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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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