WHY HAS PRISON EMERGED AS A PROMINENT FORM OF PUNISHMENT FOR MOST Essay

WHY HAS PRISON EMERGED AS A PROMINENT FORM OF PUNISHMENT FOR MOST CRIME AND WHAT ARE ITS FUNCTIONS IN RELATION TO WIDER SOCIETY - Essay Example In the last seven decades, a strong emphasis on rehabilitation, gave way to the focus of justice and fairness. In this case, sentences mainly reflect just deserts rather than utilitarian motive. There is also an emphasis on incarceration which reduces crime in the society. The crime control model has also become popular. Additionally, four major goals are emphasized in the modern prison and punishment sector which include retribution, incapacitation, deterrence, and rehabilitation. The three goals aim at protecting the general public (Smith, 2008, p. 6). Prisons are intended to serve four distinct functions: punishment, deterrence, ensuring public safety and security, and rehabilitation of a criminal offender (Flynn 1998). When a criminal is socially isolated and confined in prison, the intention is to remove this threat from society; a threat to the established social order in a region, thereby ensuring that his deviance can no longer disturb peaceful and compliant society members. Deterrence speaks to rehabilitation, changing an offender’s beliefs, values, perceptions and motivations to effectively restore his position in society and re-socialise him according to established societal norms related to morality and social harmony. The main goal of imprisonment is to give the offender adequate time to reflect on his criminal experiences and find, ultimately, repentance and remorse for these behaviours (Hanser 2012). The main function of prison is correction, ensuring that individuals who do not comply with established laws designed to uphold established social norms are punished according to their criminal deeds; hence through correction becoming more socially compliant. In essence, prisons serve as obedience education institutions. This has been the basic premise of utilising prisons to correct offenders throughout the modern era, suggesting that prisons could serve as centres of moral instruction to ensure that,