|
CONTENTS UNIT
1. AN INTRODUCTION TO LAWS UNIT
3. CHALLENGES OF THE LEGAL SYSTEM UNIT
7.CIVIL PROCEDURE AND CRIMINAL PROCEDURE
CIVIL PROCEDURE AND CRIMINAL PROCEDURE UNIT
12. A LAW FIRM STRUCTURE AND PRACTISE UNIT
14. IMPRISONMENT: RETRIBUTION OR REHIBILITATION |
UNIT 14. IMPRISONMENT: RETRIBUTION OR REHIBILITATION
Part 1 IS PRISON AN EFFECTIVE PUNISHMENT AND WHY ARE
PEOPLE SENT THERE? DOES THE POSSIBILITY OF PRISON DETER PEOPLE FROM CRIMINAL
BEHAVIOUR? WHEN RELEASED, HOW WELL DO FORMER PRISONERS FUNCTION IN SOCIETY? I don't have any references to cite specific
studies, but it has always been my personal view that the US prison system is
ineffective and often creates more problems in the long run. I do have this
article that I think explains it well: It depends on what you mean by «effective». If you mean, does it stop
a person from commiting crimes in society? The
answer is YES because the person is locked away and does not have a chance to
reoffend. On the other hand, if you mean does it rehabilitate criminals and
stop criminal behavior? The answer is absolutely NO. Prison does not change
our behavior, «We» change our behavior. Prisons are
simply «human warehouses». The only assistance most prisons afford is time to
reflect. The recidivism rate in California prisons is an estimated 70%. That
means that 7 out of 10 inmates that are released come back to prison. That's
what happens when you «warehouse» people and offer them very little, if any,
internal solutions to their problems. People are sent to prison for two reasons: 1.To be punished for their crime 2.To be rehabilitated With the exception of San Quentin, most prisons accomplish the first,
but not the second. San Quentin is unique because there are so many inmate
facilitated self-help programs available to assist men in their desire to
change. Take me for example. I was tried as an adult and sentenced to 15
years to life in prison when I was 15 years old. I committed a horrible gang
related murder and I agree that I deserve to be punished for my actions.
However, you CANNOT rehabilitate a gang member by surrounding him with
thousands of other gang members in prison, and offer no alternatives. After juvenile hall, California Youth Authority, and 3 other prisons
where I got into trouble, I was sent to San Quentin and was finally offered
some alternatives. I took full advantage of the programs offered, and
eventually completed over 10 self-help programs, received my GED, and a
college degree through Patten University. It was a combination of access to
opportunities, my desire to change, the love and support of my family, all
the supportive inmates, and the community of volunteers that enabled me to
become truly rehabilitated.. It seems «insane» to think that we can continue to operate the penal
system the same way and keep expecting different results. It's easy to point
fingers at the individual criminal and consider him hopeless. We, as a society, never look at ourselves
and realize that it is «crazy» for us to incarcerate people, offer them no
real hope or assistance, but expect them to change. We should look at what is
working, make the changes in the system, and we will eventually see a change
in the men behind bars. EXERCISES 1. Sum up the main ides of the text and retell
it in Russian. 2. Fill in the missing words from the box into the
text below.
Is prison the best punishment? Yes I think 1)_________ is the best
punishment. But look at the state of prisons in the UK today, for example I
have heard that prisons seem luxurious with TV in each cell, computers and
drugs it is getting out of 2)_________. If I were
Home Office Minister I would simply transfer all prisons to a simple, hard,
shock system with tough security, tough rules, and little freedom in jail.
That is no TV, newspapers, computers 3)_________ so
it will reduce the rate of crime once they have done their time. Duncan Harper, UK What other deterrent is there against crime? However, prison should be
a form of punishment not a 4)_________ camp, or a
place where murderers can get a degree in psychology at the taxpayers expense, 5)_________ when the law-abiding young
are now required to pay if they want to go to university. Peter Olohan, USA Although imprisonment may not change criminal behaviour,
it does serve as a deterrent. However, I don't think 6)_________
alone is effective in correcting behaviour. It MUST
be supplemented by psychological or religious assistance. Betty, Hong Kong I have always believed that governments should work to make prisons
active work and 7)_________ centres.
