Law and Criminality: Do

lengthy jail sentences help

reform criminals

Rationale
I decided on this topic because of the recent news I
have been hearing about inmates being released but
later going back to jail. According to the report,
the rate of re-offenders is 47% in Kenya and only
seems to increase. Some of these offenders are going
back to jail for the accommodations that the prison
provides especially during this time due to the
inflated prices.According to oxford university
research achieve, the journal of criminal justice,
the more criminogenic a country is the more
recidivism cases it is likely to come across.It
scares even the very law enforcers who are supposed
to correct them let alone civilians in society. So
why is it that putting criminals in jail does not
give us the expected and desired outcome now more
than ever after the pandemic hit, the prison system
seems to lose its effect more and more. Only serving
to hold people found against the law rather than
reform them. Why doesn't the prison system seem to
reform anymore?

What are prisons

A prison is a place of confinement for law
offenders.To end up there you have committed a crime
whether serious or petty and have been found guilty
usually but there are some who are still undergoing
persecution.
A brief background of prisons, they were invented in
1000 BC to lock people up who had not paid their
debts or killed someone, they were kept there
awaiting death banishment or slavery.

In modern day society they are still used for

confinement of alleged and convicted law breakers.
Except instead of awaiting a gruesome death or
blatant slavery they are kept there in hopes of
reforming them and releasing them back into society
as changed human beings who are worthy of respect.
Yet they slowly became a permanent solution to any
law offender keeping them there because they did
something bad and should be shoved behind bars for
an amount of time because we are scared of what they
might do.

ISSUE

I am glad that there is awareness being raised for

the conditions of prisons and the mental health and
humanity of prisoners. The act of reforming prisons
is described as any intention or act of trying to
better the conditions inside prisons to help
actually reform the human beings being held there.
To be considered a reformed person according to
prisons you have to

● Have education
● Honed your work skills to support yourself once
released
● Have impulse control
● Learn to treat others with respect
● Have self discipline when faced with frustration
or provocation
 ● Show no recurring sines of law breaking
● Have high self esteem.

So how do they implement this?

Well in kenya they engage in labour such as soap
making or carpentry and other hard skills which they
hone in order to acquire a job once released into
society.They either seat down for lessons but some
teach, others cook but only after a certain period
of time where it is evident that their mental health
is ok so as to not have poisoning or bullying
incidents.They also engage in some socialising and
physical activities during their free time. They
have counsellors and do get visited by family and
friends. The prisoners participate in community
service, whether it's picking up trash on the roads
or part of labour like making number plates under
supervision of course.

Who is in prison?
It sounds like a stupid question right. I mean most
of them are bad guys, criminals who you know
committed crimes. Why am I still writing? Because
honestly it's not that simple. Some of the people in
those prisons actually have not been sentenced. This
problem seems to be more dire as you move away from
first world countries.29% - 30.% of prisoners have
not received a sentence which makes me question how
many of them deserve to be in there. This is a map
of how the world is doing in terms of unsentenced
detainees
There are a total of 60,000 people in prison, this
includes the petty or not so serious offenders. They
make up 103 of the population of Kenya, 100,000.
Only 0.6% are juveniles and under 18 which is the
age of consent in kenya.

Worldwide however there is a total of 11.5 million

people in prison from petty offenders to juveniles
and hardcore offenders. According to statistics from
here, they are 120 countries are working above the
limit but with a bit of improvement as prison
becomes less of the immediate response to law
breakers, at least worldwide but here in kenya it
continues to become less of a rehabilitation centre
and the run to solution for offenders becoming more
of a time out corner whenever the law doesn't really
feel like handling the issue. More cases of remand
convicts in prison continue to add up not only
because of the new legislations seem to contribute
to the problem along with cases of violence against
a person and drug affairs or association in such.

Causes
Poor mental health
Firstly one of the most heavy factors and reasons why
inmates keep going back to jail is their mental health.
These inmates had mental issues that they had or then
developed going into prison. These issues are not treated
and might drip down into their life. Imagine coming fresh
out of jail back to society and you are shined from the
public. No one is helping you or offering any support and
if they are little. With all this pressure from life you
would want to go back where you were more expected or you
might fall back into your old habits that lead you to
commit the crime in the first place.Its been estimated
that 31% of females and 14.5% of males have serious mental
issues. With these statistics we should probably be
prioritising the mental health aspect.Since they are at
more risk of suicide and self harm. Insight of this,there
have been movements started in order to improve this but
it has not been too effective.

