As those who have been imprisoned justify the prison life experience does not leave positive reflection on the person or his qualities. After all the prison environment does not promote or favour self-development and education or work on personal negative qualities (even though this is one of the reason one is put into prison). Life there implies being cruel and brutal and speaking the same language and having the same behaviour that the residents of this place have and use otherwise one will not be able to survive among criminals, although it all depends on a person and his inner world, attitudes and characteristics. After all, the environment we live in has a significant impact on the formation of our character and perception of this world and its values.

In the UK the prisons have a maximum capacity of 80,000 inmates. At the end of April 2004 the number of people serving custodial sentences rose to above 82,000. The prisons in the UK are currently over capacity. Where are the extra 2000 inmates if there is no room for them? For the purpose of this essay the statement that ‘prison makes bad people worse’ is assumes to mean that serving a custodial sentence increases the likelihood of an offender re-offending. Before an attempt is made to examine the issue in questions a brief history of the prison system will be explored in an attempt to understand how prison has come to be the most serious method of punishment in the UK today.

Prisons as mere places of confinement have existed for many years. Prisons as we know them today-places to which offenders are sent to receive punishment, there also to be worked on and changed-are a feature of modernity, a product of the industrial age. Since the abolition of the death penalty in 1965 imprisonment has been the most serious penalty the courts can impose in Britain. The punishment of imprisonment for sentenced prisoners might be both loss of liberty and harsh living conditions in the name of ‘less eligibility’ or deterrence.

Prior to the nineteenth century punishment for criminals was very different. The focus of punishment in these historic times was the body. Punishments were physical in nature with execution and torture being combined with public humiliation. Within just a few decades the brutal torture and public humiliations stopped. The body was no longer the major target for penal repression. Punishment ceased to be centred on torture as a technique of pain; it assumed as its principle object loss of wealth or rights. While this type of punishment apparently now focuses on the soul rather than the body it could be argued in many ways that imprisonment as a punishment does concern the body in a more indirect manner by rationing of food, sexual deprivation and solitary confinement . This trace of torture is enveloped increasingly, by the non-corporal nature of today’s penal system.

There are different arguments for the reason behind this shift from punishment in a physical manner to imprisonment. An orthodox approach argued that the reason for this was due to humanitarianism reform, a more humane and civilized alternative to the brutality of earlier years Foucault argued that this was not the case; he believed that the reason for the changes was the defining of a new age, better punishment by operating not on bodies or fear but on the reform of offenders into the ‘disciplined subject’.

Regardless of Foucault’s argument the one factor that underpins punishment in the UK today is Human Rights. The 1998 Human Rights Act sets out a number of conventions which all people have a right to. The Prisons Inspectorate has developed the concept of a ‘Healthy Prison’ which is based on the World Health Organisation’s four tests of what constitutes a healthy custodial environment which is based upon international human rights principles. These four tests are: that prisoners are held in safety; that they are treated with respect and dignity as human beings; that they are able to engage in purposeful activity; and that they are prepared for resettlement. Punishment needs justification because it is something which is harmful, painful or unpleasant to the recipient. Prison causes physical discomfort, psychological pain, indignity and general unhappiness along with a number of social disadvantages which lead to offenders becoming socially excluded. There are a number of justifications or theories for punishment.

Reductivism justifies punishment on the grounds that it helps to reduce the incidence of crime. It is claimed by supporters of this theory that if punishment is inflicted the incidence of crime will be less then if no punishment were imposed. These arguments are supported by utilitarianism; a moral theory founded by Jeremy Bentham which stated that the greatest good was defined by the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people. Society as a whole is given greater weight than the individual. Many theories of punishment come under the heading of Reductivism and are assumed to reduce the levels of crime.

Deterrence is the idea that crime is reduced because of people’s fear of the punishment they may receive if they offend. Deterrence is divided into two categories, individual deterrence where an individual commits a crime and finds the punishment so unpleasant that the offence is not repeated fro the fear of the same happening again. General deterrence is when the punishment of a crime does not deter the offender who committed it but the crime is meant to put others off from committing the same crime. While it may seem common sense that this would be effective in reality this is not the case. Research has shown that punishment has other effects which out weigh any deterrence. The catching and imprisoning of offenders leads to them being labelled as criminals and this labelling process makes it difficult for them live law abiding lives. Their self image can change from a law abiding one to that of a deviant and this impact on their behaviour. It could be said with this evidence in mind that prison makes people worse.

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