Imprisonment of first-time offenders does not prevent them from committing a crime again after serving their jail terms.
Imprisonment is one of the forms of punishment that is given to a person who actions are deemed unlawful or dangerous by state agencies. It is presumed that imprisonment is a correctional action that helps improve crime deterrence in a given place. After serving terms, individuals are considered to have learned that crime is bad and that they should avoid it to avoid imprisonment. Imprisonment has been considered a solution to crime as it holds onto the offender, reforms them and integrates them into the society (Ugwuoke, Dauda, & Otodo, 2016). Prisoners that serve their jail term are expected to show remorse and reform their behavior. Indeed, people that have served jail terms for the first time are expected to reform owing to the correctional nature of the sentences. However, some researches show that imprisonment does not lead to automatic reformation by ex-prisoners.
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It is not naturally automatic that a person serving a jail term for the first time with reform and quit crime. Often, most of these people are found guilty of similar or other crimes and jailed again sometimes later. This has cast a doubt over the deterrence implications of imprisonment of the first-time offenders. As Otu and Nnam (2016) state, prison sentences do not lead to reformation and the prisoners are likely to indulge in other crimes after serving their jail terms. Doob, Webster, & Gartner (2014) also agree that imprisonment does not necessarily reduce re-offending. In fact, imprisonment may contribute to a person's chances of reoffending after serving their terms (Doob, Webster, & Gartner, 2014).
The issue of prisoners developing a post-imprisonment subculture should be a consideration for alternative ways of punishing first-time offenders.
References
Doob, A. N., Webster, C. M., & Gartner, R. (2014). The Effects of Imprisonment: Specific Deterrence and Collateral Effects.
Otu, M. S., & Nnam, M. U. (2014). The impact of prison conditions and social forces on criminal recidivism in Nigeria. South Journal of Culture and Development, 16(1), 1-28.
Ugwuoke, K. A., Dauda, K. O., & Otodo, I. (2016). Prison and Crime Control: A Criminological Discourse of Recidivism in Nigeria. International Journal for Social Studies, 2(12), 84-99.