Instead of 8)_________ prisoners getting bored and
more corrupted while they are in prison, I would make them work to compensate
society for the bad behaviour. Just think of the
new roads which could be paved/built, bridges that 9)_________
be repaired, deserts that could be replanted, schools that could be built,
and so many other useful projects. Sam, Chile I think imprisonment is probably the worst way to punish criminals.
Prison only breeds criminals. It puts 10)_________
time thieves into contact with hardened criminals. Living conditions are
generally poor, especially in the US. Often prisons are overcrowded. As a
result of public pressure, inmates are no longer allowed to study for a
degree or a 11)_________ after their imprisonment.
While just about 90% will eventually be released into society. Studies prove
most 12)_________ who are allowed to study never 13)_________
into contact with the law again. Taking away people's freedom is just about
the worst thing you can do to a man. It will most definitely not make them a
better person. Gerben Hoekstra,
The Netherlands 3. Read the following article and make a rendering
of it in English. Вопреки общепринятому
заблуждению в отношении понятия тюрьмы, под этим термином следует понимать
лишь учреждения коррекционной системы, представляющие собой комплекс
сооружений для содержания арестантов в камерах индивидуального или группового
пребывания. То есть, отнесение к тюрьмам учреждений системы исполнения
наказаний, в которых реализовано проживание сидельцев в общих помещениях в
зданиях барачного типа, некорректно. Пенитенциарное
заведение, имеющее помимо камерных помещений иные условия содержания
арестантов, следует относить к колониям или зонам, в которых кроме зданий для
содержания заключенных взаперти предусматриваются иные постройки и сооружения.
Далее поговорим про особенности и альтернативы тюремному заключению. Понятие и особенности Учреждения, применяемые
в качестве мест изоляции преступников, представляющие собой здания с
помещениями камерного типа, в которых под замком содержаться арестанты, не
имеющие права перемещения по территории, за исключением ряда случаев,
относятся к тюремному типу. Отличительной особенностью тюрем является
отсутствие иного времяпрепровождения кроме пребывания в камере, за
исключением: •групповых выводов на еженедельную
помывку; •ежедневной прогулки
для всех сокамерников; •посещений адвоката,
защитника или родственников; •выездов по решению
следователя в объеме следственных процедур. Part 2 TYPES OF
PUNISHMENT – IMPRISONMENT The removal of a person's freedom has been used since ancient times as
a punishment. However, until the late eighteenth century in England, it was
unusual to imprison guilty people for long terms. Hanging and transportation
were the main punishments for serious offences. Prisons served as lock-ups
for debtors and places where the accused were kept before their trial.
However, by the Victorian era, prison had become an acceptable punishment for
serious offenders and it was also seen as a means to prevent crime. It had
become the main form of punishment for a wide range of offences. As towns grew and crime levels increased, people became more and more
worried about how criminals could be kept under control. However, there was
also public unease at the number of people being hung. By the 1830s, many
areas in Australia were refusing to be the «dumping-ground» for Britain's
criminals. There were more criminals than could be transported. The answer
was to reform the police and to build more prisons: 90 prisons were built or
added to between 1842 and 1877. This was a massive building programme, costing millions of pounds. By the mid Victorian Period, there were two distinct prison systems in
England. There were the county and shires gaols,
administered by Justices of the Peace. These ranged from small lock ups to
large «County Gaols» or «Houses of Correction». The second system was the «Convict Gaols»
run by central government in London. Gradually, the use of convict gaols came to include holding prisoners as part of the
process of transportation to other countries. Newgate
was the main prison in this system. There were also three convict prisons at Millbank, Pentonville and
Brixton. Decommissioned naval vessels called «hulks» were used to house
prisoners and became part of the convict gaol
system. Other convict gaols were situated at ports.
The hulks were old sailing ships at south coast harbours
or on the Thames at Woolwich. They were originally used as holding prisons
for people waiting to be transported. The rise in crime at the end of the
French Wars caused a shortage of prisons, and so the hulks were more and more
used to house ordinary prisoners. At one point, over two thirds of all prisoners were on the hulks.
