tag:theconversation.com,2011:/fr/topics/prisons-policy-15746/articlesPrisons policy – The Conversation2021-11-09T15:30:19Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1704342021-11-09T15:30:19Z2021-11-09T15:30:19ZMore than a million prisoners have been released during COVID-19, but it’s not enough<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/429863/original/file-20211103-15-1dxgg6k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=388%2C0%2C4604%2C3794&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Female prsioners wave goodbye to their fellow inmates following their release from Chikurubi prison on the outskirts of Harare in Zimbabwe in April 2021. Zimbabwe released about 3,000 prisoners due to COVID-19. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi) </span></span></figcaption></figure><p>COVID-19 has had a devastating impact on prisoners. By March 2021, <a href="https://news.un.org/en/story/2021/03/1086802.">an estimated 527,000</a> prisoners globally had contracted the virus, a number that has continued to grow as the pandemic goes on.</p>
<p>This, unfortunately, is not surprising. </p>
<p>There are <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/05/27/covid-19-prisoner-releases-too-few-too-slow">longstanding issues</a> <a href="https://ccla.org/our-work/criminal-justice/prisons-jails/">within prisons</a> — overcrowding, inadequate medical treatment and a lack of ventilation to name just a few — that make them spaces where viruses can easily spread.</p>
<p>Many prisoners — who often come from the most marginalized groups in societies — also have <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanpub/article/PIIS2468-2667(20)30231-0/fulltext">underlying medical conditions.</a> Finally, prisoners have <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/advocate-call-for-decarceration-more-vaccines-1.5957949">not been prioritized</a> when it comes to accessing personal protective equipment <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/covid-vaccinations-in-jails-1.6066293">or vaccines</a> during the pandemic.</p>
<h2>Releasing prisoners during the pandemic</h2>
<p>Recognizing these issues, the World Health Organization and other United Nations agencies <a href="https://www.who.int/news/item/13-05-2020-unodc-who-unaids-and-ohchr-joint-statement-on-covid-19-in-prisons-and-other-closed-settings">issued a statement</a> in May 2020 calling on governments around the world to release prisoners who were “at particular risk of COVID-19” and those who “could be released without compromising public safety.”</p>
<p>Since the start of the pandemic, <a href="https://www.dlapiper.com/en/canada/news/2021/03/swift-targeted-action-to-reduce-prison-population-during-covid-19/">over a million prisoners have reportedly</a> been released worldwide. <a href="https://cdn.penalreform.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Global-prison-trends-2021.pdf">The largest-scale releases</a>, according to <a href="https://www.penalreform.org/">Penal Reform International</a>, have been reported in Turkey (more than 114,000 prisoners), Iran (104,000), the Philippines (82,000), India (68,000), Iraq (62,000) and Ethiopia (40,000).</p>
<p>Some European countries, including France and Norway, reportedly released more than <a href="http://www.antoniocasella.eu/nume/Aebi_Tiago_10nov20.pdf">15 per cent of their prison populations</a>. Jordan released 30 per cent, Penal Reform International statistics show. Releases also occurred in the United States, but prison populations <a href="https://www.prisonpolicy.org/virus/virusresponse.html#prisonreleases">did not decrease significantly</a>, despite the fact that COVID-19 cases were at times <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanpub/article/PIIS2468-2667(20)30231-0/fulltext">5.5 times higher in prisons</a> than the general population.</p>
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<img alt="Protesters hold up a banner that says No Execution by COVID-19 outside a prison." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/429864/original/file-20211103-23-wlm51t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/429864/original/file-20211103-23-wlm51t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/429864/original/file-20211103-23-wlm51t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/429864/original/file-20211103-23-wlm51t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/429864/original/file-20211103-23-wlm51t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/429864/original/file-20211103-23-wlm51t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/429864/original/file-20211103-23-wlm51t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">In this July 2020 photo, people hold up a banner outside San Quentin State Prison in San Quentin, Calif., urging the release of prisoners due to the COVID-19 pandemic.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Eric Risberg)</span></span>
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<p>In Canada, prisoners were freed across the country during the first wave, mainly from provincial jails, including the release of <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ontario-jails-coronavirus-1.5527677">2,300 prisoners in Ontario</a> by April 2020.</p>
<p>This is unprecedented. While governments throughout history
have granted prisoners early release en masse, including <a href="https://theconversation.com/coronavirus-a-history-of-pandemics-in-prison-136776">during pandemics</a> or in pursuit of various political agendas, it has never happened on such a large scale.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-politics-have-played-a-big-role-in-the-release-of-prisoners-139371">How politics have played a big role in the release of prisoners</a>
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<h2>Problems with pandemic prisoner releases</h2>
<p>These releases have had a positive impact on prisoners who have been freed and their families. However, new research, including ongoing work by lawyer and global governance graduate student <a href="https://www.balsillieschool.ca/ashley-mungai/">Ashley Mungai</a> and me, reveals significant issues.</p>
<p>Many governments promised releases, but were slow to follow through. <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/05/27/covid-19-prisoner-releases-too-few-too-slow">The United Kingdom announced</a> that up to 4,000 prisoners would be considered for release in April 2020, but only 57 were released by May of that year.</p>
<p>Often, there is little publicly available data on releases, making it difficult to hold governments accountable.</p>
<p>For many prisoners, being released did not lead to freedom. Globally, an estimated <a href="https://www.dlapiper.com/en/canada/news/2021/03/swift-targeted-action-to-reduce-prison-population-during-covid-19/">42 per cent of prisoners</a> were granted conditional releases. Some were released temporarily, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-iran-idUSKBN20W1E5">including in Iran</a>. </p>
<p>In the U.S., some of the approximately <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/us/thousands-low-level-us-inmates-released-pandemic-could-be-headed-back-prison-2021-04-11/">23,000 prisoners released to home confinement</a> — which is itself a restriction on one’s freedom — may be sent back to prison after receiving vaccinations. </p>
<p>In Thailand, prisoners were <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-03-04/prisoners-put-to-work-in-thai-factories-desperate-for-labor">sent to work in factories</a>.</p>
<p>In Myanmar, <a href="https://www.voanews.com/a/covid-19-pandemic_southeast-asia-speeds-prison-releases-stave-coronavirus/6187910.html">releases occurred</a> as part of an annual New Year’s amnesty. Historically, many countries have had annual amnesties, such as during <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6282274.stm">Bastille Day</a> in France. But prisoners shouldn’t have to wait for holidays to be freed amid an infectious disease pandemic. </p>
<p>Many categories of prisoners were also excluded from pandemic releases. <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/04/17/twenty-four-rights-groups-call-turkey-release-all-those-arbitrarily-detained-now">In Turkey</a>, for example, political prisoners and those awaiting trial were not considered.</p>
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<img alt="Men wearing masks and plastic gloves sit in a bus. One gives the thumb's up sign." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/429865/original/file-20211103-15-1nx0pvl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/429865/original/file-20211103-15-1nx0pvl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=385&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/429865/original/file-20211103-15-1nx0pvl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=385&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/429865/original/file-20211103-15-1nx0pvl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=385&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/429865/original/file-20211103-15-1nx0pvl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=483&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/429865/original/file-20211103-15-1nx0pvl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=483&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/429865/original/file-20211103-15-1nx0pvl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=483&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Released prisoners sit in a bus in Sincan outside Ankara, Turkey, in April 2020 after Turkish prisons released tens of thousands of inmates due to COVID-19.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo)</span></span>
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<h2>Incarceration rates rising</h2>
<p>The release of prisoners also appears to be a short-lived response to COVID-19. Since the first wave, when <a href="https://www.penalreform.org/global-prison-trends-2021/releases-in-response-to-covid-19/">an estimated 475,000</a> prisoners were released worldwide, far fewer have been freed. </p>
<p>The incarcerated population has actually increased in many countries. While the prison population initially went down by <a href="https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/200812/dq200812a-eng.htm?CMP=mstatcan">15 per cent</a> in Canada — including a decrease of 41 per cent in Nova Scotia — <a href="https://ccla.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/2021-03-19-Prison-COVID-report-FINAL-REVISED.pdf">it was going up by September 2020</a>, despite the fact that <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/csc-prisoners-covid19-second-wave-1.5923707">COVID-19 has continued to</a> <a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2021/09/30/covid-19-outbreak-declared-at-toronto-east-detention-centre-province.html">spread in prisons.</a></p>
<p>Finally, the number of people released from prison is often much lower than the number being arrested. In <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/05/27/covid-19-prisoner-releases-too-few-too-slow">Sri Lanka</a>, for example, only 3,000 prisoners have been granted early release, whereas approximately 40,000 have been arrested for violating pandemic curfews.</p>
<p>One of the common concerns raised about releasing prisoners is that it will undermine public safety. Yet research has shown this <a href="https://www.aclu.org/news/smart-justice/decarceration-and-crime-during-covid-19">hasn’t been the case</a>. Instead, it’s clear that governments <a href="https://www.djno.ca/post/cops-out-of-care-work-panel-ft-el-jones-souheil-benslimane-cyree-jarelle-and-megan-linton">can release prisoners</a> safely and effectively when there is the political will to do so.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/if-canada-is-serious-about-confronting-systemic-racism-we-must-abolish-prisons-141408">If Canada is serious about confronting systemic racism, we must abolish prisons</a>
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<p>This discussion about public safety also overlooks the fact that prisons do <a href="https://www.saltwire.com/prince-edward-island/opinion/national-perspectives/martha-paynter-why-some-canadian-prisoners-should-be-released-during-the-coronavirus-pandemic-426139/">not make communities safer</a>, <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0022146512453928">but rather perpetuate harm</a>. The pandemic has <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/S2468-2667(20)30231-0">made this more obvious than ever</a> and has also put a spotlight on longstanding problems within prisons. </p>
<p>Instead of being a temporary response to COVID-19, early releases should be one of many decarceration measures implemented to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/17/magazine/prison-abolition-ruth-wilson-gilmore.html">build a future without prisons</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/170434/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Katherine Bruce-Lockhart receives funding from the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation and has previously received funding from SSHRC. She volunteers with the following community organizations: Toronto Prisoners' Rights Project and SURJ (Showing Up for Racial Justice) Toronto.</span></em></p>During the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, governments around the world released many prisoners, but this has now slowed or stopped. Here’s why those releases should continue.Katherine Bruce-Lockhart, Assistant Professor, History, University of WaterlooLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1365632020-04-20T11:10:16Z2020-04-20T11:10:16ZCoronavirus: why swathes of prisoners are being released in the world’s most punitive states<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/328649/original/file-20200417-152567-1ohmck9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/barbed-wire-prison-fence-1089146540">Shutterstock/alexfan32</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Prisons and contagious diseases are a deadly combination. Unhygienic and overcrowded, they easily become death traps. The 18th-century penal reformer, politician and philanthropist <a href="https://howardleague.org/john-howard/">John Howard</a> spent much of his life <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/The-State-of-the-Prisons-in-England-and-Wales">travelling to visit jails</a>. He found, in particular in the UK, many disease-ridden prisons. </p>
<p>The dreaded jail fever, <a href="https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/typhus/">typhus</a> (spread by lice, fleas and mites), was rampant and could decimate prison populations in a short space of time. In the end, it was Howard himself. He contracted typhus during a prison visit in present-day Ukraine and died there shortly after, in January 1790. </p>
