Punishment and Penal Policy Lecture 19 PDF

Preview

Summary

Download Punishment and Penal Policy Lecture 19 PDF

Description

Punishment and Penal Policy Lecture 19: Punishment Over Time

OUTLINE: -

Defining and justifying punishment Evolution of punishment Non-custodial penalties Imprisonment Conclusion

DEFINING PUNISHMENT -

-

-

Formally, punishment is the punitive response to the commission of an existing offence in criminal law. Two basic principles formally govern punishment: that there can be no crime without law and that there can be no punishment without law … pain (broadly conceived as unpleasant consequences) is not simply a common characteristic or coincidental side effect but an essential element of punishment.’ – Zedner, 2004. ‘Punishing people certainly needs a justification, since it is always something that is harmful, painful or unpleasant to the recipient … Deliberately inflicting pain on people is at least prima facie immoral, and needs some special justification.’ – Cavadino, Dignan and Mair (2013). o When we’re defining punishment, we have to try and justify the use of that delivery of pain, and how we justify it is the creation of penal policy through laws Punishment can involve deprivation of some or all of these: o Liberty o Rights  Vote  Communication o Finance o Employment opportunities  Some people are convicted of certain offences and so won’t be allowed to undertake certain employment opportunities afterwards o Civil disabilities  Driving  Directorships of companies  Freedom of movement through electronic monitoring etc.

EVOLVING PUNISHMENT -

‘We quickly grow used to the way things are’ – David Garland, 2001. o We just grow to accept the way punishment is these days – just as people in the previous generation accepted punishment forms at that time.

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

o It can be argued that punishment has become more progressive – pain is inflicted more on the mind than the body. However, we have created institutions around punishment that afford people certain rights, and prisoners can still challenge their human rights in the courts. Civil death o Somebody who committed a crime could be removed from civil society and no longer be under the protection of the king/lord/etc. – they are no longer guaranteed the protections of the rest of civil society o Historically in Roman times etc. the idea of this would be taking away certain rights you would associate with protection under the realm of a particular lord/prince/king of the time. Corporal punishment o Inflicting pain on the body, e.g. whipping or branding somebody. Stocks/Pillory o Having rotten fruit thrown at them etc. - humiliation Branding o Somebody could be branded like animals are these days, to show the rest of the world and society that they had committed a crime. Capital punishment o Has been abolished in this jurisdiction and we would now consider this a barbaric form of punishment Banishment o Banished from a particular area for committing a particular crime Workhouse Transportation Moves from corporal to carceral o Partly because society became more civilised and the argument that the civilisation of society infringed on our sensitivities Society becomes more ‘civilised’ More sophisticated methods of punishment o Is it more civilised or just more sophisticated? o Is being locked in a prison cell in solitary confinement for 23 hours a day humane with no access to the outside world, no communication, no social interaction, etc.? Arguably this is equally as inhumane as corporal punishment, simply a different way of delivering pain – emotionally rather than physically. More ‘humane’ ways of delivering pain Different methods of punishments at different times Responding to deviance: penal philosophies o Different philosophies respond differently to deviance and use it in its wider sense rather than just criminalisation – once something is labelled ‘deviant’ it is easier to treat in a particular way Politicisation of penal policy o Different political parties deliver penal policies to try to gain support from certain people o They will move towards a punitive agenda to try and gain popular support Methods of punishment Level of imprisonment

-

-

-

-

-

Severity of imprisonment ‘Alternative’ sanctions o Community sanctions and measures o Different methods of punishment within penal policy Rehabilitative opportunities o What opportunities are there for an individual to participate in programs and activities which encourage them to transform their lives in prison and become a rehabilitated citizen? When we look at how programs have been developed, are there attempts to try to move away from the prison as a benchmark and use other alternatives? Or are we using a more punitive approach over time? TIMELINE: o 1779: Penitentiary Act o 1817: Millbank Prison opens – biggest prison in Europe o Solitude – hard labour – meagre diet o 1835: Prisons Act – Appointment of prison inspectors  it was realised that we have a new institution, now we have to make sure it is up to humane standards o 1842: Pentonville Prison – a ‘model’ prison  in London, still open today  was considered something that was progressive o 1857: Transportation to Australia ends  prior to the development of the institution of the prison as we know it today, people were held in jails for a period of time before they were transported away to Australia  the idea of prison as we understand it is a relatively new concept (200 years ish)  following this there was a need for more prisons since convicts were no longer being sent abroad o 1868: Last public hanging  it was abolished for a number of reasons – society was becoming more civilised  people did not want to see it any more  punishment has since become privatised to a certain extent – we cannot see the punishment ourselves, it is outside of the public sphere – is this because we have become more civilised? o 1902: First Borstal for young offenders established o 1907: Probation of Offenders Act o 1922: Alexander Patterson becomes prison commissioner o ‘Men come to prison as punishment, not for punishment’ Jeremy Bentham: Panopticon prison o ‘The all-seeing eye’ o The idea that a prison officer/warden could see into every cell, the potential was they could see into every cell in the prison so they could observe – mass observation as a form of surveillance o Very few prisons were built on this but some were. TIMELINE: o 1936: First Open Prison established o 1948: Criminal Justice Act

1965: Murder (Abolition of Death Penalty) Act 1991: Criminal Justice Act 1991: Woolf Report Security – control – justice Incentives and Earned privileges 1998: Human Rights Act  incorporated ECHR into British law  a number of prisoners began using the HRA to test the boundaries of their rights  denying prisoners the right to vote was undermining their human rights. o 2003: Criminal Justice Act o 2012: Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act o 2014: Offender Rehabilitation Act o 2017: Courts and Prisons Bill Have we created more sophisticated methods of punishment which still deliver methods of pain in a carceral way as opposed to corporal? We have moved from punishing the body to punishing the mind and the soul – this is about discipline as well as punishment How does society those who are labelled as both criminal and deviant? Why do we prioritise certain types of activity and give a particular sentence? When we’re looking at how it has evolved we must look at where we are today and how we got here, and what that says about the social and political culture and context of society at various times. o o o o o o

-

NON-CUSTODIAL PENALTIES -

-

-

Supervisory penalties o Community order (Criminal Justice Act 2003) o Do not have the same impact as deprivation of liberty Non-supervisory penalties o Suspended sentence o Fines o Discharge o Other penalties Non-custodial penalties are used also for those at the lower level in terms of a sentence

CUSTODIAL SENTENCES -

Determinate sentences Extended Determinate Sentences (EDS) Mandatory life sentence Discretionary life sentence Whole life tariff

PRISON POPULATION IN ENGLAND AND WALES -

-

-

-

Volumes entering prison o More individuals entering prison having received an immediate custodial sentence o The recall population grew as more offenders could be more easily recalled and spend longer on licence thereby increasing the potential for recall o The breach population grew steadily until 2008 after which it stabilised Length of stay o Overall average custodial sentence length has increased o Proportion of offenders whose sentences were 4 years+ (including indeterminate sentences), grew to 54% of the sentenced prison population in 2012, compared to 45% in 1993 o Recalled offenders staying longer (until introduction of fixed term recalls in 2008) o Parole rate decreased from 2006/7 Sentencing and enforcement outcomes became more stringent, as seen by: o Custody rates increasing for 9/10 offence groups and for more serious offences in particular o Custody becoming a more likely prospect for those failing to comply with licence conditions Mix of offence groups coming before the courts has become more serious, with larger volumes of violence and drug offences and to a lesser extent sexual offences...