Incarceration: Are prisons a suitable punishment?

Glossary

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A
Accountable

• Someone who is responsible or expected to justify their actions.

Adversarial trial

• A trial whereby the opposing sides of a legal case are represented by prosecution and defence
lawyers. They present evidence, question witnesses and conduct cross-examinations in front of
the judge and jury (who make the final decision if the defendant is guilty or not).

Austerity

• Having no comforts or luxuries.

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C
Certified normal accommodation (figure)

• The uncrowded capacity of prisons, representing the good, decent standard of accommodation
that the Prison Service aspires to provide all prisoners.

Community Order (CO)

• A sentence given to an offender whereby they must complete one or more requirements, such
as abiding by a curfew or completing unpaid work.

Conditional discharge

• An order made by a criminal court whereby an offender will not be sentenced for an offence
unless a further offence is committed within a stated period.
Custodial sentence

• Imposing a mandatory punishment in a supervised setting, either in prison or in some other

closed therapeutic or educational institution.

Custody

• Imprisonment.

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D
Decarceration

• The rise in treatment, often medical or therapeutic, of offenders in the community.

Denunciation

• When someone is ‘shamed’ or has their crime displayed publically.

Desistance

• When a convict has stopped offending or no longer engages in antisocial behaviour.

Dispersal of Discipline

• Moving from the state control of justice to wider society, designating technology and
commerce into the mechanisms of punishment.

Due process

• A Criminal Justice System that is transparent and fair.

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E
Enhanced Thinking Skills (ETS)

• A cognitive-behavioural programme available to offenders in prison. Promotes moral reasoning

and aims to address and give coping strategies for issues such as impulsivity, control, problem
solving and critical reasoning.

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H
Home Office

• A ministerial department of the UK Government with responsibility for immigration, security

and law and order – including the Police. Responsibility for prisons was moved from the Home
Office to the Ministry of Justice in 2007.

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I
Incapacitated

• When someone who is temporarily or permanently impaired by mental and/or physical

deficiency, disability, illness, or by the use of drugs to the extent that they lack sufficient
understanding to make rational decisions or act responsibly.

Incapacitation

• Separating an offender from society or preventing them from committing another crime.

Indictable offences

• An offence where the defendant has the right to trial by jury, such as murder, rape and
threatening or endangering life.

Isolation

• See: Solitary confinement

Institutionalised

• Being placed in an institution, such as prison, for so long that the person relies on that lifestyle
and has become detached from the outside world.

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J
Judge

• A public officer appointed to decide cases in a law court, usually for more major offences.

Jurisdiction

• The official power to make legal decisions and judgements.

Jury

• A group of people brought together to provide an impartial verdict in adversarial trials.

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L
Less eligibility

• Originally from the Poor Law (1834) stating that, in order to act as a deterrent, conditions in the
workhouse should not be better than the average living conditions outside. This is often used in
discussing prison conditions.

Life imprisonment

• A sentence which lasts until the death of the prisoner, although in most cases the prisoner will
be eligible for parole (or early release) after a fixed period set by the judge (the ‘tariff’).

Loss of liberty

• Losing freedom of movement, either by custody or curfew.

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M
Magistrate

• A volunteer civilian officer who administers the law for summary and some triable-either-way
offences. Usually three magistrates will sit as a bench in the criminal courts.

Miscarriage of justice

• A failure of a court or judicial system to attain justice, especially if an innocent person is

convicted.

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N
Net widening

• A concept that suggests if you introduce more forms of punishment, more people will be
convicted.

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O
On remand

• A person held in custody whilst awaiting a criminal trial or sentencing.

Ombudsman

• An official who represents the interests of the public by investigating and addressing complaints,
including those of prisoners.

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P
Penology

• The study of criminal punishments, including prisons, probation supervision and rehabilitation.

Presentation of the self

• A concept originating from Goffman, where it is believed an individual will change their
behaviour to adapt to different situations.

Prison categories

• Categories assigned to every adult prisoner in the UK, based on the severity of the crime
committed and the risk posed if the offender were to escape.

Probation Service

• Called the ‘National’ Probation Service since 2001. It assists with supervising offenders and to
administer punishment in the community, such as Community Orders, unpaid work etc.

Pro-social modelling

• Demonstrating a different lifestyle that moves away from crime, based on positive aspects of
living (i.e. the opposite of anti-social).

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R
Reasoning and Rehabilitation programme

• A cognitive-behavioural programme available to offenders in prison. Promotes moral reasoning

and aims to address and give coping strategies for issues such as impulsivity, control, problem
solving and critical reasoning.
Recidivism rate

• The reconviction rate of a country.

Re-entry

• Term used in the US to refer to prisoners leaving prison and entering back into the community.

Rehabilitation

• Assisting the reintegration of offenders to prevent reoffending.

Reparation

• The intention to right wrongs and pay back an individual or the community.

Release on license

• When an offender is released from prison under certain conditions, supervised by probation. If
the license conditions are broken the offender may be sent back to prison.

Resettlement

• Re-entry into the community after a period of custody.

Restorative justice

• See reparation.

Revolving door syndrome

• When resettlement of an offender is not successful and they repeatedly come back to prison for
further offences.

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S
Security

• The day-to-day security of a prison, i.e. holding offenders securely, preventing escape or
violence.

Social security benefits claim

• The act of making an application for a range of benefits.

Solitary confinement

• A form of imprisonment in which an inmate is isolated from any human contact, except members
of prison staff, for 22–24 hours a day. This is no longer used as a sentence in England and Wales.

Suspended Sentence Order (SSO)

• When a sentence is given but immediate custody is not required. It is delayed (up to a period of
two years) subject to the criminal not reoffending and also allowing for a period of probation. A
breach could see the offender recalled and sent to custody.

Symbolic denunciation

• A sentence which serves as public disapproval or shaming, such as throwing rotten tomatoes at
offenders in stocks (historic) or publishing images of an offender and their crime.

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T
Thinking Skills Programme (TSP)

• A cognitive behavioural change programme for offenders in prison based on pro-social modelling.
Previously called Essential Thinking skills (ETS).

Through-care

• Continuing care, rehabilitation and assistance in the community following a period in custody
(for example, drug rehabilitation, medical care or education provision).

Triable-either-way offences

• A crime that may be tried either as an indictable offence (with the right to a judge and jury)
or a summary offence (without the right to a judge and jury), depending on the perceived
seriousness.

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U
Usable operational capacity

• The maximum number of prisoners that could be accommodated safely in local prisons’
(accounting for cells being doubled up and the use of gymnasium floors as a temporary measure)
minus an operating margin of 2,000.

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W
Whole of life sentence

• If a crime is so serious, a Judge may impose a whole of life sentence, meaning that the offender
will never be eligible for release.

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Y
(Her Majesty’s) Young Offenders Institutions (HMYOI/YOI)

• Replacing the Borstal system in 1988, these are custodial institutions that house young offenders
aged 15-20.

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