<p>Fast forward to 2020. Prisons are perhaps becoming hotbeds of the pandemic, as closed environments with little privacy and usually very little chance of social distancing. In March there were reports of prison disturbances in <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/coronavirus-italy-prison-riots-death-toll-modena-foggia-alfonso-bonafede-a9396311.html">Italy</a> from inmates fearing they could be at increased risk of becoming infected. </p>
<p>There were also riots and mass escapes in other countries <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/17/come-back-monday-ok-hundreds-of-prisoners-escape-in-brazil-amid-covid-19-anger">including Brazil</a>, where coronavirus was referred to by Renato Lima, director-president of the Brazilian Public Security Forum, as a “time bomb”. Lima highlighted overcrowding, a lack of a health facilities and the large number of older prisoners as specific risk factors. This was in early March and by then it was becoming clear that prisons globally were going to face a huge infection and contagion risk.</p>
<p>Yet many other prison systems seemed to almost view the situation as business as usual. In the <a href="https://nieuws.nl/algemeen/20200313/geen-bezoek-en-verlof-meer-voor-gevangenen-om-coronavirus/">Netherlands</a>, measures were announced on March 13 which amounted to nothing more than a ban on visitors and on prisoners being granted day release. Other prisons systems undertook things even more gradually. For example, <a href="https://www.hln.be/nieuws/binnenland/eerste-coronabesmetting-vastgesteld-in-belgische-gevangenis%7Ea8b6bcea/?referer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F">in Belgium</a> visits were limited to one visitor per prisoner on March 12, with a complete ban on visitors being imposed the following week. The same lacklustre approach was also seen in the <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/03/czechs-close-borders-march-16-coronavirus-spread-200313115117376.html">Czech Republic</a>, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/mar/26/coronavirus-is-a-ticking-time-bomb-for-the-australian-prison-system">Australia</a> and <a href="https://www.vice.com/en_ca/article/jge4yy/canadas-prisons-are-a-coronavirus-time-bomb-say-guards-and-inmates">Canada</a>. </p>
<p>Such measures were never likely to keep the virus out for long. And once inside, more radical measures were going to be needed to avoid prison sentences becoming death sentences by stealth and exposing those who work in prisons to unacceptable risk. In contrast, something quite remarkable was starting to happen in countries that suffered a peak of the virus relatively early – and that are not exactly known for their luxurious prison conditions or their liberal approach to imprisonment.</p>
<h2>Iran and Turkey</h2>
<p>Iran has <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/countries/middle-east-and-north-africa/iran/report-iran/">horrific</a> prison conditions. It has a huge system with around <a href="https://www.prisonstudies.org/country/iran">240,000 prisoners</a> held in jails designed for about 150,000. Overcrowding is the norm. On March 3 it was announced that Iran was set to temporarily release some <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-51723398">54,000 prisoners</a>, amounting to about 22% of the prison population.</p>
<p>This was a huge step in a country where imprisonment is <a href="https://www.prisonpolicy.org/global/2018.html">heavily used</a>. Subsequently the number of released prisoners was revised up to <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/03/hard-hit-iran-frees-prisoners-coronavirus-outbreak-200317110516495.html">85,000</a>, or 35% of the original total number of prisoners. This came to include British-Iranian charity worker <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-51937629">Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe</a>. She received an ankle bracelet and was ordered to stay in the home of relatives. In all, it appears nearly 100,000 prisoners may have left Iranian prisons early. </p>
<p>A similar situation emerged in Turkey in late March with a proposal to <a href="https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-health-coronavirus-turkey-prisoners/turkey-set-to-release-some-45000-inmates-in-coronavirus-response-idUKKBN21I2DS">free 45,000 prisoners</a> temporarily. The bill became law on April 13. A separate bill is set to pass to free another 45,000 prisoners permanently. Turkey’s prisoner population in 2019 was around <a href="https://www.prisonstudies.org/country/turkey">286,000</a>, many of whom were political prisoners. A reduction of 90,000 would mean a reduction of 31%. This is massive but at the same time it must be noted that political prisoners would not be eligible for release. It highlights the intense political nature of imprisonment in a country where conditions historically are <a href="https://ahvalnews.com/human-rights/torture-ill-treatment-has-become-norm-turkish-prisons">inhumane</a> and overcrowded.</p>
<p>On a smaller, but still significant scale, in Ethiopia <a href="http://africabuzzfeed.com/in-ethiopia-more-than-4000-prisoners-to-be-released-for-fear-of-coronavirus/">4,011 prisoners</a> were pardoned and released on March 13. Some 10,000 have been released from prisons <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-afghanistan-prison/afghanistan-to-release-10000-prisoners-to-slow-spread-of-coronavirus-idUSKBN21D334">in Afghanistan</a>, whereas prisoner releases, albeit on a much smaller scale, occurred across the United States, in states like <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/06/california-prisons-older-inmates-coronavirus">California</a>. <a href="https://www.rappler.com/newsbreak/iq/257267-list-countries-release-prisoners-over-coronavirus-fears">Other countries</a> following this early release plan include India, Indonesia and Morroco.</p>
<h2>UK prisons</h2>
<p>The UK’s approach has been decidedly mixed. The Prison Inspectorate <a href="https://www.justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/hmiprisons/2020/03/covid-19-update/">announced</a> that it was ceasing inspections on March 17 and by the end of the month it was announced that pregnant women prisoners would be up for <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2020/03/31/70-pregnant-women-mothers-released-prison-early-combat-coronavirus/">early release</a>. There is news of prisoners <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-52165919">self-isolating</a> and of increasing the number of prisoners in <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/measures-announced-to-protect-nhs-from-coronavirus-risk-in-prisons">single cells</a>. At the same time, due to inactivity in criminal courts the flow of new prisoners has been reduced. The prison is also slowly going down through “normal” release processes. So, slowly but surely, almost by stealth, the prison rate is reducing in the UK.</p>
<p>Initially, the intention was to have some 4,000 prisoners leave prison early (which is <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/prison-population-figures-2019">approaching</a> one in 20). Yet the reality is more messy than that, with issues over the availability of electronic tags, the need for risk assessments and community supervision arrangements. It was mentioned in the <a href="https://committees.parliament.uk/committee/102/justice-committee/news/145895/impact-of-covid19-coronavirus-on-the-probation-system-examined/">Commons Justice Committee</a> that no more than 18 prisoners had been released under these plans. That is a pitiful number that will do nothing to avert a major health emergency in UK prisons, which has already seen two prison officers die after getting <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/04/two-workers-at-londons-pentonville-prison-die-from-covid-19">COVID-19 symptoms</a>. This process now seems to have been halted and there is a lack of clarity around the whole issue.</p>
<p>The UK’s next move runs counter to global trends: rather than upscaling release, the system is in fact set to increase capacity. It has been reported that perhaps as many as <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2020/04/14/2000-extra-temporary-prison-cells-built-avert-early-release/">2,000 makeshift cells</a> are being created to facilitate social distancing in prisons. In doing so, the UK’s approach is to more doggedly resist mass release than some of the world’s most punitive states.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/136563/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Francis Pakes does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Iran and Turkey have released large numbers of prisoners. Should other countries follow suit?Francis Pakes, Professor of Criminology, University of PortsmouthLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1021342018-09-14T11:42:45Z2018-09-14T11:42:45ZFixing the prison crisis in Birmingham and beyond – it’s about more than process and punishment<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/235208/original/file-20180906-190662-1axqpl5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/prison-jail-cell-529712440?src=l_b7BOErci5rMDVR6ZuSxQ-1-2">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>So far this year, three British prisons have been placed under serious review because of the way they are run. The chief inspector issued the “<a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/urgent-notification">Urgent Notifications</a>” over significant concerns about the treatment and conditions of those detained within local prisons, most recently <a href="https://www.justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/hmiprisons/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2018/08/16-Aug-UN-letter-HMP-Birmingham-Final.pdf">HMP Birmingham</a>. </p>
<p>Rates of <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/safety-in-custody-quarterly-update-to-march-2018">serious violence, self-harm and suicide</a> are the highest ever, particularly among those <a href="http://www.prisonreformtrust.org.uk/Portals/0/Documents/Bromley%20Briefings/Summer%202017%20factfile.pdf">on remand or recall</a> who are held within this type of prison.</p>
<p>Local prisons are the first prisons entered when a person is remanded or sentenced to imprisonment before transferring to a more specialist or longer stay institution. They are inherently difficult to manage because of the highly varied needs of the people who are sent there.</p>
<p>Many of those who enter local prisons are dealing with drug and alcohol misuse, low literacy and homelessness – at the same time as being removed from their family and support networks. Critically, many have the kind of complex mental health and psychological needs that would otherwise be dealt with in a highly specialised mental health hospital. </p>
<p>As many as <a href="http://www.ohrn.nhs.uk/OHRNResearch/EnvPath.pdf">one in five have both substance misuse issues and serious mental health concerns</a>. But prison is not an environment which is focused on mental health. Meanwhile, those serving time in local prisons need to access education, develop work skills and become rehabilitated.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/full/10.1108/JCP-03-2017-0017">My research</a> starkly demonstrates that violence is linked with self harm in prisons, with one in ten of those in local prisons engaging in both behaviours. This leads to highly challenging management scenarios. Added to this is the major destabilising effect of <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/669541/9011-phe-nps-toolkit-update-final.pdf">psychoactive substances like Spice or Mamba</a>. As many as two thirds of prisons have reported a “significant issue” with Spice – its effects are highly unpredictable, and its supply is often associated with organised criminal activity and prisoner debt.</p>
<p>A further destabilising element in prisons is staff inexperience. A recent <a href="https://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-question/Commons/2016-01-27/24639/">early retirement scheme</a> saw over 4,000 experienced staff leaving the prison service. Now, at one local prison, over half of the officers have less than a year in the job. Due to this widespread inexperience, staff will understandably struggle to meet complex challenges. We must remember that for these staff, a “<a href="https://www.justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/hmiprisons/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2018/05/HMP-YOI-Nottingham-Web-2018.pdf">persistent and fundamental lack of safety</a>” has become their everyday working environment. They are working exceptionally hard, but with little space or time to move past the reality of simply reacting to the next incident.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/minister-announces-10-prisons-project-to-develop-new-model-of-excellence">Recent announcements</a> promising £10m of new funding will provide a basis to improve security and accommodation, and reduce the availability of banned substances. But more is required for long term improvement.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14789949.2015.1062997">Our research</a> emphasises that effective change comes from greater coherence in organisational priorities and structure. This requires integrated expectations and policies across the criminal justice system – and <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0140673613625714?via%3Dihub">between the two departments of health and justice</a>.</p>
<p>The prison service also needs to move away from deeply rooted yet ineffective assumptions. For example, punishment may be considered necessary after rule breaking. But on its own, punishment is ineffective in reducing prison violence. And it can increase the risk of self-harm, especially if punishments are applied inconsistently. </p>
<h2>Prison walls</h2>
<p>As set out in the UK government’s <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/565014/cm-9350-prison-safety-and-reform-_web_.pdf">vision for prison governors</a>, these institutions can only achieve their goals through cooperation based on research and experiential evidence. However, this requires a brave shift from a policy led approach to creating a service which is strategic, knowledgeable and nimble. </p>
<p>Ongoing <a href="http://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/2343/1/216927_PubSub642Slade.pdf">support and supervision for staff</a> is also essential. There are few local prison staff who are specifically trained to understand complex harmful behaviours, or who have time to reflect. Prison work must move away from being process led, and instead provide staff with the ability to make use of the information they have, taking a wider view of the situation. We need to see the jigsaw picture before choosing the pieces. </p>
