Community Penalties

Is it effective? Re-offending Cost

What do the number show?

Re-offending rates young offenders Re-offending rates adults

Discouraging examples: Adult drug treatment penalties almost 90% re-offend Curfew orders among young offenders almost 80% re-offend

Encouraging examples
Staffordshire reduced to half the re-offending rates Bedford Cut the re-offending rates by 58%, bringing an overall drop of 6% in the local crime rate Hartlepool 2/3 of those who completed the project have not re-offended (07-2006)

Approximate costs of prison: Cost of adult prison sentence (year) 23,000 38,000 Cost of keeping an under 18-year-old in custody - 42,000

Approximate costs of community sentences: Community rehabilitation order - 3,000 Community punishment order - 2,000 Community punishment and Rehab - 4,000 Drug treatment and Testing order - 8000 ISSP - 8000

What do the numbers show? Effectiveness changes between different penalties and offenders The cost of a community sentence is lower but can there be unaccounted costs?

Community Penalties in Iceland

Community Penalties in Iceland

Capacity in Iceland 300,000 people. Most people live in Reykjavik, 75% Definition: ....temporary unpaid labour of some sort. Offenders who have been fined or convicted of a sentence of maximum 6 months, which is not eligible for parole, can apply to serve their sentence in the form of a community penalty. (www.fangelsi.is)

Offenders who served community penalties in Iceland from 1995-2005

The Circle (Hringurinn)

A project between the Police in Reykjavik and the Social Services Aim: New ways in convicting young offenders Offender cooperation Ideology: Restorative justice Offender and victim meet

Circle (Hringurinn)
Inform the young offender of his wrongdoings, and seek solutions. Advantages:
Quick Inexpensive outside judicial system preventive affects

That all for the Community Penalties in Iceland

Community Penalties in Portugal

Eligibilities to apply to The Community Penalties

The offender cannot be sentenced for more than 1 year.

The offender needs to work between 36 and 380 hours per year.

The offender needs to have a clean criminal record.

Medium to Low Level Crime

Petty juvenile street crime

Vandalism

Offenders who served community penalties From 1995-2005*

Substitution of the fine for non-pay work

Non-pay work

* Provisory data collected between 01-01-05 to 31-05-05 from Ministry of Justice.

Evolution of Non-paid work (1995-2005*)

* Provisory data collected between 01-01-05 to 31-05-05 from Ministry of Justice.

Graph displaying the increase in offenders choosing fines over non-paid work as a punishment to crimes (1995-2005*)

* Provisory data collected between 01-01-05 to 31-05-05 from Ministry of Justice.

There is nothing inside the prison that I should learn. I feel like all the doors will be closed for me in the next few years.
(Testimony of a prisoner sentenced to 7 years in prison, 2006)

Community Penalties in Poland

Different Popular Perspectives

Not painful enough Public in general can control the offender More easy to integrate Institution change people for worse Outcomes in courts Conditional discharge Suspended prison sentence Fines (the most common of community penalties) Non payable work (very rare) Programmes and treatments are used only in closed institutions Drug rehabilitation programmes e.g MONAR The probation service

Probation and supervision commonly used with young offenders

33,012 probation officers for 755,555 offenders 558,934 convicted by law courts 196,621 convicted by juvenile courts More than 22 offenders per Probation Officer

Community Penalties in Cyprus

Community Penalties in Cyrus

Not common
Still trying to catch up Underdevelopment of Criminal Justice System

Crime control isnt a governments and population priority concern

The few existing cases are regulated by Cyprus Social Welfare System

Community Penalties in Cyprus

Unpaid work (young offenders) Specific activities (young offenders) Programmes (young offenders) Mental and health treatment Drug and alcohol rehab Prohibitions, curfew, exclusions Cyprus as a small country Most of the community penalties are not imposed by courts Less serious offences are 'solved' inside the communities High levels of social control Punishment is decided and imposed by the community itself

Life in Prisons

(The Lament of Innocent)

Prisons are detrimental for Homo Sapiens's Health.

TB can be more 100 times more common in prison than outside and HIV infection can be 75 times more likely in prisons (Vivien S., 2001) Mental illness in Prisons : New York
On early every site visit we encountered individuals in states of extreme desperation: men weeping in their cells, men who had smeared faces on their bodies or lit their cells on fir, prisoners who cut their own flesh, inmates who rambled incoherently and paced about their cells like caged animals (Correction Assoc. of NY, 2004:54)

It is not easy!!!!! I often feel Ive got ex-prisoner stamped on my forehead. (Goulding, 2004) A criminal record prevents them from taking up many jobs. In 14 states almost all criminal convictions are listed on the Internet for anyone to see. Some states ban people with certain convictions from public housing.
(Stern, 2006)

Driving license can be suspended or revoked in 27 states from some drug offences. (Legal action centre New York, 2004) Reconviction rate is high.

It is not wonder why imprisonment does not work

Life After Prison How Easy Is it?

References:
Stern, V. (2006) Behind the Bars: The Injustice of Prison in Stem, V. Creating Criminals: Prisons and People in a Market Society, London; Zed Books, 43-44 .

Money matter !?
How much we have to spend our tax to this matter? The lesser, the better!?

Worlds 10 highest Imprisoners (prison population rates per 100,000 of the national population)
United States of America Russian Federation Belarus Turkmenistan Cuba Suriname Belize Ukraine St. Kitts and Nevis Maldives Islands. 724 * 550 532 489 487 437 420 416 415 414 Latest figure (end 2004)

Worlds 10 lowest Imprisoners

489Burkina Faso 487Nepal I437ndia Nigeria Gambia Mali Sudan Republic of Guinea Indonesia Monaco
Reference: The statistics were taken from World Prison Brief Online, 28 June 2005. (Cited in Stem, V. (2006) p.48.

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