Deterrence Vs Rehabilitation

The adversarial system is Australia’s legal system where two lawyers represent their parties' case or position before an impartial third party, usually a jury and/or judge, who attempt to determine the truth and pass judgment accordingly. Retribution is the last resort for the courts, they will try deterrence and rehabilitation first.

Prisons have three main purposes. These purposes are deterrence, rehabilitation and retribution.

Deterrence prevents future crime by alarming the defendant or the public. The two types of deterrence are specific and general deterrence. Specific deterrence applies to an individual defendant, when the government punishes an individual defendant, he/she is theoretically less likely to commit another crime because

Sentences are given to punish the offender, protect the public, attempt to change the offender’s behaviour, and as a deterrent to others. When magistrates or judges impose a sentence on someone found guilty of a crime, they will consider: the type of crime and how serious it is, the law and sentencing guidelines, if the offender admits their guilt, the offender's criminal history and the offender's personal and financial circumstances.

When prisoners are admitted to jail, they lose many of their personal rights. These include; freedom of liberty, employment (which prevents them from earning a wage), their choice of clothing, food, movement etc. Visitation from family, friends etc. are heavily limited (once a week) but can be removed if behaviour is inappropriate in jail. If the prisoner has a house, business, money pool etc. they lose all control over it. The public trust office will take control of their possessions if they will be in jail for a lengthy period. All mail will be security checked before entering and leaving the jail, but letters from/to the prisoners’ lawyer will not be checked. Inmates generally lose their right to privacy in prison. They are not protected from warrantless searches of their person or

If a criminal is given a lengthy sentence, two – three years before being realised, they should be given the opportunity to improve themselves. This could include education, life lessons, a refresh of what life is like outside jail, how things have changed etc. Rehab, helping in the kitchen, skills training, life and social skills and education should be provided to prisoners in their last two years to prepare them for life outside the jail. This could prevent criminal re-offending to go back to jail. “If we want to reduce the prison population, ex-offenders need more compassion and understanding from the criminal justice system.” (The Huffington Post Australia Pty Ltd. 2017) For some prisoners, especially those that have spent years or decades of their lives locked up, getting out comes with a mixture of immense joy and anxiety. They want to start over, but don’t know how to survive on the outside. They need somewhere to live and to work. “Some prisoners are released with only the clothes on their back, $10 to $200 and a bus ticket to the state line.” (The Huffington Post Australia Pty Ltd. 2017) Life on the outside can be a huge challenge, so hard that many prisoners fail at it and end up back behind bars before