<p>Better funded training and ongoing support – potentially with external supervisors or placements into other professional settings – would go some way to improving practice among inexperienced staff.</p>
<p>Building on “<a href="https://unlockedgrads.org.uk/">Graduates Unlocked</a>” (the prison leadership programme for university graduates), more could be done with those outside of the justice system to share knowledge. For example, academics could work with front line staff in local prisons, providing insight and new ideas.</p>
<p>There is much work to do. But new security initiatives and <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/565014/cm-9350-prison-safety-and-reform-_web_.pdf">reforms of the prison estate</a> provide vital opportunities for learning across the system. A better approach to integration, staff development and knowledge exchange would help local prisons reach beyond process. They would then be free to address the deeper issues of how best to work with the people who live inside these institutions – so that they are better equipped for life outside them.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/102134/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Karen Slade does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Well trained and experienced staff are a crucial part of improvements.Karen Slade, Associate Professor in applied forensic psychology, Nottingham Trent UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/985302018-06-19T10:27:20Z2018-06-19T10:27:20ZJuneteenth: Freedom’s promise is still denied to thousands of blacks unable to make bail<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/223675/original/file-20180618-85849-1akbwxg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Black men occupy a disproportionate share of prison cells in the U.S.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">sakhorn/Shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>June 19 marks Juneteenth, a celebration of the de facto end of slavery in the United States. </p>
<p>For hundreds of thousands of African-Americans stuck in pretrial detention – accused but not convicted of a crime, and unable to leave because of bail – that promise remains unfulfilled. And coming immediately after Father’s Day, it’s also a reminder of the loss associated with the forced separation of families.</p>
<p>On a very personal level, I know how this separation feels. Every Father’s Day since 2011, I’ve been reminded of the unexpected death of my dad at the age of 48. But also on a professional level, as a criminologist who has been <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=CwF5k6YAAAAJ&hl=en">researching mass incarceration</a> for the past decade, I understand the disproportionate impact it’s had on African-Americans, <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0002716208324850">destabilizing black families</a> in the process. </p>
<h2>Blacks behind bars</h2>
<p>Juneteenth is a celebration of African-Americans’ triumph over slavery and access to freedom in the U.S., which occurred in Galveston, Texas, in June of 1865, over two and a half years after President Lincoln’s <a href="https://www.history.com/topics/american-civil-war/emancipation-proclamation">Emancipation Proclamation</a>. </p>
<p>While Juneteenth is a momentous day in U.S. history, it is important to appreciate that the civil rights and liberties promised to African-Americans have yet to be fully realized. As legal scholar Michelle Alexander <a href="https://thenewpress.com/books/new-jim-crow">forcefully explains</a>, this is a consequence of Jim Crow laws and the proliferation of incarceration that began in the 1970s, including the increase of people placed in <a href="https://heinonline.org/HOL/Page?handle=hein.journals/bulr97&div=4&id=&page=&collection=journals">pretrial detention</a> and <a href="https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s12111-001-1013-3.pdf">other criminal justice policies</a>. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/pie2018.html">There are 2.3 million people</a> currently incarcerated in American prisons and jails – including those not convicted of any crime. Black people <a href="https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/pie2018.html">comprise 40 percent of them</a>, even though they represent just 13 percent of the U.S. population. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/223672/original/file-20180618-85858-igkuau.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/223672/original/file-20180618-85858-igkuau.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=784&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/223672/original/file-20180618-85858-igkuau.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=784&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/223672/original/file-20180618-85858-igkuau.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=784&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/223672/original/file-20180618-85858-igkuau.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=985&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/223672/original/file-20180618-85858-igkuau.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=985&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/223672/original/file-20180618-85858-igkuau.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=985&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Protesters march through Harlem in the March for Justice.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Rainmaker Photo/MediaPunch/IPX</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Not yet guilty but not free</h2>
<p>More troubling is the number of incarcerated individuals currently held in jail for crimes of which they have not yet been convicted. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.prisonpolicy.org/">Prison Policy Initiative</a>, a nonpartisan think tank that focuses on mass incarceration, <a href="https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/pie2018.html">has reported</a> that over a half million citizens are languishing in pretrial detention. And like most criminal justice outcomes, the burden of this <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/soc4.12576">disproportionately falls on minorities</a>, especially black <a href="http://www.pretrial.org/release-jail-tied-black-poor/">men</a> and <a href="https://storage.googleapis.com/vera-web-assets/downloads/Publications/overlooked-women-and-jails-report/legacy_downloads/overlooked-women-and-jails-fact-sheet.pdf">women</a>. </p>
<p>In local jails alone, over 300,000 people are awaiting trial for property, drug or public order crimes. And again, these <a href="https://www.brennancenter.org/sites/default/files/publications/Racial%20Disparities%20Report%20062515.pdf">disproportionately black defendants</a> are confined and separated from their families, friends and jobs simply because they lack the means to post cash bail – the only reason they can’t get out. </p>
<h2>Toll on families</h2>
<p>It should be no surprise, then, that <a href="http://www.pewtrusts.org/%7E/media/legacy/uploadedfiles/pcs_assets/2010/collateralcosts1pdf.pdf">1 in 9 black children</a> now has a parent behind bars, compared with the national rate of 1 in 28. </p>
<p>And many of these children are at an increased likelihood of experiencing <a href="http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/131/4/e1188.short">physical and mental health issues</a>, <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1745-9125.2011.00257.x">academic struggles</a> and a range of <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1360-0443.2010.03110.x">other behavioral problems</a>. Children of incarcerated mothers are also at heightened odds of <a href="http://heinonline.org/hol-cgi-bin/get_pdf.cgi?handle=hein.journals/uclalr59&section=42&casa_token=_1TPFIpjGMEAAAAA:t0nAOwVTZjH2WNjPI7gpIbxNoBEZmJN9C0vNJBJxo_YZnvCvxCKGd8i_HDOM2vvoAX-potSUuA">ending up in foster care</a> and <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/12/why-children-with-parents-in-prison-are-especially-burdened/433638/">being exposed to other traumas</a>.</p>
<p>Being the partner of an incarcerated individual is another <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10964-015-0318-9">often stressful experience</a> that also falls disproportionately on black citizens, particularly women.</p>
<h2>Some good news</h2>
<p>The good news is that such injustices are receiving growing attention nationwide. </p>
<p><a href="https://justcity.org/">Just City</a>, a nonprofit organization working to reduce the harms of the criminal justice system, <a href="https://justcity.kindful.com/mcbf/just-city">has campaigned</a> to raise funds and promote awareness of its <a href="https://justcity.org/what-we-do/#memphis-cbf">Memphis Community Bail Fund</a> project for Father’s Day – in part because nearly half a million of the black men behind bars <a href="http://www.pewtrusts.org/%7E/media/legacy/uploadedfiles/pcs_assets/2010/collateralcosts1pdf.pdf">are dads</a>. </p>
<p><a href="https://justcity.org/what-we-do/">The aim of the project</a> is to provide both financial and legal support for defendants lacking resources to independently secure their pretrial release, with <a href="https://justcity.kindful.com/mcbf/just-city">the goal of the campaign</a> being the release of jailed fathers so that they could be with their kids for the holiday.</p>
<p>Bail funds similar to Just City’s have <a href="https://nashvillebailfund.org">proliferated</a> <a href="https://www.detroitjustice.org/blog/2018/3/18/h3bjobbh3-were-launching-a-bail-fund-in-detroit-apply-to-be-a-full-time-bail-disruptor">throughout</a> the U.S.</p>
<p>On one hand, the multiplication of these organizations is encouraging and reason for optimism. On the other, their growth is another reminder that many of the freedoms celebrated on Juneteenth remain unrealized.</p>
<h2>A long road continues</h2>
<p>In cities like Detroit, <a href="http://www.pewtrusts.org/%7E/media/assets/2009/03/02/pspp_1in31_report_final_web_32609.pdf">where 1 in 7 adult males is under some form of correctional control in some communities</a>, it is a monumental task to make sense of the short- and long-term impacts of incarceration for black families. </p>
<p>Children suffer. Parents struggle. Relationships deteriorate. And as a result, so too do so many African-American communities. Lost wages matter to families, but they also matter to communities. The lower tax base that results makes it <a href="https://maketheroadny.org/pix_reports/Justice%20Reinvestment%20Final%20Report.pdf">more difficult</a> for struggling public institutions, like schools, to progress. And with such a large share of individuals removed from some communities due to incarceration, and <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/states-rethink-prisoner-voting-rights-incarceration-rates-rise-n850406">branded as felons</a> upon their release, these communities lose potential voters and the political capital they carry. They are too often disenfranchised and stripped of their full power and potential.</p>
<p>Juneteenth celebrates the freedom of black Americans and the long, hard road they were forced to traverse to gain that freedom. But as criminologists like me have maintained time and again, the U.S. criminal justice system remains biased, albeit implicitly, against them.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/98530/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Matthew Larson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Just as with so many other criminal justice policies, pretrial detention disproportionately affects African-American men and women, destabilizing black families in the process.Matthew Larson, Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice, Wayne State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/716972017-01-23T04:32:59Z2017-01-23T04:32:59ZAfter Bourke St, Victoria should not rush in on bail reform<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/153794/original/image-20170123-11257-pfai4j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Daniel Andrews has announced reforms to Victoria's bail laws following the events in Melbourne's CBD last Friday.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/Angus Livingston</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The <a href="http://www.9news.com.au/National/2017/01/21/11/45/Premier-Daniel-Andrews-joins-mourners-to-lay-floral-tributes-for-Bourke-Street-Mall-victims">horrifying event</a> of last Friday in Melbourne’s CBD was yet another episode where a person used a vehicle as a weapon of destruction. It left five people, including a baby boy, dead. Another 30 people were injured, many seriously.</p>
<p>The alleged perpetrator, <a href="http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/bourke-street-mall-driver-identified-as-james-jimmy-gargasoulas-20170120-gtvs2m.html">Dimitrious Gargasoulas</a>, was revealed to be on bail in relation to another alleged offence six days before the attack, <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-01-21/melbourne-cbd-incident-victoria-police-chief-defends-officers/8200206">despite opposition</a> from Victoria Police prosecutors. A bail justice (an out-of-hours volunteer honorary justice, like a justice of the peace) had granted Gargasoulas bail on January 14.</p>
<p>In response, Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-01-23/bourke-st-rampage-prompts-bail-law-review-in-victoria/8202300">has announced</a> that magistrates, rather than bail justices, will be exclusively deployed to hear bail applications in serious matters. Andrews has also directed the former director of public prosecutions, Paul Coghlan, to review Victoria’s bail system.</p>
<h2>Does the bail justice system work?</h2>
<p>Faced with cries to “do something” when a crisis erupts, governments, understandably, become risk-averse. So, it was quite predictable that the Andrews government’s first target in this case was the <a href="http://www.justice.vic.gov.au/utility/volunteering/bail+justice+position+description">bail justice system</a>. This uniquely Victorian initiative has <a href="http://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/pdfplus/10.1108/JCRPP-08-2015-0035">drawn praise</a> for more than two decades.</p>
<p>While one can sympathise with those who are calling for review and change, we need to exercise caution before overhauling the operation of bail laws on the basis of one, albeit horrendous and tragic, case.</p>
<p>The bail justice system is one of the reasons usually given to explain why Victorians continue to enjoy the lowest remand-in-custody rates in Australia.</p>
