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Benefits Of Alternatives To Prisons

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Alternatives to prison include (restorative justice, fines, community service, curfews, probation, suspended sentences and referral orders)and are beneficial to offenders and community. Incarcerating a prisoner can cost up to ‘£80,047 a year at HMP Whitemoor’(Gov.UK,2018)(b)but on average is roughly ‘£35,182 a year’ (Prisonreformtrust.org.uk,2017,p5)depending upon category of prison. So using alternatives is cheaper. Offenders remaining in the community is beneficial if they are the main career of a child, stopping that child going into care. Furthermore, the offender may not be labelled as deviant especially women (double deviant)(Heidensohn,1996 in Maguire, Morgan and Reiner,2007,p400) and not stigmatised if they had gone to prison, and gain a better prospect of employment(Crowther,2007,p239). The offender can still have contact with family by remaining in the community, whereas in prison the offender can lose contact(location of prison too far away). This is especially prevalent to women in prison, with only twelve women’s prisons(womeninprison.org.uk, 2018). An …show more content…

RJ has been used for decades(Newburn,2017,p804) and is a way of dealing with disputes within the community. RJ can be used as an alternative or in conjunction with prison. It can be implemented through community conferencing, whereby several victims and offenders come together to discuss harm caused and talk how to amend it. For example, anti-social behaviour in the community. (CPS.Gov.uk,2018) RJ involves communication by an actual meeting(direct) or through indirect contact i.e. letter, video, email etc. (Wallis,2014,p2). When a face-to-face meeting is arranged between victim/offender a trained facilitator guides the meeting in a controlled environment, which reduces further harm. RJ gives offenders the opportunity to apologise, whereas in prison the victim may not have

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The CJSWR provides information on social work interventions and how these may impact upon offending behaviour. The CJSWR is a professional assessment and a registered social worker is accountable for the provision of CJSWRS and other reports sent to court which could have an impact on an individual’s liberty. Key features of the CJSWR include:- • The report should assist the sentencing process and provide information on risk of re-offending, risk of harm, offending related needs and suitable interventions. • Consideration should also be given to non-offending related needs, personal and social circumstances and the relationship with sentencing options.

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This system is meant to empower victims since their actions are not taken seriously in a court of law and form a procedure for repartitions without any lawyers (Hyde & Quest, 2012, page 293). The victim meets with her offender and they have an extensive counseling session. This technique may see unorthodox but it holds the defendant responsible for his actions and could be therapeutic. Another conflict of this case was that Brock Turner not only spent a short amount of time paying for his crime but he never took ownership.

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This type of justice system is designed very differently when compared with the retributive justice system. The restorative justice system endeavours to bring the victim and the offender together and allow them to speak with each other in the hopes to support the healing process. It will enable the victims to express themselves to the offender and lets the offender apologize and express their feelings to the victim. The restorative justice system often offers the victims of crime closure. The system encourages both parties to reveal themselves to each other and develop a solution for the future to satisfy both parties involved.

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They offer more diverse options than simply being locked in a cell for years, decades, or one's entire life. I'll also bet that these alternate sanctions are even better at aiding the incarcerated in reflecting on their crimes than any prison or jail cell ever

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I am a student from Carolina High School and Academy our school wants to make it possible to incorporate “RJ” into our everyday discipline rules this meaning that we want to give students a second chance to talk about how they felt or why they felt a certain

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One possible alternative route to the prison system could be a boarding school type system where convicts are required to participate in an educational program that gives them the knowledge and ability to be released and given the needs to go make something better of the life they have been given. This system where they are required to participate in educational training would come along side a strict rule system that would encourage them to make the decision to choose something better. The debate is whether or not prison is beneficial or not for those who will be convicted, sentenced, and released. Whether we change the system or not there will always be crime and

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(October 2009). A Story about RJ City's Response to Crime, Victims, and offenders. Retrieved from http://www.rjcity.org/the-project/documents/Case%20Study%2030-10-09.pdf Schmalleger, F. (2010). Criminal Law Today (4th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice

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In order for this harm to be repaired there must be a restorative justice practice. The restorative justice would help offenders by repairing the harm to victims and the community. For example, offenders would take responsibility of their actions. What went well is that Adelina was able to apologize to Jackie for stealing her cell phone. We came in an agreement that Adeline would do sixty hours of community service.

