John Paul Wootton questions the usefulness of prisons.

My impression is that when a lot of people think of justice, they think that if people do something wrong, they should be punished and imprisonment is a natural outthinking of this.

But is it that simple?

A serious lack of understanding on the part of the general public about how justice is dispensed and the realities of prison. If people were actually involved in administering justice themselves, within their own communities, I believe a very different and much more humane system would emerge.

The chances are, many people will know someone who has been to prison. If this applies to you, then you’ll know how difficult it was for that person and the damage it can do, and probably has done already to someone you care about.

Had you been given the opportunity to free your loved one immediately, I’m sure very few would choose to keep them locked away. The question is this – if you could free your brother your partner or your daughter, why would you not free someone else’s?

You might say “Oh, but we have to prevent crime” or “society wouldn’t be safe if we just let everyone go…” And whilst I understand that thinking, we need to ask ourselves, honestly, if imprisonment is actually preventing crime or making society safer because the evidence would suggest that it isn’t.

Criminological study has garnered much evidence on the different factors contributing to the presence of crime in our society. These tend to be socio-economic and include poverty levels, low educational attainment and poor career prospects to name but a few.

Issues with mental health and drug addiction are also hugely important.

The key point to be made is that, not only can all these factors be addressed outside of prison, in the community, but many solutions are actually impeded by imprisonment and some issues are even intensified by its harmful effects.

The approach to formal education offers an example. If the education system outside the prison has failed people already a much more inadequate system within the prison doesn’t stand much of a chance. In prison, people are offered a narrow choice of courses (with large waiting lists) that are uninteresting to most and are available only at levels too low to, on their own, improve people’s opportunities. Also studying in a prison environment is, in itself, a challenge many are unable to overcome.

Instead of wasting so much of our society’s resources on propping up a system of ‘justice’ and imprisonment that has clearly not been successful in improving the situation, we should focus our efforts on addressing those factors that contribute to crime by, for example, improving our education system. Doing this successfully would soon allow us to reduce the harm done in society both to the victims of crime and to those who find themselves imprisoned due to factors outside their immediate control.

➽John Paul Wootton is imprisoned in Maghaberry.

Questioning Imprisonment

John Paul Wootton questions the usefulness of prisons.

My impression is that when a lot of people think of justice, they think that if people do something wrong, they should be punished and imprisonment is a natural outthinking of this.

But is it that simple?

A serious lack of understanding on the part of the general public about how justice is dispensed and the realities of prison. If people were actually involved in administering justice themselves, within their own communities, I believe a very different and much more humane system would emerge.

The chances are, many people will know someone who has been to prison. If this applies to you, then you’ll know how difficult it was for that person and the damage it can do, and probably has done already to someone you care about.

Had you been given the opportunity to free your loved one immediately, I’m sure very few would choose to keep them locked away. The question is this – if you could free your brother your partner or your daughter, why would you not free someone else’s?

You might say “Oh, but we have to prevent crime” or “society wouldn’t be safe if we just let everyone go…” And whilst I understand that thinking, we need to ask ourselves, honestly, if imprisonment is actually preventing crime or making society safer because the evidence would suggest that it isn’t.

Criminological study has garnered much evidence on the different factors contributing to the presence of crime in our society. These tend to be socio-economic and include poverty levels, low educational attainment and poor career prospects to name but a few.

Issues with mental health and drug addiction are also hugely important.

The key point to be made is that, not only can all these factors be addressed outside of prison, in the community, but many solutions are actually impeded by imprisonment and some issues are even intensified by its harmful effects.

The approach to formal education offers an example. If the education system outside the prison has failed people already a much more inadequate system within the prison doesn’t stand much of a chance. In prison, people are offered a narrow choice of courses (with large waiting lists) that are uninteresting to most and are available only at levels too low to, on their own, improve people’s opportunities. Also studying in a prison environment is, in itself, a challenge many are unable to overcome.

Instead of wasting so much of our society’s resources on propping up a system of ‘justice’ and imprisonment that has clearly not been successful in improving the situation, we should focus our efforts on addressing those factors that contribute to crime by, for example, improving our education system. Doing this successfully would soon allow us to reduce the harm done in society both to the victims of crime and to those who find themselves imprisoned due to factors outside their immediate control.

➽John Paul Wootton is imprisoned in Maghaberry.

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