The United Kingdom has the highest rate of imprisonment in Europe. There are currently more than 75,000 people in custody and the number is rising. It costs approximately £37,500 a year to keep one person in custody. Despite more prisons being built the penal system is close to saturation.
Statistics suggest that more than 50 per cent will re-offend within two years of release. Community sentencing for less serious offences may give the offender an opportunity to put something back into the community that they have offended against.
Restorative Justice
When an offender is convicted and imprisoned to ‘pay their debt to society’ does that really happen? Is the victim or the community that the offence was perpetrated against ‘repaid’? Certainly the offender has been removed from society, but no debt is being repaid, rather the prison term is costing – around £42,000 per year in the case of a young offender.
Restorative Justice seeks to heal and restore the victims of crime through alternative methods. Community sentencing and reparation are promoted over imprisonment where appropriate. Victims may get the opportunity to face the offender to ask ‘Why me?’ and to seek an apology.
The offender, rather than being locked up where particularly in the case of young offenders they can learn more criminal skills, are helped to understand the pain and injury they have caused and to understand the full implications of their criminal activity. Such methods have been proven to reduce rates of re-offending.
Resources
The Restorative Justice Consortium is the independent umbrella body for restorative justice in England and Wales and provides information to the public and support and resources for its members who work in this field. It is a not for profit organisation.
> The Restorative Justice Consortium
Rethinking Crime and Punishment runs programmes to increase understanding and debate of options in the criminal justice system.