Do prisons work?

Crime is a social act that violates the laws of our society. Within our society since 1970, when capital punishment was permanently abolished, the ultimate sanction in English law has been an imprisonment sentence. For many people in our society, we expect people convicted of crimes to be sent to prison, and if this is not the case we usually say they “got off”. The true reality is, the convicts are locked up in our name, yet we know remarkably little about the life they lead. As there is currently around 65,500 people living behind bars in Britain, about the same number as live in Guildford, and eventually all but 33 “highly dangerous inmates” will be released, the prison topic has been a very controversial issue for many years. It is a debate that has had many political members involved in, especially after Lord Woolf's landmark report on the state of our jails 11 years previous. The main question opposed to our prison system is “Does it work?” is all the money being inve...