<p>There is no evidence that that achievement has compromised safety for Victorians generally. Moreover, police officers <a href="http://www.lawreform.vic.gov.au/sites/default/files/Bail_Summary_web_version.pdf">actually make 90% of bail decisions</a>; magistrates or bail justices are only called in to adjudicate in the event of police denying bail.</p>
<p>There is also no reason to suspect that a magistrate would not have reached the same bail conclusion as the bail justice did in relation to Gargasoulas on January 14.</p>
<h2>Denying bail fills our prisons</h2>
<p>The denial of bail is also a <a href="https://theconversation.com/not-for-punishment-we-need-to-understand-bail-not-review-it-28651">significant factor</a> in the seemingly unstoppable rise in Australia’s prisoner numbers.</p>
<p>There was yet another significant rise in numbers last year. In the September quarter of 2016, the <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/4512.0">average number</a> of full-time prisoners was 38,998. Of these, 32% (12,332) were unsentenced – that is, denied bail. </p>
<p>This takes Australia, for the first time in its modern history, out of the 15-30% range – which includes, for example, the UK, the US, Canada, Russia, Israel, Poland, New Zealand and Germany – and puts it into the 30-50% range found in Brazil, Thailand, Papua New Guinea, France, Kenya and Mexico. </p>
<p>The number of unsentenced prisoners in Australia increased by 22% from 2015 to 2016. This followed a <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/4517.0">21% increase</a> from 2014 to 2015. Over the last five years, unsentenced prisoner numbers in Australia have increased 81%. The trend is financially and socially irresponsible and unsustainable.</p>
<p>Australians need to be a <a href="https://theconversation.com/when-bail-causes-outrage-dont-just-blame-the-courts-46084">little more forgiving</a> regarding the decisions of bail authorities when their decisions turn out to be ill-fated. Thousands of accused persons are granted bail each year over police objections with few adverse consequences. </p>
<p>Australia needs to be very careful not to allow the bail system – whether it is overseen by magistrates or lay justices – to become a political scapegoat at the hands of commentators exercising 20/20 hindsight.</p>
<p>Finally, we must be very careful not to rush to judgement and pretend that by tightening certain justice processes the problem will go away. Simply putting (and keeping) behind bars for months at a time everyone whom someone has deemed to be a risk to their family’s safety, their own safety or public safety is not the answer.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/71697/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rick Sarre receives funding from the Criminology Research Council in relation to research into bail in Australia.</span></em></p>Australia needs to be very careful not to allow the bail system to become a political scapegoat at the hands of commentators exercising 20/20 hindsight.Rick Sarre, Professor of Law, University of South AustraliaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/642712016-08-26T12:33:38Z2016-08-26T12:33:38ZShould we stop sending old men to prison?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/135025/original/image-20160822-18734-szzoso.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The demographics of the British prison population are changing. An increasing number of ageing men are being sentenced to lengthy terms of imprisonment. This raises questions about how they are to be looked after while in custody and, in turn, whether prison is the best place for them at all. </p>
<p>There has been a substantial rise in the number of prisoners aged 60 years and over in England and Wales over the past two decades. An increase in life expectancy has played a part in this, as well as an increase in the longevity of criminal careers. The <a href="http://www.digitalspy.com/showbiz/news/a648413/operation-yewtree-over-1400-people-including-178-from-music-tv-film-or-radio-investigated/">targeted pursuit</a> of historic sexual offenders has also had an enormous impact on the figures too.</p>
<p>But the prison environment is primarily designed for aggressive and able-bodied young men. The many stairs, poorly lit corridors and general pace of the prison regime are unmanageable for many ageing men. So it’s unsurprising that many experience grave difficulties when housed in such antiquated institutions.</p>
<p>These offenders undoubtedly need to be punished for their crimes, but the criminal justice system needs to strike a careful balance between curtailing freedom and protecting a person’s human rights; rights which are at risk from the inhumane and degrading treatment which some ageing prisoners have reported. </p>
<p>With age comes infirmity and general decline. So the greater the number of older prisoners, the more complex and costly health issues there are to deal with. The average ageing prisoner costs three times more a day to keep in prison than their younger counterpart, with an annual cost of about £115,000, compared to <a href="https://www.parliament.uk/documents/commons-committees/Justice/Older-prisoners.pdf">£38,000 for prisoners under 65</a>.</p>
<p>Prison is, supposedly, a punishment reserved for the most dangerous offenders. If we remember that, then the futility of having some ageing men in prison becomes clear. How dangerous can a 90-year-old disabled man be?</p>
<p>Unfortunately, the British justice system is based on “popular punitivism”. It is a system that considers prison to be the only real form of punishment. This philosophy means that the situation these ageing men face has not received the empathy and alarm which it ought to.</p>
<p>Put your ideas about criminals aside for a moment and instead imagine an elderly man, sleeping in a bunk bed from which he frequently falls out; a man suffering from dementia, who cannot remember why he is in prison let alone <a href="https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/sites/default/files/losing-track-of-time-2013.pdf">how to get to the shower</a>. </p>
<p>Picture an elderly man who has multiple health problems that require specialist treatment. He receives no adequate level of care for them because of <a href="http://www.prisonreformtrust.org.uk/PressPolicy/News/vw/1/ItemID/245">budget cuts</a>, staff cuts and the simple fact that he is a prisoner and, as such, is considered by many to be a second class citizen.</p>
<p>Picture a doubly incontinent man who is left lying on soiled bedding for hours before an overworked and pressured prison officer can come and assist (assist in doing a task which is not in the job description of a prison officer). Picture a man who has not showered for eight weeks because he is wheelchair bound and unable to leave his cell because the doors are not wide enough for him to get through.</p>
<p>Imagine the degradation, humiliation and fear these men experience every day and imagine that these punishments are all in addition to a loss of liberty (the one and only official aim of imprisonment). </p>
<h2>Making do</h2>
<p>Despite coming into effect in April 2015, the <a href="http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2014/23/contents/enacted/data.htm">law</a> aimed at setting out the social care that should be provided to the prison population appears to have done very little to ease the suffering of its older members.</p>
<p>My current <a href="http://www.anglia.ac.uk/arts-law-and-social-sciences/department-of-humanities-and-social-sciences/staff/natalie-mann">research</a> suggests their needs are still only being met in an ad hoc way. Too often, the prisons have to rely on the goodwill of staff and other inmates to assist in collecting meals and medication, taking elderly people to showers and generally helping them get around.</p>
<p>The courts should be able to be more flexible when sentencing ageing defendants. It should be possible to find alternatives for people if they begin to struggle to cope in the prison system because of frailty or old age. Other, more appropriate non custodial punishments should be explored, such as age-appropriate community service or electronic tagging.</p>
<p>The problems experienced by many ageing prisoners’ should force us to question our tacit interpretation of perpetrator and victim, good and evil, right and wrong. These men may have done bad, even terrible things, but let’s not punish them by making them victims. Lets find a more appropriate and cost effective way of punishing these individuals, who simply do not fit within the remit of the prison service.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/64271/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Natalie Mann has previously received funding from The Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)</span></em></p>Inmates are getting older, which make us think about whether custody is the best option for this group.Natalie Mann, Senior Lecturer in Criminology, Anglia Ruskin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/515632016-01-11T19:20:45Z2016-01-11T19:20:45ZHow can we mitigate the crime that is female over-imprisonment?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/104620/original/image-20151207-22703-cdvpho.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Women who commit the same crime as men should in most cases receive lighter penalties.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">from www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>When it comes to committing crimes, humans have two distinct forms. Overwhelmingly, men perform most criminal acts. And, with only a hint of exaggeration, women never commit the most heinous offences. </p>
<p>As such, it is an egregious public policy disfigurement that all Australian jurisdictions have expansive and expensive prisons that are purpose built for imprisoning the portion of the community that nearly none of us fear. Worse still is that female incarceration numbers are at record highs and increasing.</p>
<h2>Numbers don’t lie</h2>
<p>Women constitute <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/4512.0">approximately 8%</a> of all Australian prisoners. However, the total number of women prisoners has grown considerably over the past decade. </p>
<p>In 2005 there were <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/4517.0">1734 women prisoners</a>, which amounted to 6.8% of all prisoners. In June 2015, the total number of prisoners in Australia was 35,949 – of whom 2825 were women. This amounts to 7.6% of the total prison population.</p>
<p>As women are less responsible for criminal law offences, they are inevitably imprisoned less than men. But the level of female under-representation in overall imprisonment rates is not nearly enough. It should be somewhere between 0% and 1% of the total prison population.</p>
<p>Women comprise <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/4513.0">one-fifth</a> of all defendants who appear in Australian criminal courts. When it comes to the more serious forms of crime, female involvement drops considerably. Women comprise slightly less than 13% of defendants in the higher courts.</p>
<p>Women are even less represented in relation to the most serious offences. They commit virtually no sexual offences. Women constitute 15% of all defendants whose most serious crime is homicide or a related offence. However, the number of women charged with such offences is low given that only 955 such offences are reported annually.</p>
<p>When women do kill it is usually different to male killing. Women often kill against a backdrop of victimisation and hopelessness, not because they are angry or revengeful.</p>
<p>The offence types that women commit a reasonable portion of are fraud (35%), theft (34%) and traffic and vehicle regulatory offences (24%).</p>
<p>The most <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/DetailsPage/4517.02014?OpenDocument">recent figures</a> relating to offence types for which people are imprisoned show that 9% of women were in prison for homicide and related offences. The majority of women (more than 60%) were in jail for non-violent and non-sexual offences.</p>
<p>The most common offences for which women are imprisoned are unlawful entry (10%), theft (8%), fraud and deception offences (8%), drug offences (17%) and offences against justice procedures (11%). By contrast, the majority of men are in prison for acts of violence or sexual offences.</p>
<p>There is also a fundamental distinction in the manner in which male and female prisoners are categorised in Australia. One-third of male prisoners are <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Lookup/by%20Subject/4517.0%7E2014%7EMain%20Features%7EKey%20findings%7E1">classified as minimum security</a>; more than 70% of female prisoners have this classification.</p>
<h2>Implications for policy</h2>
<p>The undeniable difference between men and women when it comes to committing crime should be reflected in a fundamentally different approach to the sentencing of women. Not only should women generally receive more lenient penalties than men because they are normally more law-abiding, but women who commit the same crime as men should in most cases receive lighter penalties. This should be so for three reasons:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Women re-offend less frequently than men – and by a considerable margin. </p></li>
<li><p>The impact of imprisonment on women is generally more damaging than on men. Women who are imprisoned for a long time can have their right to procreate effectively negated. For men, the same sanction is typically merely a suspension of this right. Women also suffer more while they are imprisoned. They are more likely to have <a href="http://www.aihw.gov.au/prisoner-health/mental-health/">mental health issues</a> and be <a href="https://www3.aifs.gov.au/acssa/pubs/issue/i13/i13b.html">victims of sexual abuse</a>. </p></li>
<li><p>Women perform a greater portion of the nurturing and benevolent acts in society than men do. Removing them from society often has a devastating impact on their children, relatives and other dependants. This disruption should be minimised.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>It is only an utterly perverse and misguided sense of equality that would suggest that female offenders should be treated the same as males.</p>
<p>The default position is that no woman should be sentenced to imprisonment. There are some incorrigibly bad women in the community who commit acts that seriously damage others. And yes, they require harsh treatment. But this justifies Australia having one female jail – not a dozen.</p>
