Why Jails Don't Work
This is how it goes, you see a bad guy on the evening news and your reflex is to punish him. "Lock him up and throw away the key!" You shout! And that is what we do. We put people in cages, subject them to years of sexual assaults, cut them off from society and hurt their families in the process. All under the belief that punishment stops future crime, rehabilitates offenders, and protects the public. For generations, we have trusted that prisons and jails make us safer. However, they do not.
A growing body of evidence shows that punishment often fails to achieve what we expect it to. Instead of making people better, people who punish often create the very monsters they are trying to avoid. In other words, we create what we hate by using evil to fight evil.
What follows is an eight-paragraph exploration of why prisons and punishment-based systems do not work the way we imagine — and why it may be time to rethink the very foundations of how we respond to crime.
1st
Punishment does surprisingly little to deter future crime. We often assume that harsh sentences — or even the threat of them — scare people into better behaviour. However, the evidence behind this belief is thin. Prison as Punishment: A Behaviour-Analytic Evaluation of Incarceration notes, “if prison is seen as an all-encompassing intervention, it lacks empirical support of effectiveness.” In other words, locking people up does not reliably reduce re-offending. It may satisfy our desire to punish, but it does not do the job we think it does.
2nd
Incarceration and other punitive responses bring along collateral harm, which makes reintegration more difficult — and thus more likely to result in further offending. Countless studies are showing that time in prison often leads to worse physical and mental health, greater social isolation, greater stigmatization, lower likelihoods of finding employment, and less formation of a social bond. As one article says, incarceration is the catalyst that “makes health, social conditions and post-release vulnerability worse.” BioMed Central +1. These are precisely the sorts of conditions that make relapse into crime more likely, not less.
3rd
the expectation that longer or harsher sentences are effective solutions is unsupported and possibly misguided. In a meta-analysis of Canadian studies, scholars concluded that prison yields “slight increases in recidivism” rather than decreases, even after a custodial sentence versus a community-based sanction, Office of Justice Programs. In addition, in a quasi-experimental design in Sweden, time prior to parole eligibility did not result in a significant reduction in re-offending. OUCI. Alternatively, worse: the punishment has diminishing or negative returns.
4th
The prison environment in itself may work as a criminogenic agent. Indeed, by confronting individuals with toughening peers, deep-rooted criminal cultures and an institutionalized worldview, the net impact of time imprisoned might be to exacerbate criminality or solidify an identity of “offender.” For example, one article wrote: “prison becomes part of this counterculture … recidivism and a return to prison is likely” because the institution does not socialize people into the hegemonic norm. Office of Justice Programs. This process detracts from rehabilitation and perpetuates a cycle of damage.
5th
the post-release context generally works against successful outcomes. People released from prison struggle to find steady work, secure housing, rebuild relationships, and overcome the social stigma of their criminal record. Research has shown some definite patterns in prison conditions. A few studies found that when people leave jail with few resources and face social exclusion, they are more likely to reoffend. The Office of Justice Programs says these issues are particularly high among people who have never served time before. When we overlook reintegration supports and let punishment stand unchallenged, we fail to reduce reoffending and instead increase a person’s risk of returning to crime. We increase one’s risk of reoffending rather than decrease it.
6th
When we emphasize punishment too much, we fail to consider better alternatives. Community-based sentences, rehabilitation programs, education, and supportive interventions hold real promise. One big review of psychological interventions in prison, for instance, had only limited success and highlighted the challenge of just “adding” better programs to a punitive environment without transforming the system itself (PubMed). Nevertheless, incarceration remains the dominant policy, even as it is expensive and results in significant harm.
7th
We need to ask, ethically and morally, whether the way we are currently punishing supports public safety. If punishment merely perpetuates reoffending, harms communities, and increases social costs, then we need to question why we continue to rely on it. A recent study found that presenting people with scientific evidence on deterrence reduces their support for harsher penalties (SpringerLink). When people see that punishment may not solve the problem as they once believed, their opinions can shift.
8th
Lastly, to effect real change, we need to move from a punishment-based mindset to one that focuses on restoration, reintegration, and harm prevention. Minimizing the harm caused by crime, and the harm done to those caught up in the system, means investing in education, employment, mental health care, and community support. Research shows that each additional year of schooling lowers the likelihood of incarceration and criminal conviction (OUP Academic). So instead of viewing crime as a problem of “bad people who need punishment,” we should see it as the result of a system that reacts rather than reforms, one that punishes rather than prevents future harm.
Conclusion
In short, punishment has poor deterrent effects, causes collateral damage, can funnel people into more serious crimes, and does so at the expense of resources that could be applied to better alternatives. The evidence is clear: Far from making people better, our punishment system often makes them worse or does little to change them. If the goals are safer communities and more life-changing outcomes, a shift away from punishment as a means of curing unwanted human behaviour is essential.
Now, you lament, "How can we let all of the child molesters and murderers go free?" We do not. Some people need to be removed from mainstream society because they present a real risk to others. That said, please understand that the vast majority of people behind bars are not dangerous; they are simply there as a form of punishment. When I talk about better ways to improve the criminal mind, I am not speaking about serial killers and child rapists. They are extreme cases and how they should be treated is a topic far too complicated for this discussion.