Environment
Another reason for inmates going back to prison is that
they are being released back into their old habits and not
having a chance to find a new way of life and instead are
continuing to rot in their toxic environments.Its the time
old tale of pear pressure, the individual is too scared of
no longer being valued or maybe they have no one else to
rely on or anywhere else to go.

A lack of employment
This could cause inmates to go back into jail more often
than not because of maybe the stain on the resumes or
maybe while in jail they did not get to improve their
skills or get new ones that would help them get jobs.

Wrong Approach
The heavy focus of punishment instead of actual care and
understanding towards the individuals that are there. If
we just sent prisoners to jail to get punished then what's
the point of keeping them there for that long we might as
well just go back to be executed.Goijnt to visit these
inmates won't do as much as we hope because they will
continue to rot in there prisons like farm animals instead
they are being whatever blah blah blah first name
backstory stuff whatever.

Stigma
The stigma tied in with being in prison could cause them
to isolate or miss being back in prison because they are
not heavily shamed by their past or actions. We know just
how cold and unforgiving society could be.

Comfort
Some prisoners have grown accustomed to the life behind
bars and have found it to be better than the life they
left behind. Maybe they were poor and barely got by
without food and starved on the streets.Now that they are
in prison they can get food on a daily basis even if it's
not of quality, it's something more than what they used to
get. Because of this after getting released they might opt
to commit the same crime to get back because it's
comfortable. NO bills, no stress of trying to find food
especially if they are on their own.

Consequences

Due to these long and usually unnecessary sentences these inmates

begin to develop unhealthy mindset
. Another consequence of imprisonment could be that the inhumane
way that they are treated in jail could be causing crime intern.
This phenomenon was dubbed as the crime school. You have learnt of
possibly new and crafty ways to get away with crime after learning
other people’s stories. Putting these individuals in the
psychological torture that is prison could be what is leading to
more crime. Due to this some children do not have the emotional
support from their parents and are left to raise themselves.A
fourth effect of prison is the development of antisocial
identities that can not cope well with the society that they left
behind.This could also be the source of the hatred and
dehumanisation of inmates by the world at large.

National perspectives
The national perspective I would like to provide focuses on
America.The first study that I would like to provide: Leighton,
M., & de la Vega, C. (2007) . Sentencing our children to die in
prison. University of San. This study talks about how children were
being sentenced to life in prison, these are juveniles that we are
sending to prison for the rest of their lives moving from one cell
to the other. How did we become so lacking in empathy , sympathy
and understanding for these children.This matter should never have
occurred, these life sentences are not the way to correct and
reform our children.
After calculation these were my statistics. 44 states allow
(LWOP)life without parole sentences for juveniles. 11 states and
the District of Columbia either do not allow or do not appear to
practise LWOP sentences for juveniles. 39 states appear to apply
it in practice. These minors are being tried as adults instead of
what they actually are, children.

. The judges think not of what emotional and physical trauma they
are putting these children through as they are more likely to be
exposed defensless to rape and violence. Of Course when you throw
in one of the most noticeable ingredients which is racism into the
mix it starts to get a lot worse.Leighton states that ”Although
significant racial disparities exist in the overall juvenile
justice system, African American children are reportedly serving
life without possibility of release sentences at a rate that is 10
times higher than white children”. This means that not only is
this neglect of international law it might also include some
injustice just because of your skin colour.

This transfer of minors from juvenile holding to adult prisons has

so far decreased but is still there. As you can see, the problem
of long and ineffective sentences trickles down to our children
who are supposed to be our future.

Global perspective
Lengthy sentences seem to mildly affect the process of
reforming. The general recidivism was under 60% in most
countries, 2- 4 years after release. Cases of violence and
drug abuse had the highest recidivism rates followed by cases
of property and cases of sexual violence had the least
recidivism rates. This data helps to show that long periods in
the slammer are not going to do anything much for the
prisoners that you are trying to turn into better citizens. It
is quite embarrassing that we can call ourselves evolved
species when we can’t connect simple dots like these. Its
inhumane and a waste of time to keep people in prison for 30
years when we can take the correct steps to actually make this
world a better place.