<p>The number of women who should be subjected to the harshest sentencing option is so rare that it is verging on lunacy to establish and maintain extensive and expensive pitiable institutions in every jurisdiction to deal with them. <a href="https://theconversation.com/electronic-innovation-can-help-fix-an-archaic-crowded-prison-system-39044">Other solutions</a> for serious female offenders should be developed, such as 24/7 CCTV and electronic monitoring, combined with other strict deprivations – like the inability to work or own property.</p>
<p>Effectively eliminating the threat of imprisonment from the female psyche will not encourage them to commit more crime. <a href="https://www.sentencingcouncil.vic.gov.au/sites/default/files/publication-documents/Does%20Imprisonment%20Deter%20A%20Review%20of%20the%20Evidence.pdf">Empirical data</a> establishes that there is <a href="https://theconversation.com/crime-and-punishment-and-rehabilitation-a-smarter-approach-41960">no link between severe penalties and low crime</a>. The only policing and sentencing approach that <a href="http://dro.deakin.edu.au/view/DU:30040193?print_friendly=true">reduces crime</a> is increasing the perception in people’s minds that if they commit a crime they will be caught.</p>
<p>Implementing changes to the sentencing system that will benefit women does not necessarily prejudice men. The opposite is the case. The reforms will prompt a reassessment of all sentencing principles so far as non-violent and non-sexual offenders are concerned. </p>
<p>This will logically result in less severe sanctions for men who commit crimes of this nature. It is the only tenable approach to dealing with Australia’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/prisons-policy-is-turning-australia-into-the-second-nation-of-captives-38842">prison over-crowding crisis</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/51563/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mirko Bagaric does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The undeniable difference between men and women when it comes to committing crime should be reflected in a fundamentally different approach to the sentencing of women.Mirko Bagaric, Dean and Head of School of Law, Deakin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/441652015-09-09T10:17:24Z2015-09-09T10:17:24ZNew models to predict recidivism could provide better way to deter repeat crime<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/93900/original/image-20150904-14617-87x5dw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Is there a better way to predict whether someone once released will return behind bars?</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Prison bars via www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In the US, a minority of individuals commit the majority of crimes. In fact, about two-thirds of released prisoners <a href="http://www.bjs.gov/index.cfm?ty=pbdetail&iid=4986">are arrested</a> again within three years of getting out of jail.</p>
<p>This begs the question: is there a way to predict which prisoners are more likely to become repeat offenders? </p>
<p>Recidivism prediction is important because it has significant applications in terms of allocating social services, policy-making, sentencing, probation and bail. From judges to social workers, all parties involved need to be able to work together and understand the risk posed by various individuals.</p>
<p>And if we can more accurately determine how likely someone who has just been released from prison is to commit another crime within a few years, we could potentially reduce crime rates and better allocate the money we spend on social services. </p>
<h2>A long history of trying to predict recidivism</h2>
<p>The criminal justice system has been using forecasting to make decisions since the 1920s, when parole boards <a href="http://scholarlycommons.law.northwestern.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2101&context=jclc">used</a> a mixture of factors such as age, race, prior offense history and school grades to determine whether an inmate should be paroled or not. </p>
<p>Much has changed since then, both in terms of the sheer quantity and quality of data at our fingertips and the ability to process all of that information quickly using machine learning methods that can produce accurate predictive models for recidivism. Machine learning methods are a form of artificial intelligence. They are computer algorithms that have the ability to learn over time, or in this case make better predictions as they acquire more data. </p>
<p>While these methods have a long history, there has been controversy as to whether they need to be very complicated with many inputs to be accurate or whether simple yet accurate “rules of thumb” exist for many prediction problems. Judges and prosecutors are less inclined to use a complicated (and incomprehensible) black box predictive model in which they can’t understand how the criminal history variables are used to predict recidivism. </p>
<p>In <a href="http://arxiv.org/pdf/1503.07810v2.pdf">current work</a> with colleagues Jiaming Zeng and Berk Ustun, we found that simple, transparent yet equally accurate predictive models often do exist for predicting recidivism. Such models would be more usable and defensible for all decision-making parties, and are created by machine-learning methods in a completely automated way using data. </p>
<p>As a data scientist, my aim is to build predictive models that assist people in making decisions, particularly in areas that are critical for the the smooth operation of society such as energy grid reliability, health care and computational criminology. Using statistical models such as those intended to predict recidivism, we can drastically improve the functioning of how we live and work. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/93913/original/image-20150904-14632-1w97zvw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/93913/original/image-20150904-14632-1w97zvw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=421&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/93913/original/image-20150904-14632-1w97zvw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=421&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/93913/original/image-20150904-14632-1w97zvw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=421&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/93913/original/image-20150904-14632-1w97zvw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=529&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/93913/original/image-20150904-14632-1w97zvw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=529&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/93913/original/image-20150904-14632-1w97zvw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=529&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Judges want more than just a black box they can’t understand.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Black box via www.shutterstock.com</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Predicting a recidivist</h2>
<p>Today most judges are using rudimentary, ad hoc models for predicting whether someone before them is likely to be a recidivist. </p>
<p>Essentially, they use a score sheet during sentencing with a standard set of risk assessment tools. It’s a combination of people making the (manual) choice of which risk factors to include and an ad hoc optimization scheme for determining what score someone receives for each factor. </p>
<p>As a society, we need to do more to optimize these processes. We don’t want to make poor decisions – decisions that literally are often a matter of life and death. We absolutely need to optimize how our social services are allocated to have the most impact in decreasing our recidivism rates, which, as you know from the beginning of this article, are currently abysmal. </p>
<p>To create better scoring systems, we used the largest publicly available data set on recidivism. Our data set was compiled as part of a national study, and contained criminal histories from over 33,700 individuals in 15 states released in the same year. These individuals constituted over two-thirds of the prisoners released nationwide that year. </p>
<p>We found several advantages of our models on these data. First, they are accurate simply because they are based on large amounts of data. Second, they are simple, understandable, accurate and customizable. The models are also small enough that they each fit on an index card. That is, these are not complicated formulas. A judge could calculate the prediction of recidivism for an individual in his or her head, without a computer. They need only to add up the “points” for each risk factor (eg, three points for one risk factor, five points for another factor, etc). </p>
<p>The models are so simple-looking that they appear as if a person made them up, but that’s not how they were developed. In fact, behind the scene is a large data set, a sophisticated machine learning method and a lot of computational time on a powerful computer. </p>
<p>Because they are generated automatically, we were able to build a separate predictive model for each type of crime (violence, property, drugs, etc). Furthermore, the machine learning tools can be applied to data from different local areas, with differing populations; each jurisdiction could create its own models, which could potentially make the recidivism predictions much more accurate. Since the current models in use cannot be customized to the jurisdiction, they are “one size fits all” models, which might not be as relevant for some jurisdictions as much as others. By drilling down to the local level, the tools can become increasingly accurate. </p>
<h2>How it works</h2>
<p>The machine learning models work by assigning points for various factors. If the points add up to above a certain threshold determined by the prisoner’s history, then the individual is likely to commit another crime within three years. </p>
<p>Our basic model used to predict arrest for any offense is a good example. If the individual was younger than 24 at the time of release, two points are assigned (younger people are more likely to commit violent crime). If there are at least five prior arrests, two points are assigned. If the person was over 40 when he or she was first confined, two points are deducted. </p>
<p>When all the points are tallied, if they add up to one or more, then the individual is likely to be arrested within three years. This is a very simple model, but we have found that even when we use state-of-the-art machine learning methods that use all of the features in the database, these methods do not perform any better than our simple model. </p>
<p>The variables and points are determined entirely by the machine learning algorithm applied to the data and not by hand. Some of these models are going to seem obvious to judges or prosecutors, but that’s good – it means these models will bring everyone onto the same page. Hopefully, it will make it more difficult to make a bad decision.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/93911/original/image-20150904-14625-jbxn74.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/93911/original/image-20150904-14625-jbxn74.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/93911/original/image-20150904-14625-jbxn74.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/93911/original/image-20150904-14625-jbxn74.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/93911/original/image-20150904-14625-jbxn74.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/93911/original/image-20150904-14625-jbxn74.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/93911/original/image-20150904-14625-jbxn74.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Predicting recidivism doesn’t need to be like the movie Minority Report, in which people are convicted of crimes before they’ve been committed.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/ww4f/6294541478/in/photolist-aAeaTd-6RRQ4p-2yWpQJ-cnh1qJ-wuU8Hr-2HJ1cy-9P9uk1-9P75B4-9P9Po3-9P7eXx-9P9RCs-9P7jwc-9P9DoA-9Pa1wA-9P9Fo7-2yT5D6-9P73zt-9P9z53-9P9Mz9-8JYGL-9P7gWx-6DmjJt-suEfbW-5Nz8j9-uDENuN-sdeRx9-sbvcFX-rxPQLb-8t59nR-4EU54R-sgEbCw-8BdEgr-pbMx7E-aM1CRD-5uk1U2-bz8Xu6-b463gP-2ukPff-xqVX53-Kocb-51szrt-8Rs2wq-8RoVgc-wuGGbC-6iq4pn-3kx9R-xpqKe7-6Dqc4U-bz8Xk4-a4Az61">Jon Gosier/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Some caveats</h2>
<p>That said, there are definitely weaknesses in our approach. In particular, our data set could be improved with more detail about the prisoners. However, since the data we used are publicly available and our software will also be public, people will be able to repeat and build on our work, and to use our code on their own data.</p>
<p>It’s also important to note that these models can be helpful or dangerous, depending on how you use them. This isn’t like Minority Report, where you are convicting someone of a specific crime they haven’t committed yet. Rather, these models simply quantify the fact that people who committed more crimes in the past are more likely to run afoul of the law in the future.</p>
<p>However, if the models aren’t used for the right purpose, then there is the risk of inadvertently using them for discriminatory punishment. For instance, you wouldn’t want to use race as a factor for a model that determines sentencing; we don’t want to punish someone longer because of their race. </p>
<p>My team chose not to include any explicit socio-demographic factors, and we specifically excluded race as a variable. We did test how much more accurate the model would be by including race, but we found that it was not particularly useful. The models were almost equally accurate with and without including race as an explicit factor.</p>
<p>There is no reason for people to design models by hand anymore because automated ones can be simpler, more transparent, easier to use and just as accurate. They can ensure that decisions are more reliable and useful, preserving our resources for the people who need them most.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/44165/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Cynthia Rudin receives funding from the National Science Foundation, MIT Lincoln Laboratory, Philips, Siemens, Wistron, and the US Army. </span></em></p>Two-thirds of released prisoners in the US are arrested again within three years. Here’s how we could change that.Cynthia Rudin, Associate Professor of Statistics, MIT Sloan School of ManagementLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/419602015-06-15T20:19:36Z2015-06-15T20:19:36ZCrime and punishment and rehabilitation: a smarter approach<p><em>This article is part of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/beyond-prison">Beyond Prison</a> series, which examines better ways to reduce re-offending, following the recent <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/state-of-imprisonment">State of Imprisonment</a> series.</em></p>
<hr>
