peers), following rules, and completing tasks for which they were rewarded in the token economy.

Evaluation of Behaviour Modification in Custody

How can we evaluate behaviour modification in custody? Let’s assess some strengths and weaknesses.

Strengths

The strengths of behaviour modification in custody are easy implementation, individually-tailored programs, and research support.

Easy to Implement

Behaviour modification programmes that use the token economy are easy to implement because they do not require specialists. However, this requires staff’s consistent implementation.

• Bassett and Blanchard (1977) found that the benefits of the token economy broke down when staff implemented them inconsistently due to conditions such as high staff turnover. Thus, the staff must apply the token economy consistently if it is a successful behaviour modification method.

Individually Tailored Programmes are Most Effective

Field et al. (2004) found that whilst most young people responded to behaviour modification through the token economy, some did not. Those who did not respond were enrolled in a special programme in which rewards were tailored to them and were more immediate and frequent, resulting in more positive outcomes. This finding suggests the token economy is most effective when tailored to the individual and produces faster results.

Research Support

The results of Allyon et al. mirror the findings of Hobbs and Holt (1976) that behaviour modification works for juvenile offenders in an adult prison, adding validity to the approach.

Cohen and Filipczak (1971) found that using positive and rewarding reinforcement could positively influence and change the behaviour of 41 incarcerated adolescents.

Weaknesses

Some weaknesses are present, however, including that the outcomes are not long-lasting. There are ethical issues, and token economies promote passive learning.

Not Long-Lasting

Once offenders are out of prison and their positive behaviour is no longer reinforced, they quickly unlearn the positive habits. Thus, the token economy has little rehabilitative value, as it does not change an individual’s behaviour forever.

Ethical Issues

Some view the token economy as dehumanising and manipulative. In an institutional setting, participation in a token economy is not voluntary. Even if the offender can choose whether or not to comply with the programme, it is ethically questionable to deny them things.

Passive Token Learning

Behaviour modification promotes a passive, superficial form of behaviour change that does not encourage the offender to address the causes of their behaviour. Other techniques, such as anger management, are better suited to promote self-reflection and give the offender a sense of responsibility for his rehabilitation. In addition, offenders are likely to play along with the token economy to obtain rewards but are unlikely to change their overall behaviour.