Conditions in them were terrible. During outbreaks of disease such as
cholera, large numbers of prisoners died because of the insanitary conditions
on board and because water taken from the polluted Thames was used for all
purposes. Prisoners were chained to their bunks at night to prevent them from
slipping ashore. During the day most of them worked ashore, usually on hard labour. The last of the hulks was burnt in 1857, but they had been less and
less used in the ten years before then. This, along with the end of
transportation, caused problems in some prisons. For example, the Bedford
authorities thought that transportation and prison hulks would always be
there to take surplus prisoners, and so they built the gaol
too small for the number of local criminals. At the start of the century, prisons were mostly small, old and
badly-run. They were squalid, overcrowded, unsanitary places. Men, women and
children were kept together in degrading surroundings and corruption was
rife. They were unruly places. Prisoners had to provide their own food, and
had little access to fresh water. They had to pay the gaoler
for every service, even for putting them in irons as a punishment. Those who had no money were forced to beg from local people passing
the prison. There was no protection against other prisoners. Those who caused
most trouble were shackled in irons or whipped. Prisoners could be released
early if they behaved well, as long as they were not in debt. In 1777, the prison reformer John Howard published a controversial
report on the conditions, after visiting all the prisons in England and
Wales. His report was very critical of what he found. The result was the
design and building of new model prisons. Sir George Onesiphorus Paul built a model
new prison at Gloucester in 1780. It was secure, well-built and separated
men, women and children. The rules ensured that prisoners wore uniform, were
taught to read and write and were reasonably fed and cared for if ill. Other
towns soon followed. In Bedford, for example, a new house of correction was built in
1819-21 and the County gaol extended in 1848-9 One major result of the Howard report was the change of emphasis from
simple punishment to the idea of punishment and rehabilitation. However,
there was much debate about how this could be achieved. EXERCISES 1. Sum up the main ides of the text and retell
it in Russian. 2. Fill in the missing words from the box into the
text below.
People wanted to reform prison for different 1)_________.
Christian reformers felt that prisoners were God's creatures and deserved to
be treated decently. Rational 2)_________ believed
that the purpose of prison was to punish and reform, not to kill prisoners
with disease or teach them how to be better criminals. Several models were suggested including segregation and holding
prisoners in isolation so they had time to 3)_________
on their actions. A criminal, it was felt, must also be shown the value of
working for a living. This resulted in the concept of hard labour. Many felt, if prison was to be a 4)_________,
then it must offer a deterrent, so people would want to avoid being sent
there. Therefore, the food was poor and conditions 5)_________. Many of the activities
on which prisoners spent their time, had no purpose other than the effort of
carrying out the task itself. Prisoners were set such demoralising 6)_________ as turning «The Crank; or
«The Treadmill». However, other reformers, such as Elizabeth Fry, who worked with the
women prisoners at Newgate Prison in London from
1816, argued that being in prison itself was the punishment, so conditions
did not 7)_________ to be so bad. By the end of the nineteenth century, conditions had improved and were
less brutal. The 8)_________ were still very much
geared towards providing as much discomfort for the prisoners as 9)_________,
with hard wooden beds, monotonous food and few activities to relieve the
boredom. A true rehabilitating regime was still a long way off, although in
some prisons, 10)_________ and communal rest areas
were being introduced for the less serious offenders. At the beginning of the 19th century, it was mainly those awaiting
trial, sentence of death or 11)_________, along with
debtors and some 12)_________ offenders. By the Victorian period, prisons
held a wide range of offenders serving long sentences as well as petty
criminals. They were classified into 13)_________
groups. For more details see the gaol section. 3. Read the following article and make a rendering
of it in English. РАЗНИЦА
МЕЖДУ ЗАКЛЮЧЕНИЕМ ПОД СТРАЖУ И ТЮРЕМНЫМ СОДЕРЖАНИЕМ При мере пресечения в виде заключения под стражу срок ареста достаточно
краток, а реализация может достигаться следующим способами: •путем домашнего ареста; •за счет водворения в изолятор временного содержания; •помещением в периметр следственного изолятора. Тюремное заключение является мерой реализация наказания и определяется
приговором органа правосудия, а срок его может достигать нескольких
десятилетий, что определяется тяжестью вмененного преступного деяния. Если
при заключении под стражу условия дифференцированы, в зависимости от того