<p>Although criminal justice agencies in Australia have, in recent years, adopted an increasingly <a href="https://theconversation.com/prisons-policy-is-turning-australia-into-the-second-nation-of-captives-38842">“get tough” approach</a>, responses to crime that rely on punishment alone have failed to make our communities <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-evidence-is-in-you-cant-link-imprisonment-to-crime-rates-40074">safer</a>. Instead, they have produced an <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-state-of-imprisonment-in-australia-its-time-to-take-stock-38902">expanding prison system</a>. This has the potential to <a href="http://www.smartjustice.org.au/cb_pages/files/SMART_MorePrisons%20Final%20Revised%202014.pdf">do more harm than good</a> and places considerable strain on government budgets.</p>
<p>Increasing prison sentences <a href="https://www.sentencingcouncil.vic.gov.au/publications/does-imprisonment-deter">does little to deter</a> criminal behaviour. Longer sentences are associated with higher rates of re-offending. When prisoners return to their communities, as the vast majority inevitably do, the problems multiply. </p>
<h2>Exposing the limitations of punishment</h2>
<p>In this context, it becomes important to think carefully about public policy responses that aim to punish and deter offenders. Psychologists have been <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25462507">studying punishment</a> under well-controlled laboratory conditions with both animals and humans for nearly 100 years. Its effectiveness in promoting short-term behavioural change, or even in suppressing negative behaviour, depends on rather specific conditions being in place.</p>
<p>For punishment to work it has to be predictable. Punishment also has to be applied at maximum intensity to work, or else tolerance and temporary effects result. Yet applying very intense levels of punishment for many offences goes against our sense of justice and fairness. </p>
<p>The threat of punishment, no matter how severe, will not deter anyone who believes they can get away with it. It will also not deter those who are too overcome by emotion or <a href="https://theconversation.com/good-mental-health-care-in-prisons-must-begin-and-end-in-the-community-40011">disordered thinking</a> to care about the consequences of their behaviour. </p>
<p>Punishment also has to be immediate. Delayed punishment provides opportunities for other behaviours to be reinforced. In reality, it often takes months – if not years – for someone to be apprehended, appear in court and be sentenced. </p>
<h2>Working towards more effective rehabilitation</h2>
<p>Many of the conditions required for punishment to be effective will not exist in any justice system. It follows that policies and programmes that focus on rehabilitating offenders will have a greater chance of success in preventing crime and improving community safety. </p>
<p>The origins of offender rehabilitation in Australia can be traced back to the early
penal colonies and, in particular, to <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books?id=PTIKAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA3&dq=convict&lr=&as_brr=1&ei=Clz7SqKcE5WelQTp47ncDg&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false">the work</a> of <a href="http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/maconochie-alexander-2417">Alexander Maconochie</a>, a prison governor on Norfolk Island in 1840. Maconochie introduced the idea of
indeterminate rather than fixed sentences, implemented a system of rehabilitation in which good behaviour counted towards prisoners’ early release, and advocated a system of aftercare and community resettlement. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/83775/original/image-20150603-2328-du7abo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/83775/original/image-20150603-2328-du7abo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/83775/original/image-20150603-2328-du7abo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=743&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/83775/original/image-20150603-2328-du7abo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=743&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/83775/original/image-20150603-2328-du7abo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=743&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/83775/original/image-20150603-2328-du7abo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=934&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/83775/original/image-20150603-2328-du7abo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=934&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/83775/original/image-20150603-2328-du7abo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=934&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Much more is known about punishment and rehabilitation than when John Howard first gave evidence to a House of Commons committee in 1774.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Howard_(prison_reformer)#/media/File:John_Howard_by_Mather_Brown.jpg">Wikimedia Commons/John Howard by Mather Brown (1789)</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Maconochie’s ideas built on those of the great social reformers of 18th-century Britain, notably Quakers such as <a href="http://www.howardleague.org/johnhoward/">John Howard</a> and <a href="http://www.howardleague.org/elizabethfry/">Elizabeth Fry</a>. They were among the first to try to change prisons from what they called “institutions of deep despair and cruel punishment” to places that were more humane and had the potential to reform prisoners’ lives. </p>
<p>These days, though, offender rehabilitation is often thought about in terms of psychological treatment. We can chart the rise of current programmes according to the broad traditions of <a href="http://psychcentral.com/lib/psychodynamic-therapy/">psychodynamic psychotherapy</a>, behaviour modification and <a href="http://psychcentral.com/lib/about-behavior-therapy/">behaviour therapy</a> and, more recently, the <a href="http://www.aacbt.org/viewStory/WHAT+IS+CBT%3F">cognitive-behavioural</a> and <a href="http://psychcentral.com/lib/about-cognitive-psychotherapy/">cognitive approaches</a> that characterise contemporary practice. </p>
<p>The earliest therapeutic work in the psychoanalytic tradition saw delinquent behaviour as the product of a failure in psychological development. It was thought this could be addressed through gaining insight into the causes of offending. A wide range of group and milieu therapies were developed for use with offenders, including <a href="http://psychcentral.com/lib/about-group-therapy/">group counselling</a> and psychodrama. </p>
<p>In the 1980s, more behavioural methods – such as <a href="http://www.minddisorders.com/Py-Z/Token-economy-system.html">token economies</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contingency_management">contingency management</a> programmes and “time out” – replaced psychotherapy.</p>
<p>There are good grounds to develop standardised incentive models in Australia’s prisons. Community-style therapeutic programmes for prisoners with substance use problems in Victoria, NSW and the ACT represent substantial advances in practice. </p>
<p>These programmes take advantage of the significant therapeutic opportunities that arise by looking closely at prisoners’ social functioning and day-to-day interactions. They actively encourage offenders to assume responsibility not only for their own behaviour, but for that of others. </p>
<p>However, rehabilitation today is almost always associated with cognitive-behavioural therapy. This targets a relatively narrow range of crime-producing (or “criminogenic”) needs, including pro-criminal attitudes – those thoughts, values and sentiments that support criminal conduct. Programmes also dedicate a lot of time to trying to change personality traits, such as low self-control, hostility, pleasure- or thrill-seeking and lack of empathy. </p>
<p>Not everyone can be successfully treated. Substantial evidence now exists, though, to suggest that this type of approach does produce socially significant reductions in re-offending. </p>
<h2>Essential steps in making corrections policy work</h2>
<p>The challenges lie in ensuring that the right programmes are delivered to the right people at the right time. </p>
<p>First, it is important that low-risk offenders have minimal contact with higher-risk offenders. Extended contact is only likely to increase their risk of recidivism. This has implications for prisoner case management, prison design and for the courts. </p>
<p>Courts have the power to divert low-risk offenders from prison and thus minimise contact with more entrenched offenders. Related to this is the need to develop effective systems of community-based rehabilitation, leaving prisons for the most dangerous and highest-risk offenders.</p>
<p>Second, concerted efforts are required to develop innovative programmes for those who identify with Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander cultural backgrounds. They are <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-state-of-imprisonment-in-australia-its-time-to-take-stock-38902">grossly over-represented</a> across all levels of the criminal justice system.</p>
<p>Third, staff need to be properly selected, trained, supervised and resourced to deliver the highest-quality rehabilitation services to the most complex and challenging people. </p>
<p>Finally, it is important to demonstrate that programmes actually make offenders better, not worse. The types of evaluation that are needed to attribute positive change to programme completion are complex, require large numbers of participants and cross-jurisdictional collaboration. A national approach to programme evaluation is sorely needed. </p>
<p>This is not to suggest that criminal behaviour shouldn’t be punished – only that we should not rely on punishment by itself to change behaviour. We need to create a true system of rehabilitation that can enhance the corrective impact of
punishment-based approaches. </p>
<p>It also doesn’t mean that punishment never works. It may work reasonably well with some people – perhaps those who are future-oriented, have good self-monitoring and regulation skills, and who can make the connection between their behaviour and negative consequences months later. </p>
<p>Unfortunately, many people in prison simply aren’t like this. The challenge, then, is two-fold: to find ways to make punishment more effective and to tackle the causes of offending through high-quality rehabilitation.</p>
<p>Correctional services often get little credit for their efforts. They are widely criticised when things go wrong. However, their efforts to rehabilitate offenders are not only sensible, but also cost-efficient and practical.</p>
<p>We need to support efforts to create a true system of rehabilitation. Such a system will be comprehensive, coherent and internally consistent in applying evidence-based practice at all levels.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>This article is based on the author’s keynote presentation to the <a href="https://groups.psychology.org.au/cfp/2015conference/">2015 APS College of Forensic Psychologists Conference</a> in Sydney.</em></p>
<p><em>You can read other articles in the Beyond Prison series <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/beyond-prison">here</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/41960/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andrew Day does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Approaches to crime that rely on punitive methods have proved to be ineffective and counter-productive. Rehabilitation programmes not only prevent crime, but are cost-effective and practical.Andrew Day, Professor of Psychology; Member of the Strategic Research Centre for Social and Early Emotional Development, Deakin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/389062015-04-14T01:20:58Z2015-04-14T01:20:58ZState of imprisonment: South Australia’s prisoner numbers soar, with just 10% of budget for rehab<p><em>This article is part of The Conversation’s series, <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/state-of-imprisonment">State of Imprisonment</a>, which provides snapshots of imprisonment trends in each state and territory. The intention is to provide a basis for informed public discussion of imprisonment policies and of the costs and consequences for Australia of rising rates of incarceration.</em></p>
<hr>
<p>South Australia’s prison system is composed of nine facilities (including one privately run prison). On June 30, 2014, the <a href="http://www.corrections.sa.gov.au/reports-and-media/annual-reports">prison population was 2501</a> – at or very near the highest in modern memory. </p>
<p>From July 2013 to the end of June 2014, the average daily number of sentenced prisoners was 1569, with another 826 on remand. During this period, the approved design capacity of all facilities was 2448 prisoners, with an average daily prison population of 2396. The City Watch House was used to deal with “overflow” when needed.</p>
<p>The prison estate was therefore running at 98% capacity during that year and continues in a similar vein. This is despite the completion and ongoing addition of new beds (and repartitioning of current space) at several facilities.</p>
<p>However, understanding the key issues facing the prison system requires a larger overview of prisoner numbers and rates of incarceration – specifically, how these have increased over time. Such increases have exacerbated long-standing problems, worsening Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander incarceration rates in particular, and created new dilemmas, such as over-crowding. </p>
<p>Rising prisoner numbers have put additional pressure on opportunities for successful re-integration into the general community upon release from custody.</p>
<p>The interplay between two distinct but inextricably connected environments – the “prison community”, as <a href="http://sf.oxfordjournals.org/content/19/3/442.full.pdf+html">Donald Clemmer</a> called it, and the ex-prisoner community attempting, in the words of <a href="http://pun.sagepub.com/content/13/1/3">Shadd Maruna</a>, to turn themselves “back into citizens” – is central to understanding how and why “the prison problem” keeps growing.</p>
<h2>Trends in incarceration and prisoner numbers</h2>
<p>Many might accept that Australia’s general population will grow from one year to the next and that it is only natural that the prison population will grow as well. </p>
<p>But the key question hinges on the extent to which the number of people in prison has remained steady or decreased in relation to overall population growth, or, as has been the case for some years now, outstripped such growth.</p>
