We hail
imprisonment in this country, but do we really think enough about it?
A couple of weeks ago I watched a Panorama special on
international attitudes towards crime and imprisonment; it was fascinating to
see both the extreme and more liberal examples of this. Yet I intriguingly
found that I was indeed more
fascinated, not by the horrors of the treatment of political prisoners by Daesh
or Assad’s government in Syria (though this is of course continually shocking)
, but by one specific example at the other end of the spectrum- Norway’s
methods and attitudes towards imprisonment. They have created a system whereby
reform of all inmates- no matter what the crime- is the critical objective.
Over the past decade or so the country has created several
new prison sites…but no ordinary prison sites- these are not viewed as
‘prisons’, instead as secure communities of rehabilitation. This is literally
what they are. Each inmate is given a specific task or full time job to carry
out during their sentence and are encouraged to work together to do so effectively.
Evidently this doesn’t turn out to be as simple as it sounds, as many inmates
have mental illnesses or dilemmas and consequently cannot do these jobs
instantaneously. However, the organisation will work at this and aim to get
these individuals into a realistic pattern of life, as soon as possible. For
extreme offenders such as murderers and rapists, they have even converted an island
into community. Why on earth should rapists have an island have an island built for them? I shall come
onto this later. But given the sheer variety of offences and mental illnesses
within criminality surely this system would only see a mild difference in
success rates? Wrong- the statistics are there to be made an example of; it has
one of the lowest reoffending rates in the world at just 20%. Now I’m sure many
members of our own political establishment would argue that reform is indeed
the UK’s main critical objective. But
many are now fully aware that this simply isn’t being achieved. In 2014, those
serving less than 12 months saw a 58% reoffending rate and over two-thirds of
under 18 year olds are reconvicted within a year of release. Many officials
will argue that ‘huge’ improvements are being seen in these figures; indeed
last month our Prime Minister pledged many much needed reform targets
including, “a new Corruption Prevention Strategy to deal with the small number
of corrupt staff who allow contraband in our prisons”. This is all very well
and good and I welcome such pledges- they are no negative thing. But my
argument is that to really improve
the system we must begin to think
about a fundamental aspect of crime.
Last summer during my post-GCSE 10 week summer I read
a book called The Tipping Point- a
very modernist account of how as humans we are influenced by the smallest of
factors, namely based around our environment and our peers. It contained a
chapter on criminality, specifically focusing on 1980’s New York City. This
example highlighted to me how much
this influences the majority of crime. It’s a pretty simple process really-
detailed physiological studies suggest that the vast majority of offenders do
so as they feel fundamentally intimidated by society. Surely then by putting
these people through a process of pure punishment- be it through physical
imprisonment and mental intimidation by staff- this is going to further this evidently,
subconscious feeling? This would be a typical argument of justice professionals
in Norway.
Now let’s realistically consider this ‘radical’
concept. Unfortunately, but understandably, British society generally upholds a
strong stigma towards criminals, especially towards crimes such as rape and
murder. They are and always will be horrific and utterly unacceptable crimes.
How any human being could possess the complete inhumanity to carry out such a repulsive act, is beyond us. Or is
it? The ‘average’ amongst us probably don’t think much of it- these are bad
people…that’s it. We cannot pinpoint this ‘badness’- there are too many varieties
of it. But there is a general pattern: the majority are from low income, often
impoverished backgrounds, have a family history of criminality and often of
mental illness. Many murderers commit on account of unresolved vengeance between
rival gangs, families and so on. None of this information justifies such crimes
in any shape or form. But it does draw us back to thinking more about the fundamental aspects of the motives behind
them. A lot of these people simply act upon subconscious feelings of neglection
and punishment for being the in ‘the bad litter of society’. Now, from this
point I could go into a whole philosophical debate about such fundamental
problems within capitalist society, but I digress; our true objective of
imprisonment is too solve crime. That’s an obvious point that most 5 year olds could state. Why
then is the establishment and a significant proportion of British society not addressing
this by the appropriate means? Why are we failing to recognise through clear,
in our face facts, that a better solution is workable? To achieve a more peaceful
and law-abiding society, with low reoffending rates, our primary aim must be rehabilitation. True rehab would
be socially beneficial, with more of our citizens learning to live and
cooperate in a community; true rehab would be economically beneficial, with
imprisonment costing billions of pounds less
a year to the tax payer which could then be reinvested into rehabilitation
schemes and, if we were to get to get to Norway’s successful standard, see a 38%
increase in reformed criminals contributing back to society through employment;
finally, true rehab should be
beneficial through increased political hapathy amongst more impoverished
micro-societies that exist as a result of what I believe to be political under-representation.
I’m certain that many members of society would argue that
the above is obvious and is being
looked into. If so, then let us act upon
it and not ignore such a vital issue on account of abiding to an out of
date stigma. If so, then let us continue
to look into it through investment in research and innovation in the
industry.
Britain is a civilized society; through thinking more about the cause of
criminality, we can make it even more so.
#sbau
Next up: ‘Academy
schools: fake or fortune?’