насколько опасен подследственный и велика потенциальная возможность его ухода
от правосудия, то тюремное заключение не делает различий по степени осознания
вины и направлено на коррекцию, а не обеспечения доступности для следствия. Про колонии и другие виды тюрем как учреждения системы исполнения
наказаний в России расскажет следующий раздел. Виды учреждений исполнения наказаний в РФ Заведения тюремного типа могут быть по-разному оформлены, а перечень
ограничиваемых свобод и допустимый срок изоляции различаться, исходя из
этого, выделяются различные заведения пенитенциарной системы. •Изолятор временного содержания является частью отделов полиции и даже
не относится к системе исполнения наказаний, так как предназначен в первую
очередь для ограничения свободы перемещения лиц, уличенных в мелких
правонарушениях, и, проходящих процедуру установления личности. •Воспитательные колонии для несовершеннолетних отличаются наиболее
комфортными условиями содержания заключенных, проживающих в общежитиях
барачного типа, а значит не подлежащих отнесению к тюрьмам. •Лечебно-исправительные учреждения предназначены для тех сидельцев,
которые не подлежат излечению методами терапии в условиях изолятора, тюрьмы
или колонии, в силу сложности заболевания или потенциальной его угрозы для
окружающих. Несмотря на наличие запираемых камер и отсутствие возможности
свободного перемещения по территории, отнести подобные заведения к тюрьмам
можно с большим допущением, так как льготное питание и условия, создаваемые
для реабилитации, не сопоставимы с традиционной тюрьмой. •Воинские подразделения, предназначенные для дисциплинарного
воздействия на военнослужащих, также не являются тюрьмой, так как предусматривают
проживание в казарме, возможность трудовых и общественных повинностей.
Изолированные помещения в дисциплинарных частях (карцеры) применяются только
для злостных нарушителей. •Колонии-поселения предоставляют сидельцу достаточную свободу
перемещений и способов времяпрепровождения, которое он может потратить на
трудовую повинность или общественную жизнь. Называть подобные подразделения
пенитенциарной системы тюрьмами некорректно, так как даже само понятие
изолированного содержания в камерах не применимо к поселениям, которые
ограничивают сидельца лишь в свободе покинуть предписанное место обитания и
трудоустройства. •Арестные дома, которые в России только планируется построить,
представляют собой тюрьму в чистом виде и предназначены для жесткого воздействия
на психику осужденного в результате кратковременного пребывания в практически
полной изоляции от внешнего мира и в условиях тотального ограничения свобод. Исправительные колонии имеют дифференцированные условия содержания, в
частности: •при общем и строгом режимах, сидельцы обитают в бараках, оснащенных
помещениям для общего проживания, а различия выражаются в степени ограничения
свобод и перечне предоставляемых льгот; •особый режим можно приравнять к тюрьме, так как большая часть заключенных в подобных учреждениях содержится в
камерах, в условиях сопоставимых с СИЗО или арестным домом. Зная про режимы заключение в мужских и женских тюрьмах в России, стоит
узнать и о сроках содержания под стражей. Part 3 EXAMINE SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES ON PRISON AS
A FORM OF PUNISHMENT 1. Functionalists would point to the
positive functions prison might perform in society – Prison could act as a
deterrent – thus reinforcing social regulation; and it should also work to
maintain equilibrium and balance in our society – making up for the failings
of other institutions such as the family and the education system – restoring order
through incapacitating those who break the law. Ultimately however, one might criticize the
effectiveness of prison – given that there is a 60% reoffending rate it isn’t
really effective in restoring equilibrium in the first place – what prison
does most of the time is resocialise people into
criminal norms, in the extreme people become institutionalized and unable to
reintegrate into society once released. 2. Marxists argue that by relying on prison,
we ignore the failings of the system that lead to the conditions of
inequality and poverty which lead to crime. Furthermore, the imprisonment of
selected members of the lower classes neutralises
opposition to the system; the imprisonment of many members of the underclass
also sweeps out of sight the «worst jetsam of Capitalist society» such that
we cannot see it; and we may also add a fourth benefit, that all of the
police, court and media focus on working class street crime means that our
attention is diverted away from the immorality and greed of the elite
classes. Supporting evidence for the Marxist view
comes from the fact that there are higher rates of imprisonment in more
unequal countries. Left realists criticise
Marxists for absolving criminals from blame – people in jail mostly deserve
to be there and their victims are most likely to be working class themselves. 3. Michel Foucault sees the growth of prison
as a means of punishment as reflecting the move from sovereign power to