<p>When prison numbers grow faster than the rest of the population – as it has – it means we are putting more people in prison (irrespective, say, of improvements in policing or changes in sentencing guidelines) than might “reasonably” be expected. </p>
<p>Over the last decade, the growth in prisoner numbers (<a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/4517.0">averaging 3.45% per annum</a>) has been slightly
more than double the rate of Australia’s net population growth (<a href="http://abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Previousproducts/3101.0Main%20Features2Jun%202014?opendocument&tabname=Summary&prodno=3101.0&issue=Jun%202014&num=&view=">about 1.7% per annum</a>). South Australia has fared far worse. The prison population has on average increased by around 7% per annum since 2004, whereas growth in the general population for the state was just over 1% per annum.</p>
<p>Put differently, since 2004 the growth in prisoner numbers in South Australia was seven times that of net population growth. In that time, the <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Lookup/by%20Subject/4517.0%7E2014%7EMain%20Features%7ESouth%20Australia%7E10018">prison population</a> grew by 68%. Only <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Lookup/by%20Subject/4517.0%7E2014%7EMain%20Features%7EVictoria%7E10016">Victoria</a> (69%) and the <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Lookup/by%20Subject/4517.0%7E2014%7EMain%20Features%7ENorthern%20Territory%7E10021">Northern Territory</a> (108%) experienced greater proportionate increases.</p>
<p>This had not always been so. In the decades leading up to the mid-2000s, South Australia could reasonably claim the label of a “mid-range” incarcerating state. From 2001 to 2006, the crude rate of incarceration – a rate that does not disaggregate the total age distribution for various groups – was about <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Previousproducts/1C9585084E9D4326CA25795F000DB3C0?opendocument">124 prisoners per 100,000</a> relevant population. By 2014 that rate had risen to <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Lookup/by%20Subject/4517.0%7E2014%7EMain%20Features%7EPrisoner%20characteristics,%20states%20and%20territories%7E10000">188 prisoners per 100,000</a> – in effect tipping South Australia toward the higher end of the incarceration ledger.</p>
<p>It is also essential to drill down into what is happening with different “cohorts” of prisoners and to take specific account of <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Lookup/4517.0Glossary12014">age-standardised rates</a>. This is important given the sharp disparities between the proportion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people aged 18 and above (around 55%) as against non-Indigenous Australians in that category (75%).</p>
<p>In terms of non-Indigenous people, South Australia has an age-standardised
incarceration rate of <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Lookup/by%20Subject/4517.0%7E2014%7EMain%20Features%7ESouth%20Australia%7E10018">165 per 100,000</a> relevant population. Only the Northern Territory (at 167) exceeds this. </p>
<p>South Australia now also has the <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Lookup/by%20Subject/4517.0%7E2014%7EMain%20Features%7ESex%7E10002">third-highest rate</a> (after Northern Territory and Western Australia) of male imprisonment in the nation, with 357 males per 100,000 relevant population (aged 18 and above) imprisoned. </p>
<p>The female incarceration rate – although starting from a much lower base – has increased by 60% over the last decade, from 15 to 24 persons per 100,000.</p>
<h2>Imprisonment increase hits Indigenous people hardest</h2>
<p>The story is similar for the <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Lookup/by%20Subject/4517.0%7E2014%7EMain%20Features%7EImprisonment%20rates%7E10009">incarceration rates of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people</a>. In 2004, South Australia was positioned below New South Wales, Western Australia and Northern Territory in terms of Indigenous imprisonment rates. It now sits well ahead of New South Wales. </p>
<p>But the really important statistic is that, in just 10 years, South Australia nearly doubled the rate at which it locks up Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. In 2004, the Indigenous incarceration rate was 1092 per 100,000 relevant population. By 2014, it had soared to 2016 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander adults in prison for every 100,000 such persons in the state.</p>
<p>Nearly one in four people in South Australia’s prisons are from an Indigenous background. Adjusting for age, such people are imprisoned at <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Lookup/by%20Subject/4517.0%7E2014%7EMain%20Features%7ESouth%20Australia%7E10018">12 times the rate</a> of non-Indigenous Australians.</p>
<p>As with the Northern Territory and Western Australia, South Australia has one of the highest rates of imprisonment for a particular proportion of its population anywhere in the world. Using combined Australian Bureau of Statistics data, about one in 17 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander men in South Australia aged 20 to 49 are, on any day, in prison. Among Indigenous men in South Australia aged 20 to 39, roughly one in 14 are locked up. </p>
<p>Reflective at least in part of the generally turbulent conditions to which ex-prisoners return once released, of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in custody at the end of June 2014, two-thirds reported being imprisoned previously. Less than half (44%) of non-Indigenous South Australian prisoners reported that was the case. </p>
<p>Again, at June 30, 2014, for one in five (18%) Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander prisoners, the most serious charge leading to their incarceration was “offences against justice procedures, government security, and operations”. In the overwhelming majority of cases this equated to breach of a community-based order (bail, parole conditions and like). A further one in four (23%) Indigenous prisoners were incarcerated for “acts intended to cause injury”. </p>
<p>These two “most serious offence” categories presently account for 40% of South Australia’s Indigenous prison population. By contrast, these offences apply to just 25% of non-Indigenous prisoners. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/77318/original/image-20150408-18083-knxl5c.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/77318/original/image-20150408-18083-knxl5c.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/77318/original/image-20150408-18083-knxl5c.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=971&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/77318/original/image-20150408-18083-knxl5c.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=971&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/77318/original/image-20150408-18083-knxl5c.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=971&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/77318/original/image-20150408-18083-knxl5c.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1220&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/77318/original/image-20150408-18083-knxl5c.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1220&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/77318/original/image-20150408-18083-knxl5c.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1220&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Running Yatala Prison, the state’s largest, and other prisons consumes 75% of the corrections budget, with rehabilitation getting only 10%.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mark Halsey</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Time to consider all the costs</h2>
<p>The surge in numbers raises important questions regarding who is going to prison and why, as well as at what social and economic cost. It costs around <a href="http://www.corrections.sa.gov.au/reports-and-media/annual-reports">A$180 million a year</a> to operate South Australia’s prisons. That accounts for 75% of the total correctional budget. Rehabilitation takes up just 10%.</p>
<p>Like elsewhere in Australia, the costs of imprisonment in South Australia will continue to rise: the state is scheduled to <a href="http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/south-australia/john-rau-flags-review-of-sa-sentencing-system-to-keep-low-risk-offenders-out-of-jail/story-fni6uo1m-1227291275004">spend around A$170 million</a> in coming years to increase the prison estate by around 380 beds.</p>
<p>But the direct dollar cost (paying correctional staff, construction of new prison beds) is really just the tip of the iceberg in terms of the probable longer-term consequences of being jailed on people’s lives, such as in their parenting, employment, education and health.</p>
<p>Certainly, prisons are here to stay. But effective alternatives to incarceration, which balance public safety and meaningful opportunities for desisting from crime with pathways to reintegration, need to be a central part of the policy debate too. </p>
<p>There is some evidence that such a conversation is starting to emerge. But if the aim is to reduce prisoner numbers, then it will be important to think about which “type” of offenders are incarcerated and for how long. </p>
<p>It might also be necessary to examine the recurring geographies associated with much crime and imprisonment: that is, the degree to which particular areas or “postcodes” disproportionately “feed” into various parts of the criminal justice system, including prison. Arguably, that requires thinking about the drivers of social inclusion and exclusion in these and other locales.</p>
<p>This would mean investing for the long term – irrespective of election cycles – in upstream initiatives known to prevent crime and social disadvantage. </p>
<hr>
<p><em>You can read other articles in the series <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/state-of-imprisonment">here</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/38906/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mark Halsey receives funding from the Australian Research Council and serves on the South Australian Justice Reinvestment Working Group.</span></em></p>Since 2004, the number of prisoners in South Australia has risen seven times faster than the state’s net population growth – and nearly doubled its rate of locking up Indigenous Australians.Mark Halsey, Professor, Flinders Law School, Flinders UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/389022015-04-12T20:32:22Z2015-04-12T20:32:22ZThe state of imprisonment in Australia: it’s time to take stock<p><em>This article introduces The Conversation’s series, <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/state-of-imprisonment">State of Imprisonment</a>, which provides snapshots of imprisonment trends in each state and territory. The intention is to provide a basis for informed public discussion of imprisonment policies and of the costs and consequences for Australia of rising rates of incarceration.</em></p>
<hr>
<p>Australia has reached a decade-high rate of imprisonment. The Australian Bureau of Statistics’ <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Lookup/by%20Subject/4517.0%7E2014%7EMedia%20Release%7EAustralian%20prisoner%20numbers%20climb%20to%20ten%20year%20high%20(Media%20Release)%7E10023">announcement</a> of this last year created little impact or interest. </p>
<p>Across Australia, 33,791 persons were in adult corrective services custody at June 30 2014. That was a 10% increase from 2013. By the December quarter 2014, the average daily number of prisoners had <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/4512.0">risen to 34,647</a>.</p>
<p>For both men and women in custody, the most frequent serious offence was an act intended to cause injury (21% for men, 20% for women). </p>
<p>The next most common offences differed <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Lookup/by%20Subject/4517.0%7E2014%7EMain%20Features%7ESex%7E5">according to gender</a>. Men were equally likely to be in custody for a most serious offence of sexual assault, unlawful entry with intent and illicit drug offences (all 12%). For women, the next most likely reasons were illicit drug offences (17%) and offences against justice procedures, government security and operations (11%).</p>
<p>The circumstances that lead to imprisonment and the context of the crime cannot be ascertained from such data. It still raises important questions about the use of imprisonment for non-violent offences. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/77447/original/image-20150409-15259-1r3a911.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/77447/original/image-20150409-15259-1r3a911.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/77447/original/image-20150409-15259-1r3a911.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/77447/original/image-20150409-15259-1r3a911.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/77447/original/image-20150409-15259-1r3a911.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/77447/original/image-20150409-15259-1r3a911.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=532&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/77447/original/image-20150409-15259-1r3a911.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=532&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/77447/original/image-20150409-15259-1r3a911.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=532&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The number of people imprisoned in Australia continues to grow strongly.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/4512.0#">Australian Bureau of Statistics</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Indigenous Australians suffer punitive approach</h2>
<p>An ongoing issue in Australia, which we have failed to reverse – just as we have failed to <a href="http://www.dpmc.gov.au/pmc-indigenous-affairs/publication/closing-gap-prime-ministers-report-2015">close the gap</a> – is the <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Lookup/by%20Subject/4517.0%7E2014%7EMain%20Features%7EAboriginal%20&%20Torres%20Strait%20Islander%20prisoner%20characteristics%7E10007">over-representation</a> of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in our prisons.</p>
<p>Nationally, the <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Lookup/by%20Subject/4517.0%7E2014%7EMain%20Features%7EImprisonment%20rates%7E10009">rate of imprisonment</a> for ATSI people was 13 times higher than for non-Indigenous people at June 30, 2014. This figure covers a diverse situation across the nation. <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Lookup/by%20Subject/4517.0%7E2014%7EMain%20Features%7EWestern%20Australia%7E10019">In Western Australia</a>, ATSI men and women are 18 times more times likely than non-Indigenous Australians to be imprisoned in WA, whereas <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Lookup/by%20Subject/4517.0%7E2014%7EMain%20Features%7ETasmania%7E10020">in Tasmania</a> the rate is four times higher.</p>
