Discuss the Alternatives to Incarceration

i. Conditional sentences are sentences that are served outside of the prison walls and in the community with some sort of restrictions or conditions placed on the offender, in an effort to reduce prison populations. The requirements or conditions may include mandatory programs such as a drug or alcohol treatment seminars, curfews, house arrest, or electronic monitoring. Most offenders who receive conditional sentences are low risk and are usually serving time for impaired driving where no death occurred. When an offender receives a conditional sentence of home confinement in comparison to incarceration, the offender is still able to see family members, maintain a normal job, and attend school. This is a huge advantage to conditional sentencing, since offenders are not completely cut off from the external world. Although the offender is not locked away in a prison cell, the offender is still expected to stay at home during certain times of the day or night. In order to verify that offenders are abiding by the restrictions placed on them, electronic monitoring is often used in developed countries. The development of GPS, which allows law enforcement agencies to know the exact location of the offender by the use of satellites, has increased the effectiveness of offenders serving home confinement sentences drastically. Offenders can now easily be identified and tracked down through the use of GPS allowing law enforcement officers to quickly move in to make an arrest when an offender is in breach of their conditions. In underdeveloped countries offenders are required to report to the police or other administrative offices as prescribed.

ii. The prison abolition movement seeks to reduce or eliminate prison and the prison system, and replace them with more humane and effective systems. Abolitionists criticize the focus on "crime" as violations of laws that are arbitrarily defined by those in power—especially when these lawmakers are seen as oppressive and corrupt. Abolitionists see most anti-social acts (violence, theft, etc.) as the result of social problems (e.g. poverty, racism, sexism etc) that cannot be dealt with by simply punishing individuals, and instead require systemic changes to address the underlying structural causes.

iii. Prison reform: This is the attempt to improve conditions inside prisons. The proponents agitate for humane treatment for all offenders in prison in terms of food and boarding facilities, elimination of torture, increase space to eliminate overcrowding, recreational facilities, skills training and improved contacts with families. The aim is to make them more of rehabilitation centers tan punitive facilities.

iv. Restorative justice is an approach to justice that focuses on the needs of the victims and the offenders, as well as the involved community, instead of focusing on satisfying abstract legal principles or punishing offenders (such as imprisoning them). Victims take an active role in the process, while offenders are encouraged to take responsibility for their actions, "to repair the harm they've done—by apologizing, returning stolen money, or community service".

---

Titany answered the question on December 7, 2021 at 10:06