disciplinary power – in traditional
societies power was exercised on people’s physical bodies – punishment was
harsh – it was a spectacle – today power is exercised through
surveillance – the state no longer beats criminals – it just subjects them to increased
surveillance – the theory is that people change their behavior because they
know they are being monitored constantly. Prison seams more humane than
physical punishment but in reality it is much more invasive as a means of
social control. One criticism of Foucault is that he fails
to recognize that many prisoners do not change their behavior even though
they are being watched! 4. Since the 1980s there has been a
significant increase in the use of imprisonment in the United Kingdom – numbers
have roughly doubled since 1990 with the total prison population now standing
at about 84000 and we have one of the highest rates of imprisonment in the
western world. This increase has gone hand in hand with the
implementation of Right Realist policies that emphasize rational choice
theory as the cause of crime and zero tolerance as the solution to crime. The
state claims that tougher penalties are one of the major causes of declining
crime rates. 5. However David Garland points out that the
crime rate has fallen in many countries over the last two decades, even in
those that do not imprison as many people as the UK. David Garland’s view the increasing use of
imprisonment in the United States is that we now live in a era of mass
incarceration – the United States locks up a massive proportion of the
unemployed (Garland estimates as many as one third of all unemployed people
are actually in jail in the USA) – and many of these become locked in a cycle
of «transcarceration» – where they shift between
different agencies of state control and never fully reintegrate into society
once having been in jail. Garland actually argues that the reason the
US and the UK lock up so many people is because of neo-liberalism – neo-liberal
policies have made these societies more unequal and more individualistic – life
has become harsher – and thus it is
easier for the state to justify harsher penalties. 6. Critics of the «overuse of prison» argue
that we should employ alternatives – by using curfews, community service and
treatment orders – because these have a lower
reoffending rate – mainly because they do not remove an offender from
society. It is also worth noting that the
characteristics of the prison population are very different to the
characteristics of the population as a whole. People who are over-represented
include ethnic minority groups, men, the underclass and the young. It is also
worth noting that many female prisoners are likely to have suffered physical
and emotional abuse and many claim they are in jail because of pressure to do
criminal acts coming from their male partners. 7. To conclude, given the massive reoffending
rate – and thus failure of prison to rehabilitate offenders – critical
perspectives such as Garland’s remind us not to fall into the simplistic
analysis of Functionalism and Right Realism who see prison as an effective
means of social control. The critical approaches of Marxism, Foucault
and Garland are probably the most useful here as these remind us that it is
the rise of neo-liberal hegemony since the 1970s and right realism since the
1990s that have lead to an increasing crime rate, and then to the increases
in prison populations experienced in neo-liberal countries such as the UK and
the USA. EXERCISES 1. Sum up the main ides of the text and retell
it in Russian. 2. Fill in the missing words from the box into the
text below.
Every so often, news of 1)_________ crime reaches our ears
through the web, newspaper, or television. The Aurora Shooting that occurred
during the midnight premier of the Batman movie horrified and 2)_________
many citizens, and the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting caused cries of
panic and anger. Why would these 3)_________ commit
such a terrible act? Could we have prevented such disasters from happening?
What if gun control laws have been stricter, would such crimes still have
happened? The law is 4)_________ to change
especially since the Right to Bear Arms is the second amendment of our
constitution, the 5)_________ law of our nation, that has been around two
hundred years. Now the question is, how do we punish these people, and how
effective are these punishments? When we think to our childhood, the way we
learned that our actions were wrong or unacceptable was through 6)_________ … Right? Or was it through rewarding the right
behaviors? Most people believe that punishment is indeed effective because
they use it in everyday 7)_________ whether it is firing employees at the
workplace for disorderly conduct or scolding children for trying to take a
toy from another 8)_________. Punishment is a method of deterring negative
behavior that has been passed down through generations. Punishment is
effective to subdue unwanted 8)_________, and it is usually
painful, physically or psychologically, so people tend to avoid punishment.
