Persistent Punishment: User Views of Short Prison Sentences

Abstract

This article reports on research into the experiences of people serving short sentences in prison. It is part of a larger qualitative study of experiences of punishment in the community and in prison (Armstrong and Weaver 2010; Weaver and Armstrong 2011). The location of the research was Scotland, where the use of prison for people who will not stay very long is a characteristic feature of sentencing practice -nearly threequarters of people sent to prison in Scotland in 2008/09 (the year before sentence reform legislation was passed) were sentenced to serve six months or less (Scottish Government 2010a). Although courts make frequent use of short prison sentences, this does not appear to be driven by evidence of their effectiveness. In Scotland, only about one-quarter of people released from a custodial sentence of six months or less manage to avoid reconviction within two years of being released (Scottish Government 2010b).Since the 19th Century, courts have complained that short periods of detention offer too brief a time to work with and change an 'offender' and are more likely to provide schooling in crime than in law-abiding behaviour (Killias et al. 2010). These concerns resonate in the current reform bs_bs_banner

“The Cake and Custard is Good!” A Qualitative Study of Teenage Childrens' Experience of being in Prison

“…Many spoke of periods of regular truanting, particularly during their secondary school education. These background characteristics are shared with significant proportions of adult prisoners (Berman, 2013;Armstrong and Weaver, 2013).…”

“…Concealment and dissembling are forced upon prisoners who must self-censor their views and feelings. Emotional disconnection features among the 'coping strategies' of the adult shortterm Scottish prisoners studied by Armstrong and Weaver (2013) who were incarcerated in their cells for over 20 h/day. Toch (1975) noted the destructive impact of US adult prisons on inmates, where confinement exacerbated existing pathologies and engendered widespread suspicion.…”

Why Punish?

“…These purposes may not be assumed to be all the same or even mutually compatible. Relatively less studied, too, are the purposes that those subject to punishment may set for themselves and how they make sense of their experiences (see, for example, Armstrong and Weaver 2013;Rex 2005;Schinkel 2014aSchinkel , 2014bVan Ginneken and Hayes 2017).…”

‘Make Not Your Prisons Your Prisons’: Participant-perceived Potential Outcomes of a Shakespeare Focussed Alternative to Juvenile Incarceration in the USA

“…Statistically, community-based sentences are more effective in reducing reoffending than short sentences (Ministry of Justice 2013b), and research demonstrates that prisoners report little value in, or fear of, multiple short sentences in prison beyond incapacitation and segregation (Armstrong and Weaver 2013). Short prison sentences have even become a recurrent experience for many prisoners, offering little more than temporary isolation (Armstrong and Weaver 2013). Education and training have however been identified as a critical factor in successful criminal rehabilitation (Hayes and Blunt 2011;Batiuk, Moke, and Rountree 1997).…”