''Her Majesty's Prison Service serves the public by keeping in custody those committed by the courts. Our duty is to look after them with humanity and to help them to lead law-abiding and useful lives in custody and on release''. [Cavadino & Dignan, 1997: p114].
A Brief History
As the population grow and people organized communities and societies, there were always some people to offend the rules and norms of these groups and societies. The way the authorities dealt with the offenders changed throughout the history and it is in a continuous progress till today.
Before the eighteenth century the criminals were treated with severe torture and many of them were executed in public (bloody code). By the end of 1700's the way they dealt with the criminals has changed [Foucault.1991] and the idea of training and controlling the offenders appeared which was known as enlightenment era. This change due to the way people understood the world and the conditions of human nature from the previous century.
Through the latter centuries prisons changed from the houses of corrections to private prisons and later to the central government (home office) controlled prisons.
How to Deal with the Offenders
How to deal with the offenders? This question remains the most difficult question to be answered by philosophers, scientists, theorists, politicians and criminologists throughout the history. People needs security and maintaining Law and Order “As prison has the highest profile of any sanction in common use in our kind of society, it plays an important part in reassuring people that "something is being done" about the problem of law and order, and the social threats which they are persuaded to take most seriously.” [Cavadino & Dignan, 1997: p113].
From the functionalist view prison is an important institution in order to control the selfishness of human nature, egoism, and to treat the unruly people with justice. With punishment, they argue, we may show the citizens the limits of acceptable behaviour. They also argued that punishment and imprisonment makes the criminals negative models for the younger generation [Durkheim, 1960].
The Marxists argue that prison is a means in the hands of capitalists to exploit the lower or working classes and making them a tool in their hands outside or inside prisons, in order to make bigger capitals and collecting more power and money. “Prison and other correctional institutions were repressive forms of social control, born out of class conflict and designed to protect the vested interests of a wealthy and governing class.” [McLaughlin& Muncie, 2001: p 173]. So the Marxists do not agree with any kind of prison as a way to control crime and maintain law and order. They argue that capitalism is the source and cause of all the problems and offends in the society and only by changing the system in to a socialist system, they argue, we may put an end to all the social, economical and legal problems.
The Marxists argue that the houses of correction was not a humanitarian change in prison system but “the shift from prisons as places of custody to places of punishment and labour exploitation was based on economic rather than humanitarian motives: the principal objective was not the reformation of inmates, as argued by van der Silce, but the rational exploitation of their labour power.” [Ibid p 162]
Crime between Prevention and Punishment
Crime is one of the most dangerous diseases, we may think about treating criminals as we treat a man suffering from plague [Crow: 2001]. Crime as a disease needs prevention and treatment, but the prevention is more vital. The functionalists argue that the body of society is just like human body, when an organ is not functioning well it affects the whole body. From this point of view we may say that in order to have a healthy society we need to plan for crime prevention through reassuring morality and discipline. [Durkheim: 1960]
Discipline and morality put limitations to human desires and prevent individuals from entering the forbidden territory of crime. We may grow discipline and morality in the society through education and different social institutions. [Ibid] the functionalists agree with the idea of imprisonment as the last chance to deal with the offenders, as the selfishness of human nature is not always under control and through punishment we may show the people their limits. Crime and punishment is always a career opportunity for many many people in the society. [Ibid]
The Interactionists do not agree with the idea of imprisonment, they argue that crime and offence are belonging to our interior beings and we have to deal with it through creating healthier environment for the individuals and not labelling them with crime and deviance. [Becker: 1968]
Imprisonment labels people, interactionists argue, and pushes people to more offence rather than correcting them. This coincides with youth offenders who may enter prison for a small offence and coming out with a big knowledge about different crimes with the label of "you are criminal" in his mind. The so-called correction institutions such as prisons, mental health hospitals and etc., interactionists argue, confirm the identity of the labelled person and create a wider gap between him and the normal social life.
If we work for crime prevention or reducing it, that means there will be less people to go to prison and it may bring the level of prison use down to a significant degree. In the way for crime prevention we need to improve education, media, social institutions, youth organizations and health departments in a way to educate and grow a healthier generation. The government's policy towards the youth offenders by cooperation with the families is maintaining this theory, through support and advice for parents and through strengthening different social institutions in order to involve the young people in social, educational and employment activities not in crime. [Home Office May 21st 2003]
Prison and Punishment: Reality and Idealism
Different theorists have different views towards crime and punishment and there is always a gap between what is written in books and the real life “There is always likely to be a significant gap between the provision of formal justice " in the books" and substantive justice in practice, and this gap will almost inevitably be increased in an institution like the prison which lacks visibility and legitimacy, where prisoners are relatively powerless and where relationships between different groups of inhabitants are in a poor state.” [Cavadino & Dignan, 1997: p 145]
As crime is unavoidable from one hand and people need security from the other, so the next question is about the inevitability of prison. No government or authority could avoid prison totally but we may segregate the offenders between who may be controlled without prison and the most dangerous ones who have to be controlled immediately.
The condition of the prisons and the treatment of the offenders inside prison is another matter, because “men come to prison as a punishment not for punishment.” [Paterson, 1951:23] treating the prisoners both with justice and humanity and providing essential live necessities: through education, health and leisure facilities are vital to ensure the humane treatment. “Between 1984-5 and 1993-4, the education budget in prisons was reduced from 3.55 per cent of the Prison Service's budget to 2.94 per cent, and seems likely to fall even further as a result of prison budget cuts.” [Cavadino & Dignan, 1997: p 124]