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First, offenders are to take responsibility and accountability for their actions and responds to the damage they’ve caused the victim(s). The offender must then act to ‘repair the damage’ this may include letters of apology, restitution, or community service. Next, victim-offender mediation programs involve the competency of the offender. This means the offender’s ability to function as a dynamic and fully capable citizen – this is related to inducing empathy in offenders, teaching them both communication and conflict resolution skills. Lastly, public safety includes having new relationships between the community, offender, and the victim.

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Victim-Offender reconciliation(mediation) and Conferencing in Prisons There are many restorative justice practices that have been developed over the past many years. However, most of these practices are employed and adopted in community settings, including the Victim-Offender Reconciliation(mediation) and conferencing. This program first introduced in Canada around early 1970’s in Ontario as an experiment with the name of Victim Offender Mediation(Dhami et al, 2009).

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4 Criticism and Challenges The first point of criticism against victim participation in restorative justice processes arises from scepticism about an apology to the victim as a way of dealing with criminal matters. The perception sometimes exists as to it simply being a way to get away with the crime.106 Members of the public should thus be educated to understand that restorative justice is more than a mere saying sorry, but in the context of victim offender mediation or family group conferences it rather affords the victim the opportunity to confront the child offender with the real and human cost of his or her criminal actions. Another concern deals with the possible secondary victimisation of the victim in the case where the offender pretends

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They have more opportunities because they have not been locked in a cell for a number of years. Instead in restorative justice the offender is required to do things like community service and communicating with the victim of their crime. Giving offenders more options after they have committed a crime can help them get back on their feet because they would have a better chance of getting a job. They would have a better chance of getting a job because they wouldn’t be out of a job as long as if they were in jail for years. Also hopefully by the offender not spending years in jail and doing things like community service they learn their lesson and will be less likely to commit another crime in the future compared to someone who spent years in jail.

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However, crimes are committed whilst in prison, such as drugs and assaults. Some critics say the ‘three strikes and you are out’ law where repeat offenders get a longer sentence are wrong, as the third strike could be a lesser crime such as public disorder. Nevertheless, if just incapacitation and no rehabilitation some critics say will be costlier to society as they will go out and reoffend and, they are not employed and pay taxes. Rehabilitation is also a punishment which should improve the offender's behaviour and stop them committing crimes. Advocates of rehabilitation state prison does not work; however, critics of rehabilitation state prison does work as the criminal cannot commit a crime against the public while incarcerated (Cavadino, 2007 p 36/56).

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The very first victim-offender mediation then called victim-offender reconciliation program was started in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada in 1976. Although this process was first created in Canada, it was not implemented in the United States until 1978. The first case took place when a youth probation officer convicted a judge that two youths convicted of vandalism should meet the victim of their crimes and serve a probation constructed sentence instead of using the traditional justice system route. That’s how victim-offender mediations began as a probation-based/post-conviction sentencing alternative inspired by a probation officer 's belief that victim-offender meetings could be helpful to both parties. As time passed the programs began to grow

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The shortcoming of this approach is that it is not appropriate for more serious crimes such as rape and murder, because in cases like those, most of the time there is nothing that offenders can do to restore the loss or make things right The benefit of this approach is that all parties who are involved get the chance to face each other. The victims get an opportunity to be directly involved in the process and get a chance to respond to the crime committed against them. The offender becomes aware of how their offense has impacted the victim, and this in turn allows the offender to take responsibility and to apologize or show remorse to their wrong doings. Through the process healing is promoted to all the parties involved, the offender might be required to pay for the harm caused.

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