There has been an ongoing and heated debate on the effectiveness and costs of short-term prison sentences in the UK with regards to overcrowding of prisons in the UK. This article weighs into the debate, questioning whether or not short-term prison sentences are effective in doing their job and worth their cost.
First, the most significant outlook on this issue is the financial burden prisons place on the government. In the UK, the cost per prisoner is thirty-seven thousand pounds, whilst the cost per prison place is forty thousand pounds (both per year). This is a significant cost to the government and if they could manage to bring down the number of short-term prison sentences, they could instead use the money saved to tackle the roots of crime, perhaps by reducing factors such as poverty or by improving the provision of social care and education.
In addition, there are a multitude of social costs that may prove detrimental for those who are given short-term sentences. Once out of prison, people may find it so much harder to get re-employed as there is a stigma around prison sentences relating to reliability or productivity. It is quite clear that short-term prison sentences do solve community protection, for that brief time, and punish the offender. Compared to a community order, a short-term prison sentence genuinely feels like a harsher punishment for crimes that may have been committed. However, being incarcerated often does not lead to rehabilitation and this is due to the current situation in many prisons, where prisoners are forced to join gangs with threats of physical attacks hanging over them. In 2023, there were 28% more assaults recorded in prisons than the previous year, taking the figure up to 27,000. This shows that assaults in prisons are becoming even more common, the increase in overcrowding strongly correlating with the increase in assaults. This means that many people coming out of prison are more likely to commit crimes/be involved with gang violence, and short-term prison sentences can often have the opposite effect to what is intended in terms of rehabilitation.
To evaluate our last point, is there an inherent improvement in reoffending rates depending on short-term prison sentences? According to many studies, short-term prison sentences do not have any long-term effect on preventing reoffending, a major issue that the government should consider. According to MakeJusticeWork, 64% of those who have had a short-term prison sentence reoffend and compared to 34% for those who have done community service and 31% for those who have served sentences of over a year. This shows the ineffectiveness and lack of success for short-term prison sentences in this aspect, as community sentences and longer sentences improve the rate of reoffending to a greater extent. This leads us to think that with the lack of prison spaces, community sentences seem like the best choice to reform the crime within the population. The financial burden compared to the positive impacts on society are not worth it and short-term prison sentences should be replaced.
Before committing to this conclusion though, we should consider rehabilitation measures. Rehabilitation may be an alternative to short-term prison sentences for many offences and it was a priority under David Cameron’s government. However, in recent years, the policy faded from prominence and funding for it has fallen; since 2010, the number of prisoners taking rehabilitation courses in England and Wales has dropped 74%, accounting for twelve thousand fewer inmates per year. The government should invest in such courses again as a method to relieve stress on prisons and also to reform inmates making them less likely to reoffend; thus, there would also be a greater possibility for them to ease back into the workforce once their sentence is over. A possible investment into education or healthcare within prisons may also further help rehabilitation, yet to a lesser extent, as would reducing the over-crowding of prisons. This could lead to a reduction in assaults as detailed before, and an uplift in overall conditions within prisons.
To conclude, short-term prison sentences in the UK present a complex and costly issue, both financially and socially. While they provide a temporary solution for community protection and act as a punishment for offenders, they often fail to address the long-term goal of rehabilitation. The high costs associated with short-term incarceration, coupled with the increased likelihood of reoffending and the detrimental impact on prisoners’ prospects for employment, suggest that these sentences may not be the most effective solution. Moreover, with rising violence within prisons and evidence pointing to the ineffectiveness of short-term sentences in reducing reoffending rates, it is clear that alternatives such as community sentences, rehabilitation programmes, and investment in prison education and healthcare could be more beneficial. By focusing on these reforms, the government could not only reduce the financial strain on the prison system but also foster more meaningful rehabilitation, ultimately leading to a safer and more productive society.