Punishment also enables people to condition responses so that 10)_________ between behavior and positive or negative
reinforcement will lead to an automatic response to avoid such punishment. The effectiveness of punishment depends on
several factors: Frequency of punishment, immediacy of punishment, and
positive reinforcement on positive or good behavior. However
11)_________ may also have
serious negative effects if not carried out properly. Such effects include
avoidance or escape, alienation of the punished, aggressiveness, and reimplementing punishment in the punished. So what draws
the fine line between 12)_________ punishments and
detrimental punishments? The 13)_________
regulates crime through policing. There is evidence that has proven that
increased levels of policing has significantly reduced crime, and this is
even more effective when such 14)_________ is
specifically designated towards certain crimes or problems. Charles Murray
conducted research on crime and punishment and concluded that 15)_________ severe sentences can reduce the amount of
occurring crimes and that crime rate decreases when sentences per crime
rises. He declared that the cause for the decline in criminal activity for
1990-2000 is a 16)_________ rate of imprisonment,
which provides a deterrence and incapacitation effect. However others
disagree that increasing the severity of the punishment may not actually
reduce the occurrence of these crimes since crime rates have actually risen
over the years, and 17)_________ does not imply
causation. Unemployment could be just as much a cause of crime rather than
increasing the severity of the 18)_________. If
severe punishments were effective, is prison effective? After all, that where
we place people who have committed felonies or severe crimes. 3. Read the following article and make a rendering
of it in English. КОЛИЧЕСТВО
ЗАКЛЮЧЕННЫХ – УРОВЕНЬ БЕСЧЕЛОВЕЧНОСТИ? Что общего между Бангладеш и Исландией, Словенией и Японией, США и
Республикой Беларусь? Это вопрос для «знатоков» или потенциальных миллионеров
из телевизионных шоу-викторин. Каждая из перечисленных пар сильно, порой
полярно расходится в национальных, политических, культурных, экономических и
других особенностях. Сходятся в одном: по относительному (на сто тысяч населения)
количеству заключенных (ОКЗ) они соседи в тюремном списке. Мне могут напомнить про условия содержания в тюрьмах. Да, если измерять
уровень бесчеловечности в тюрьмах по обеспеченности физиологических
потребностей, по средствам, которые тратит казна на одного заключенного и
т.п., между Исландией и Бангладеш, США и Беларусью – пропасть. Но как человек сидевший (6 лет
советских лагерей), беседовавший с арестантами и бывшими арестантами
нескольких десятков стран, должен сказать: в минимально обеспеченных условиях
для выживания (не освенцимо-гулаговских:) самим человеком уровень боли и страданий в тюрьме чаще
всего измеряется нравственными, моральными, душевными муками. Я бы не променял свою полуголодную алтайскую зону на камеру в столичной
американской тюрьме (округ Колумбия), где на завтрак – горячий кофе, а на обед – жареные куры и
охлажденный апельсиновый сок. Там арестанты должны годами жить как рыбы в
аквариуме: за стеклянной стеной по помосту «и день, и ночь шагают часовые», а
ссоры и конфликты между заключенными гасятся с помощью пуль, начиненных
снотворным (такими усыпляют диких зверей). Здесь никуда не скрыться: ни от
глаз сокамерников, ни от глаз надзирателей. А есть в Америке и тюрьмы пострашнее: там ты заживо погребен в камере-склепе. В алтайской зоне у меня, как и у других арестантов, был свой «балок»,
где можно было укрыться одному, а в первые полчаса
рабочего дня, «за утренним чаем» «менты» тебя не
потревожат – себе дороже. Да и обыкновения в российских зонах сильнее
формальных порядков. В одной из самых благоустроенных (из тех, что я видел)
швейцарских тюрем, надзиратели с немецкой педантичностью доводят до
исступления тюремным «орднунгом» (порядком)
заключенных арабов, албанцев и прочих инородцев (этнических швейцарцев там
почти не встретишь). У наших арестантов это называется «змейским
прессом». Кстати, уровень самоубийств в открытых тюрьмах
Швейцарии выше, чем в классических (их там почему-то называют каторжными).
Объясняют это тем, что реальную тюремную решетку морально перенести легче,
чем стену, которую ты сам должен выстроить в своей голове. Так что не бывает
хороших тюрем. Поэтому в показатели, по которым можно судить об уровне бесчеловечности
в той или иной стране, я бы включил относительное количество смертных казней
и заключенных: после смерти лишение свободы – самый жестокий вид наказания. И здесь
Республика Беларусь (ОКЗ – 505) окажется чуть человечней своего тюремного
соседа – США (ОКЗ – 710). |