Prison Over-Crowding:

CAN = Certified Normal Accommodation – available for immediate use, not damaged.

Table 4: CAN and population by sex and establishment (30.04.10)

Altcourse Buckley Hall Forest Bank Garth Haverigg Hindley Kennet Kirkham Lancaster Castle Lancaster Farms Liverpool Manchester Preston Styal (women) Wymott

Males and females in North West

Prison In use CNA Total794 350 1,064 812 622

440 175

590 159 480 1,176 949 453

447 1,113

9,624

1,265 377

1,370 828 610

330 338 587

239 499 1,295 1,215 792 449

1,165

11,3591,735 too many…

Why do we put people in prison?•To protect the public.

•To punish criminal behaviour.

•To reform criminals.

•To deter people from crime.

Does prison work?

NO

Prison can be a safe haven for vulnerable offenders.

Prisons can transform some people’s lives.

Prison serves as a constant source of humiliation for the white collar criminal.

It keeps dangerous people away from society.

They’re training grounds for criminals: ‘universities of crime’.

Light sentences have a limited incentive for reform.

Inappropriate: around 75% of prison population have some form of mental illness. Are they being used as an overflow after mass closure of Psychiatric Hospitals in the 1980s?

Recidivism: most re-offend! In 1993, when there were fewer than 45,000 prisoners, 53 per cent were being reconvicted within two years. In 2004, 65 per cent of those leaving prison were reconvicted.

Michele Foucault

Prisons are a metaphor for how all of us are controlled

and watched by those in power.

We are under surveillance all the

time: CCTV, our loyalty cards, ID cards… we’re all

becoming prisoners.

Victims of crime: * statistics and other evidence on victims of crime; * ethnicity, * age, * gender; * different theoretical accounts, e.g. positivist and radical victimology.

THIS TOPIC HAS BEEN COVERED PREVIOUSLY IN RELATION TO GENDER, AGE AND ETHNICITY.

Age and Victimisation· In 2002 there were 10.9 million people of pensionable age in the UK inover 7 million households.

· In 1999 it is estimated that there were 2,040,000 (British Crime Survey)crimes against older people or households headed by older people.(500,000 incidents of vandalism, 214,000 of burglary, 444,000 vehiclerelated theft, and 132,000 incidents of violence.

· Repeat victimisation amongst older victims was 29% for vandalism, 8%for burglary, 20% for vehicle theft, and 14% for violent crime.

· The estimated annual number of cases of distraction burglary againstolder people has been estimated as between 300,000 and 400,000. If it is365,000, this represents 1000 incidents each day of the year.

· 43% of over British 60s feel very or a bit unsafe walking alone after dark

Positivist and Radical Victimology.POSITIVIST VICTIMOLOGY focuses on personal responsibility: what do you do to reduce your risk of

being a victim of crime? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cIGUVu3x0kQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NULUriK8uu0&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CoJZ2I8kvOw&feature=related

This is linked to Situational Crime Prevention which are crime prevention strategies aimed at reducing the criminal opportunities in everyday life.

Such strategies include:

•'hardening' of potential targets,

•improving surveillance of areas that might attract crime (e.g. closed-circuit television surveillance),

•and deflecting potential offenders from settings in which crimes might occur. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OfuMEGMersE&feature=related

RADICAL VICTIMOLOGY is different:

instead of seeking to herd offenders away,

it seeks to resolve the issues such as poverty, social exclusion etc. that are driving them towards crime and anti-social behaviour. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4cION_A5C8

Jock Young’s work on the Exclusive Society focused on how he thinks crime is caused by inequality between the affluent and the poor.

* Society was inclusive (where everyone mattered) but is now exclusive (where some people are pushed out of British society).

* A combination of relative deprivation and capitalist individualism is a potent cause of crime: it became nastier; hate crime increased; the poor (CHAVs) are feared so they are further excluded & pilloried (Jezza Kyle).

