What is/are the alternative(‘s_) to prison?

• In Event: Prison Working Group: Rethinking punishment: Prison releases and alternatives to imprisonment

Abstract

This paper is about the alternative(s) to prison as the number of people held in penal institutions throughout the world, is more than 10.2 million. Across the world the median rate looks as following:
• United States has the highest prison population rate in the word with 716 per 100,000 of the national population. In England and Wales reaches the prison population rate around 178 per 100,000 people (Fair and Walmsley, 2023).
• Scandinavian countries have the lowest prison population rate in Europe: in Iceland is the rate about 29, whereas in Finland with 52 per 100,000 (Fair and Walmsley, 2023).
Another paramount element in the discussion of finding an alternative to prison is also the recidivism rate as it shows the effectiveness of the rehabilitation of ex-offenders into the society. Even though measuring recidivism bring certain challenges, because its definition differs from nation to nation, the figures show that the reoffending rate between one to five years varies between 15 to 45%. The recidivism rate in England and Wales varies from 46% to 76% respectively. Whereas in countries of European Union is between 25 to 50%. The statistics above show only a glimpse that one of the most important goals of prison, rehabilitation, is not only far of being reached but also increases the chances of reoffending. Prison has almost achieved a ‘hegemonic status’, making its function impregnable to serious criticism (Ryan and Ward, 2015). Therefore, finding alternatives to prison has become a necessity and it is a public intellectual deploying moral and political arguments to challenge hegemonic norms (Coyle and Scott, 2022). Even though, the abolitionists are often accused of naivety of ignoring the threat posed by serious offenders, the role of this paper is to open the path of alternatives solutions to the current incarceration system.

Author

• Merlinda A Bajo, Welfare Organisation Loerrach Germany