History Of Imprisonment In Victoria

Imprisonment in Victoria has become a subject to much attention in recent times. The numbers of people entering Victorian prisons is rising every year, the rate of reoffending has also increased, and Victoria now finds itself spending billions of dollars (3.22 billion AUD) on new correctional facilities as well as prison guards and staff. Victoria needs to make changes on the imprisonment system to make it more effective and a better source of punishment. Up to 56% of Victorian inmates have been to prison before which indicates that its current system is lacking rehabilitation and isn’t meeting its specific goals in punishment. Victoria needs to consider if imprisonment is an effective form of punishment and if there are other ways we can …show more content…
The purpose of imprisonment is to achieve three main designated goals in order to have an effective form of punishment. These goals are retribution, deterrence and rehabilitation. The main question we have to ask, is Victoria reaching these goals? And the answer to that question at the moment is No. Recent studies have shown that 35% of offenders within the next two years were likely to re-offend; most of these are young men who have been introduced to this system at an early age for a minor crime. This statistic shows that Victorian prisons are not meeting their goals of rehabilitation and deterrence and that people convicted of lesser crimes should not be sent to jail immediately. Australia is using an outstanding amount of resources to help fund specifically crime-related programs to help make its prison systems more effective, the problem being with these programs is that they are mainly aimed at moderate to high-risk prisoners and tend to avoid minor prisoners who in the end are the most likely to re-offend. These programs are directed at cognitive skills, motivational skills, and there are separate programs aimed at sex offenders as well as violent offenders. In order for prisons to be the best system of punishment these goals must be met, prison rehabilitation programs must …show more content…
Imprisonment assures that criminals will be detained and kept away from society in order to make the community feel safe and provide a protection to the public. Law abiding citizens can walk the streets and feel safe knowing that people who have not chosen to obey the law are in a strictly supervised area. Prison also being the harshest punishment the state of Victoria has to offer is somewhat the ultimate deterrent. The possibility of going into a prison and being monitored your whole time as well as put on very strict daily routine does not sound appealing to anybody. Prison can also be a very frightening and intimidating place to go especially for young men breaking the law. In prison there is high risk of being exposed to beatings, rape and disease as well as developing a mental condition or even facing death. Due to these extremely harsh realties you will find young people may think twice about breaking the law and avoid being sent to a place like