* Young sees the solution in new inclusionism to reintegrate the excluded into society. Tackle inherited wealth, discrimination & end massive difference in wages.

If you were a victim of crime, would you like to meet the person responsible in a controlled, safe environment?

Do you think sentencing is: too harsh; about right; a bit soft; far too soft?

HMIC = Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary.

The police have the following functions:

* Maintaining order and keeping the peace;

* Surveillance of the general public to ensure civil and lawful behaviour;

* Reporting and apprehending violators of the law;

* Discouraging crime;

* The Police have the legal authority to make arrests;

* They provide emergency support.

British Transport Police Central Motorway Policing Group

Civil Nuclear Constabulary (formerly UKAEA Constabulary)

Ministry of Defence Police Port of Dover Police

Port of Liverpool Police The Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA)

Scottish Drug Enforcement Agency

He wrote inside the british police (1983)

An Interactionist (micro) approach using a covert participant observation method

to examine culture of the police.

SCY6 Crime & Deviance: Interactionist theories

KEY CONCEPTS: occupational culture of policing, canteen culture.

SUMMARY OF STUDY: “My covert research is justified by my assessment of the power of the police within British society and the secretive nature of the force.

Those who are being researched control the situation as much as, if not more than, the researcher.”

“During my first week’s duty I worked as a station officer…[In one incident] I dealt with a man who had threatened his wife with a pistol.

He pleaded his innocence, and a police officer kicked him on the backside, not with excessive force but just to remind him that his explanation was not acceptable.

The incident was recorded, but I omitted from my notes the fact that the prisoner had been kicked; for good or ill, it was too sensitive an issue for me to accept.”

Holdaway was a Police Officer already, who decided to record his experiences.

RESEARCH METHOD: covert participant observation.

Holdaway made secret notes on his observations at the police station where he worked.

“One of my fellow sergeants was known to use ‘unorthodox techniques’ when questioning suspects.

When we chatted about this issue he gave me a full description of what he was and was not willing to do…

He became an important informant, who was always happy to provide details of the actions of particular officers and of particular incidents.”

EVALUATION:

Reliable – as he is observing peoples’ behaviour without them knowing it, there is far less risk of incurring a Hawthorne Effect.

Stressful “At times I had to deal with an officer whose behaviour exceeded the bounds of what I considered reasonable conduct. These situations could easily get in the way of research and increased the pressure of my work.”

“Then the constant reflection involved in participant observation added to the pressure of working in a busy station…there were times when research suffered because I was engrossed in police work and times when police work took second place to the recording of detailed evidence.”

Christopher Alder died in custody in Hull Police station on April 1 1998. He was conveyed there for a breach of the peace, but on arrival was found to be unconscious. Police officers, who claim he appeared to be 'asleep', allegedly dragged him from the van with his hands handcuffed behind his back, and placed him face down on the station floor, where he died. A video film recorded the last 11 minutes of his life. He lay on the floor of the police station making rasping noises indicative of respiratory distress. These eventually cease.

Ethics “As a covert researcher of the police I was documenting the work of people who regarded me as a colleague.

The risk of being found out was always present and I had to be sensitive to any indication that others – sometimes friends – might know what I was doing.

I kept shorthand notes on a scrap of paper in the back pocket of my trousers; if I had to leave the station or charge office to make notes, I listened for approaching footsteps…”

Mark Carter – Mr GAY UK 2006, Huddersfield.

The criminals of today are those feckless young men, fathering

numerous children with different

women having never worked a

day in their lives. Crime happens because they’re

brought up with no respect & know they can live off

the State.

We need tougher sentances, greater Police powers and to scale back the Benefits System.

We grew up in poverty, but I didn’t turn into a yob. My parents gave me a clip round the

ear’ole once the village bobby had finished with

me.

KEY CONCEPTS: Can you explain them?

Predatory street crime; Rational calculations;Broken windows;Zero tolerance policing;Cost-benefit analysis;Underclass;Control theory;Immediate gratification;Low impulse control;Inadequate socialisation.