Incarceration has been used globally as punishment for law offenders throughout history. Increased crime rates in the modern world have called for harsher punishments to reduce criminal behavior and ensure public safety. Incarceration seems the most appropriate approach to reducing crime since criminals are incapacitated from further criminal and violent activities while in prison. Consequently, incarceration is meant to dissuade the criminal from committing further crimes and the public from attempting criminal behavior to enhance public safety. However, research suggests incarceration may not be suitable for ensuring public safety and reducing crime. Crimes may be prevented during incapacitation, which may lead to a recurrence of criminal activities after release. Additionally, imprisonment may contribute to violent and criminal behaviors through interactions with other inmates, which endangers public safety after incarceration. This essay is a literature review on the impact of incarceration on public safety, considering prison experiences and incarceration periods.
High incarceration rates have a significantly low impact on crime rates and violent behaviors which endangers public safety. The trend is growing weaker with time as imprisonment is becoming less associated with reducing crime rates. However, prison life may increase the risk of more crimes due to the harsh environment and the influence of inmate interactions. Haney’s (2019) research suggests that prison life increases crime rates due to exposure to other criminals with different crime rates, which may make an inmate vulnerable to acquiring the same criminal tendencies. The research is based on the social theory of behaviour changes, which suggests that people learn from their environment and experiences, which modifies their behavior (Stone et al., 2021). For instance, low-offense criminals may learn from high-offense criminals, making them more experienced in criminal activities when released. Thus, they become a danger to public safety because they are likely to re-offend with better criminal skills, such as violence and murder.
Numerous literature have discussed the positive effect of short-term incapacitation on public safety. However, there is limited research on the post-release outcomes for criminals who have served long prison sentences. Serving long sentences has been associated with increased recidivism due to psychological and social problems (Hasisi et al., 2019). Long-term incarceration may provide opportunities to reform through education, isolation, and counseling. At the same time, long-term imprisonment can lead to negative behaviors such as aggressiveness, drug addiction, and increased violence (Stone et al., 2021). Individuals who undergo short-term sentences demonstrate higher crime reduction rates and re-offending rates than criminals who serve longer jail terms.
Accordingly, long imprisonment exposes individuals to numerous harms, requiring aggressiveness and violence to survive. Many criminals turn to drugs to survive loneliness, social isolation, and the hardship of prison life (Stone et al., 2021). Addictive criminals have a high likelihood of recidivism to cater to their addiction since ex-convicts have difficulties obtaining employment and financial resources. Hence, they may resort to further criminal activities and violence to obtain money and survive. In other studies, prison experiences may traumatize individuals, making them psychologically distressed and posing risks to the public when released (Haney, 2019). Therefore, imprisonment may lead to psychological and addictive problems, which increase aggressiveness and cynicism towards the public and legal system, which endangers public safety.
An increase in incarceration may increase crime rates among particular populations and regions. A population’s crime rates may reach an inflection point where increasing imprisonment increases crime rates due to influential factors in the community. According to Pettit and Gutierrez (2018), the increase results from breaking social bonds and isolation from family and friends who may offer help during distress and vulnerability periods. Consequently, imprisonment separates dependents from their guardians and parents responsible for nurturing and providing basic needs. The deprivation of basic needs leads to criminal activity in obtaining financial resources. At the same time, the children and other family members left behind may resent the member’s legal system and the people who reported the criminal activity.
In such situations, the individual can be involved in criminal activities as retribution for their loved ones, leading to an increased crime rate in the community that endangers public safety. Pettit and Gutierrez’s (2018) research shows that communities from minority groups such as black Americans and Hispanics are vulnerable to increased crime rates due to incarceration. The concentration of crime is high in the neighborhoods because of deprivation from dependents and resentment towards the law, making it challenging to contain criminal tendencies. Conversely, ex-convicts significantly influence the population’s behavior when they are released, leading to generational crime activities and criminal networks (Bhuller et al., 2018). In this regard, incarceration may not be a suitable solution for vulnerable populations as they pose risks to public safety due to retribution and resentment of the law.
Although incarceration may seem the most suitable method of punishment to reduce crimes, it may lead to increased criminal activities. Prison experiences have numerous impacts on an individual, which may lead to negative or positive outcomes. In numerous research, the experiences cause adverse effects that can make the individual a danger to society when released. Long-term imprisonment has increased crime rates due to psychological and social problems. Incarceration can be traumatic, leading to aggressiveness and a lack of trust in others. Similarly, it may lead to addictive behaviors, which significantly cause criminal activities to sustain their addictive urges. Finally, breaking social bonds due to imprisonment affects the criminals and their families, who may have retribution tendencies and pose risks to the public. Therefore, incarceration risks public safety, and further research is required to find alternative approaches to punishment that have less risk of endangering the public.
References
Bhuller, M., Dahl, G. B., Løken, K. V., & Mogstad, M. (2018). Intergenerational effects of incarceration. AEA Papers and Proceedings, 108, 234–240.
Haney, C. (2019). Solitary confinement, loneliness, and psychological harm. Solitary Confinement, 129–152. Web.
Hasisi, B., Carmel, T., Weisburd, D., & Wolfowicz, M. (2019). Crime and terror: Examining criminal risk factors for terrorist recidivism. Journal of Quantitative Criminology, 36(3), 449–472. Web.
Pettit, B., & Gutierrez, C. (2018). Mass incarceration and racial inequality. American Journal of Economics and Sociology, 77(3-4), 1153–1182. Web.
Stone, A. G., Lloyd, C. D., & Serin, R. C. (2021). Dynamic risk factors reassessed regularly after release from incarceration predict imminent violent recidivism. Law and Human Behavior, 45(6), 512–523. Web.