<p>In 2013, Chris Cunneen <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-fear-and-funding-undercut-a-fair-go-for-indigenous-victorians-20644">articulated the concern</a> in The Conversation that:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>… too many Indigenous Australians will remain second-class citizens in their own country … remaining the object of law when it comes to criminalisation and incarceration.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The most recent statistics affirm that Cunneen’s predictions are unfolding with little sign of abating. </p>
<h2>Prisons are a poor substitute for mental health care</h2>
<p>An emerging concern is the recognition and realisation that mental illness and mental impairment are diagnosed at much higher rates within our imprisoned population than in the wider community. </p>
<p>Data on this issue is less easily accessed nationally. What we <a href="http://www.aihw.gov.au/prisoner-health/mental-health/">do know</a> is that there is a “higher incidence of mental health problems in the Australian prison population than in the general population” and that “almost two in five prison entrants (38%) reported having been told that they have a mental health disorder”.</p>
<p>Prison is fast becoming a significant location for individuals with <a href="https://theconversation.com/caring-for-ex-prisoners-under-the-ndis-would-save-money-and-lives-31974">high mental health needs</a> to be supported and managed. This reflects a national malaise, stemming from the responsibility we must all bear for decisions to remove so many of the support networks that were in place decades ago – and to remove them without any replacement or alternative. The result has been the criminalisation of an increasing number of people.</p>
<h2>Public debate ignores need for change</h2>
<p>This brief review of current data and trends raises several important questions: why is imprisonment being used, for what purpose, and to what ends?</p>
<p>This series aims to offer a snapshot of incarceration trends across Australia and to identify imprisonment policies and practices that we need to change. </p>
<p><br></p>
<iframe src="https://d3602hfvnbc5pq.cloudfront.net/knqXJ/1/" frameborder="0" allowtransparency="true" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" webkitallowfullscreen="webkitallowfullscreen" mozallowfullscreen="mozallowfullscreen" oallowfullscreen="oallowfullscreen" msallowfullscreen="msallowfullscreen" width="100%" height="520"></iframe>
<p>Each state and territory has different issues of most concern. These may relate to rates of imprisonment of particular marginalised populations, or legislative changes resulting in remand rates skyrocketing and/or parole being virtually unobtainable. </p>
<p>While Australian trends in imprisonment can always <a href="http://www.prisonstudies.org/sites/prisonstudies.org/files/resources/downloads/wppl_10.pdf">be favourably compared</a> to other nations <a href="https://theconversation.com/prisons-policy-is-turning-australia-into-the-second-nation-of-captives-38842">such as the US</a>, it is clear that current trends across the nation have significant short-and long-term consequences. Attracting public attention and engagement with these consequences is challenging in a political, <a href="https://theconversation.com/tabloid-driven-sentencing-policies-waste-public-money-and-lives-27072">social, and media environment</a> dominated by <a href="https://theconversation.com/justice-reinvestment-saves-huge-costs-of-law-and-order-auctions-33018">law-and-order politics</a>.</p>
<p>This series aims to provide a platform for public discussion via a critical mass of articles that take stock of the situation in each state and territory, and as a nation.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>You can read other articles in the series <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/state-of-imprisonment">here</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/38902/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Marie Segrave receives funding from the Australian Research Council and is a co-founder of the Imprisonment Observatory. </span></em></p>In a new series on imprisonment trends, issues and policies across Australia, The Conversation asks why are imprisonment rates soaring, to what purpose, and with what financial and human consequences?Marie Segrave, Senior Lecturer, Criminology, Monash UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/388422015-04-09T20:41:47Z2015-04-09T20:41:47ZPrisons policy is turning Australia into the second nation of captives<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/77150/original/image-20150407-26488-68yopa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The human and financial costs to Australia of following America's lead in imprisoning more and more people are huge.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-86779999/stock-photo-hands-of-the-prisoner-on-a-steel-lattice-close-up.html?src=RNMiVmX339I7FrAy75Xp6g-1-3">Shutterstock/BortN66</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Sometimes you don’t need hindsight to identify broken social and legal policy. Such is the case with Australia’s slide into following the US lead and becoming a nation of captives. A little known, but alarming, fact is that imprisonment numbers in Australia – both the number of offenders incarcerated and the growth in numbers – are now at <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Lookup/by%20Subject/4517.0%7E2014%7EMedia%20Release%7EAustralian%20prisoner%20numbers%20climb%20to%20ten%20year%20high%20(Media%20Release)%7E10023">record highs</a>, and by a considerable margin.</p>
<p>Incarceration rates have fluctuated considerably since federation. At the turn of the 20th century, the imprisonment rate per 100,000 (adult) population was relatively high: <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Lookup/4524A092E30E4486CA2569DE00256331">126 persons per 100,000</a> adults. This dropped to <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Lookup/4524A092E30E4486CA2569DE00256331">52 per 100,000</a> by 1925. Following a period of moderate fluctuation, in the last two decades the prison population has <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Lookup/4524A092E30E4486CA2569DE00256331">more than doubled</a>: an unprecedented occurrence in Australian history.</p>
<p>The number of prisoners <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Lookup/by%20Subject/4517.0%7E2013%7EMain%20Features%7EPrisoner%20characteristics,%20Australia%7E4">broke through the 30,000 mark</a> for the first time on June 30 2013, at which point the rate of imprisonment was 170 prisoners per 100,000 adults. The current imprisonment rate is <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Lookup/by%20Subject/4517.0%7E2014%7EMain%20Features%7EPrisoner%20characteristics,%20Australia%7E4">186 per 100,000 people</a>.</p>
<p>In contrast to most <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_incarceration_rate">other developed countries</a>, this rate is palpably high. The rate <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada-s-prison-population-at-all-time-high-1.2440039">in Canada</a> is 118 per 100,000. The incarceration rate in Australia is nearly <a href="http://www.prisonstudies.org/world-prison-brief">three times higher</a> than in Scandinavian countries.</p>
<p>Standing apart from these trends is the world’s greatest incarcerator, the United States, which imprisons more than 700 people per 100,000 - an increase of more than 400% in three decades.</p>
<p>While the Australian incarceration rate is low compared to the US rate, we are highly inefficient at locking up prisoners. It costs every state and territory <a href="http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2015/02/02/how-much-does-it-cost-keep-people-australian-jails">at least A$80,000</a> to house each prisoner for a year, compared to <a href="https://www.federalregister.gov/articles/2013/03/18/2013-06139/annual-determination-of-average-cost-of-incarceration">around A$30,000</a> in the US. Hence per capita our spending on prisons is significant in relative and absolute terms.</p>
<p>And it is to the US where we should now be looking to ascertain the fall-out from an unabated tough (and dumb) on crime policy. The extensive use of imprisonment in the US has finally <a href="http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2013/11/7/panel-mass-incarceration-race/">reached a tipping point</a>. The community can no longer readily absorb the cost of a <a href="http://www.usfca.edu/law/docs/criminalsentencing">US$60 billion annual prisons budget</a>.</p>
<p>Radical <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/08/13/wonkbook-11-facts-about-americas-prison-population/">measures are being implemented</a> to reduce prison numbers. The most recent is effectively opening the prison gates to release thousands of sentenced offenders. </p>
<p>In April 2014, the US Sentencing Commission <a href="http://www.ussc.gov/sites/default/files/pdf/news/press-releases-and-news-advisories/press-releases/20140410_Press_Release.pdf">voted to reduce</a> the sentencing guideline level for most federal offences of drug trafficking. These changes will apply retroactively, meaning that more than 46,000 prisoners are eligible to have their cases reviewed for a penalty reduction. On average, penalties are likely to be reduced by two years and one month, resulting in savings of approximately 80,000 prison bed years.</p>
<h2>Imprisonment isn’t working</h2>
<p>Increasing prison numbers might be tolerable if this achieved a positive community outcome. However, the <a href="http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=18613">evidence is to the contrary</a> (the author analyses the Australian data in a forthcoming article for the Australian Bar Review, entitled “Jail Up, Crime Down Does Not Justify Australia Becoming an Incarceration Nation”). It does not reduce the rate of serious crime, discourage potential offenders or reduce re-offending rates.</p>
<p>In many cases, imprisonment is just the wanton infliction of gratuitous punishment by an unthinking legislature and a reflexive judiciary.</p>
<p>Sentencing is the area of law where there remains the biggest gap between what <a href="http://news.sciencemag.org/biology/2014/06/prison-contagious">science tells us</a> can be achieved through a social institution (criminal punishment) and what we actually do. We will continue to have a runaway incarceration rate until governments and courts start making evidenced-based policy and sentencing determinations. This would mean imprisonment is essentially reserved for the offenders we have reason to fear or who have inflicted serious suffering on others, not those that we simply dislike.</p>
<p>It is repugnant that <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Lookup/by%20Subject/4517.0%7E2014%7EMain%20Features%7ESentenced%20prisoners%7E8">more than 40%</a> of prisoners in Australian prisons are serving sentences for non-violent or non-sexual offences. White-collar criminals, drug traffickers and social security cheats irritate us and inconvenience our lives, but they should only go the jail in the rarest of circumstances. The <a href="http://press.princeton.edu/titles/8390.html">pains of imprisonment</a> are normally a disproportionate response to their crimes.</p>
<h2>Time to reverse the trend to excessive punishment</h2>
<p>There is also a powerful normative basis for limiting prison numbers. Imprisoning offenders for a moment longer than is necessary to achieve a demonstrated (attainable) objective of sentencing constitutes a violation of one of the most universally held moral norms: the prohibition against punishing the innocent. The violation of this norm is so prevalent in Australia that it is in fact in our prisons where the greatest number of <a href="https://www.humanrights.gov.au/sites/default/files/content/letstalkaboutrights/downloads/HRA_prisioners.pdf">human rights infractions occur</a>.</p>
<p>And this is one problem that is not the total fault of populist politicians. Our courts have considerably contributed to the crisis by unilaterally increasing sentencing tariffs for drug and <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/business/white-collar-crims-going-to-jail-for-longer-20130719-2q8rx.html">white-collar offenders</a> over the past decade. This is supposedly in order to deter other offenders.</p>
<p>The strategy has been a brilliant failure. To appreciate the extent of this debacle you don’t need to look out of your window to see that illicit drugs are increasingly available on every street corner. You merely need to ask criminologists, who are overwhelmingly convinced about the <a href="https://www.sentencingcouncil.vic.gov.au/sites/default/files/publication-documents/Does%20Imprisonment%20Deter%20A%20Review%20of%20the%20Evidence.pdf">failure of general deterrence theory</a>.</p>
<p>Australian governments need to develop a strategy to reduce incarceration numbers to about 100 per 100,000 (consistent with historical trends). Without a systematic overview, the unprecedented increase in incarceration levels has the potential to contribute to a fiscal crisis and an <a href="http://www.law.monash.edu.au/castancentre/policywork/hr-reports/2014/prisons.html">ongoing human rights tragedy</a>, devoid of a principled solution – as we are witnessing in the United States.</p>
<p>The start and endpoint to the solution is to confine jails (almost exclusively) to those we have reason to be scared of: sexual and violent offenders.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>Next week The Conversation begins a series, State of Imprisonment, on the trends and policies in every state and territory. The series aims to promote an informed discussion about the costs and consequences of rising rates of imprisonment across most of the nation. You can read articles in the series <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/state-of-imprisonment">here</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/38842/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>This article draws on a longer article by the author and Athula Pathinayake to be published in the next edition of the Australian Bar Review.</span></em></p>The US is the great incarcerator, spending US$60 billion a year on prisons, and Australia is sliding down the same path. The solution? Confine jails almost exclusively to sexual and violent offenders.Mirko Bagaric, Dean and Head of School of Law, Deakin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.