Positive and Negative Impacts of Imprisonment

Positive and negative impacts of
imprisonment

According to Laursen et al (2020), imprisonment refers to the idea of keeping an
individual captive constrain his liberty. The duration of sentence that prisoners serve
differs on the basis of severity of crimes committed by them. The act of imprisonment
has positive as well as negative impacts on both the individuals and their families. There
are multiple stages in which imprisonment affects the lives of both the individuals as
well as their families including psychological impacts, social impacts and economic
impacts. Although positive impacts of imprisonment include decrease in crime rates,
experts all over the globe make some rigid arguments against imprisonment ideologies.
Moreover, there is no determined explanation to why a man turns into an ’animal’.
Researchers have identified several attributes and urges that pushes an individual to do
crime such as poverty, hunger, satisfaction and many more. It is a fact that no one is
born a criminal, the roots of criminality lie in an individual’s decision-making process and
the way he perceives the world. The sentencing act is explained as the law which helps
to assist in identifying and applying the law in order to minimize the risk of error and
transparency in the process. The Bail Act is explained as the act in which court grants
the bail to the guilty person unless they are satisfied with the excepting circumstances.
The mental health act is explained as the act in which the treatment, assessment is
given to people with the mental health disorder. Prison escape act dealt with the
prisoners who escaped from the Kings prison. The fundamental idea behind
imprisonment revolves around restraining, reforming and deterrence all the individuals
that can become a threat for the society, in order to make it a better place. The
questions raised are in respect to the prison environment and the abuse that prisoners
face prison along with the mental effects associated with imprisonment on the
individuals and their families.
All of these negative as well as positive impacts follows an individual even after
they leave the prison. According to van Zyl Smith and Appleton (2016), one doesn’t
have to be imprisoned for life in order to serve a life sentence, once a person leaves the
prison, his life can never be the same. Individuals face problems with social acceptance.
Humans are social beings and one cannot be accepted by the society once he leaves a
prison. Apart from that individuals face discrimination when it comes to employment
recruitment as well. Their families suffer excruciating pain. Not only them their families
cease to hold a social status in the society. There are many forms of imprisonment that
are a topic of contradiction in eyes of many experts. For example, maternal
imprisonment, imprisonment under wrong accusations or imprisonment under judicial
system established upon incomplete frameworks. It is based on The Children, Youth
and Families Act 2005. In accordance to England and Wales’ Minson (2017), children
raised with their parents being punished by imprisonment grow up in an entirely different
culture. These children face discriminatory practices in school. Employment
opportunities become limited to an extent. There are countries whose judicial system is
based on unfinished frameworks where impregnated women can be imprisonment
under certain situations. Report by Dr. Minson suggests that this causes the case of
miscarriages in many cases. The argument suggests that the infant had nothing to do
with disregards of lawful protocols and hence should not suffer for the criminal activities
he did not commit. In addition to that in his research Minson interviewed 27 families

which includes 22 adults who were responsible for taking care of the children while their
mother was imprisoned along with 14 children. The children belonged to the age group
of 7 years to 17 years and were all living with their other family members. The research
concluded that only 5% of the total children interviewed were able to live in their family
home after their mother’s imprisonment. In addition to that this experimentation also
concluded that only 9% of these children are being cared by their fathers. Almost 13 to
17 per cent of women in Australia have children and maternal imprisonment affects over
17,000 children every year. According to the study the children face problems regarding
adapting to new caretakers and home, there is a massive change in their education
standards, confusion and introduction of negative family roles and relationships
changes their lifestyle as well. They become victims of stigma, where they have to hide
this fact or often it is used as a medium to disrespect them in middle of arguments and
confounding grief, Dr. Minson suggests that these children suffer from grief because
they miss their mothers, they cannot talk to their others and the absence of their
mother’s presence creates a huge crater in their subconscious and have higher risks of
having mental illnesses like depression and anxiety. Imprisonment under wrong
acquisitions negatively affects the life of an innocent person along with their families
whose lives cannot be same anymore. This might happen due to an influencing
executive misusing their authority and power, or insufficient evidences to prove an
individual innocent. They suffer abuse in jail and their families have to go through the
social embarrassment and often lose their previous status in the society. Their families
suffer from discrimination and face difficulties in acceptance in the society. Even after
coming out of prison they continue to face these difficulties throughout their lifetime. The
concept of imprisonment based on under-developed judicial system argues the
inappropriate time period of prison sentences. It suggests that if a person is being
imprisoned because of a small violation of law in order to fulfill the most basic human
needs he will have with criminals of all sorts for unacceptable period of time. This might
influence his perception towards things and he might become a worse human after his
prison sentence. This goes against the ethical fundamentals of justice. This becomes an
obstacle even if the person wants to become a better person in future. Many social and
economic factors will also become a motivation for him to do so. The individual will
always be seen as a criminal in the eyes off the society besides the bad economic
conditions of his family must have led him to commit this crime in first place, which will
get even worse during his time in prison. These all factors will accumulate together and
force him to lead a similar lifestyle in future as well.
The society is a resident of a lot variety of people some personating the criminal
mindsets. Though, the basis of committing a crime may depend on the lower sides of
the society or a disturbed mentality, crime is still a crime. To correspond, what must
have to be noticed and brought into light is the perpetual meaning of imprisonment and
the ways it is beneficial with the discussion on how it can improve during the times.
Considering the prisons and the disciplinary standards they possess a criminal surely
learns the knows and how's of life along with kissing the urge to commit any nuisance
further. One of the biggest positive effects of imprisonment stands in the form of
diminishing criminal thoughts throughout the time. Also, as studies suggest that one’s