Should prison be used as a deterrent or a place for rehabilitation?

Prisons affect many lives and are very expensive to maintain, but it is equally important that justice is always served.

So how does UK’s current prison system work? Is it a deterrent of crime or a place for rehabilitation? Recently alternatives to prison have also been suggested, for example, more focus on community sentences for less serious offences that have attracted a custodial sentence. However, for some the need for retribution is a greater need than rehabilitation...

What do you think? Should prison be a punishment to deter crime, or a place for rehabilitation?

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Kofi Odei Addo is a lecturer at the Hertfordshire Law School, University of Hertfordshire. He studied his PhD at the Department of Sociology, University of Essex, where he also worked as a teaching assistant.

Prior to coming to Essex, Kofi worked in a number of organisations; this includes the British Armed Forces, Logistics Organisation, and also within the Private Policing Sector. After an exemplary Military service (2001-2006), for his second undergraduate study, he read Criminology/Sociology at Anglia Ruskin University (2009), and at the University of Cambridge, Institute of Criminology, he took Criminological Research at Darwin College and obtained MPhil in 2010.

Kofi’s interest lies in, Policing (police confidence, corruption and legitimacy), Private policing, War Crimes, State Crimes, Psychology of Criminal Behaviour and Crime Control, Procedural and Restorative Justice, Cross-Cultural Criminology, Sociology of Prison Life, and Deviance and Social Control. In my spare time, listen to music, do a lot of DIY. I also have an interest in football, boxing, hockey, skiing and cooking.

this is very true the police officers they "trust" or family members & friends that come to visit can hand them items in a discreet way. lol its not as nice as it seems @davesantana you should watch some documentaries on prison life x

no they sneak in phones also they are allowed to "watch tv" during their free time which isn't very often. lmao the only reason it seems like the have phones and other rubbish is because its glamorised as that from prisons video on Instagram and also prisoners can pay police officers to sneak them goods such as phone etc..

my point still stands. rapists and murderers have a good time in prison which is meant to be a place of punishment.

But prison itself is not tough enough

Prisons affect many lives and are very expensive to maintain, but it is equally important that justice is always served.
...
What do you think? Should prison be a punishment to deter crime, or a place for rehabilitation?

i know that police, crime and prison statistics are complex and distorted for a variety of reasons, but the re-offending rate proves that prison is not a deterrence nor a place of rehabilitation. asking what prison 'should' be, imo, is like asking what you would do if you won a million pounds.

prison doesn't work but prison is a necessary evil for other reasons, such as keeping the public safe (temporarily); preserving public confidence in the justice system/government/general-public-safety; and satisfying the common belief that you shouldn't be able to hurt someone and get away with it. but prison does more for the general population that it does for the actual criminal.

we need to treat the root cause of crime if we want less of it, which is probably more expensive and why we don't do it as much as we should be. but prison is a plaster for a much bigger problem (sorry if that sounds too pessimistic at this hour in the morning ).

I'm aware about the rehabilitation programs but I think prison should be geared to deter crime. If offenders are in their 20s, going in 30s and they are aware about prison, if it deters crime, I think it should help them to stay out of prison and make their own decisions in life. So whenever offenders get released, get a job to maintain themselves, they can use their earnings to get a hobby, seek counselling or other support and feel awarded with the choices they make. I also think whatever they had to endure and put up in prison gets used in the real world to fit in society. I think they gather skills being on good behaviour and staying out of prison to be valued in society and anyone who doesn't see that, isn't seeing that.

I wouldn't think prison should be a place for rehabilitation programs because I think offenders would re-offend and use it as a way to get freebies when they go back and it worsen their offences until they're locked away for life. It doesn't solve what those programs are set out to achieve. Not even 50/50.

Some programs are disguised as punishment sometimes when offenders get out, another view I have to what's going on in prisons, so that's another point I want to get across.

They should be both.

The deterrence should from the loss of freedom not the appalling conditions that lead to the rise of mental health problems and self harm. That should never be used as a punishment.

Rehabilitation is the key to reducing prison usage and ensuring that those who have offended can become productive members of society rather than being marginalised to be pushed back into crime.

This either/or mentality is part of the problem with our prison system. Politicians in power focus too heavily on the punishment leading to appalling human rights abuse and prison conditions that should not be seen in any society claiming to be civilised.

Absolutely wrong. If you don't rehabilitate people how can you complain when they're released and turn back to crime? You can't sentence someone to X amount of years inside, give them absolutely no help or guidance to enable them to change their attitudes and behaviours and then be astonished when they're released only to end up back inside again. The whole point of these programs is to prevent recidivism, encouraging people to turn their lives around and become productive members of society.

Not absolutely wrong, that's your harsh opinion sweetheart, it's been on the news that hospitals are getting the police to rehabilitate people to drag about around to restrain them when there was no wrong-doing because the medical services can't cope and are trying to hide that. Police's are actively not trying to arrest people, maybe fining them and even lowering fines to try to get people to understand not to break the law. Cautions or a warning or letter to the house. Whatever. I think it should be geared towards deterring crime. Can't have free rehab centres everywhere and using the force to shame people when arresting them using that as a wall to get them the free rehab. The service of rehabilitate also free, paid by government, get what you pay in terms of quality of rehabilitation. If offenders want to better themselves, I think they should earn to seek it, not go to jail for it. The deter not to go back should be able to drive them away from them.

No 50/50 between the two.

No need to patronise me, "sweetheart". Prisons should be a deterrent, but unfortunately they're not. That's the harsh reality. There's no reason why prisons can't be serve as a deterent and be able to rehabilitate people at the same time.

So we thought, let's have a discussion

It needs to be both.
The prison system needs investment.
The use of drugs and mobiles for example has to be stamped out. How I have no idea.
And bad behaviour inside needs punishment too. Proper punishment.