... form of punishment in Britain at the start of the 21st Century. Prisons are mere places of confinement. It is used as a sanction for offences of which offenders stand convicted. Since the abolition of the death penalty in 1965 imprisonment has been the most serious penalty the ... theories of punishment such as deterrence and rehabilitation have come under increasing attack, is that we punish criminals primarily because they deserve it. The Criminal Justice Act 1991 followed a White Paper which proclaimed that the aim was "better justice through a more consistent approach to sentencing,...

• Word Count: 2252
• Approx Pages: 9
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... . This paper will then discuss the meaning of decarceration, providing examples of decarceration practises and also consider the implications of these practises both for the individuals involved within the criminal justice system and for society as a whole. This writer contends that decarceration is plagued by the same contradictions and conflicts of the prison system. The prison system and ... (interchangeable with deinstitutionalisation, and what Cohen (1985, p.31) labels the "destructuring movement") is a broad concept used to describe the "continuum of practises that aim to divert pe...

• Word Count: 2402
• Approx Pages: 10
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate