There are those who believe that prison sentences and jail time reduce the risk of a person reoffending. After all, in theory, that person would not want to return to jail. Once released, the threat of future jail time could act as a deterrent.
However, studies find that this isn’t actually what happens. Prison sentences don’t have a significant impact on reoffending, and some individuals are actually more likely to offend again after they’re released. Below are two reasons why this happens.
Addiction and mental illness
First off, many criminal offenses are committed because the person is suffering from mental illness or drug addiction. These issues may be relatively out of their control, and the individual needs medical treatment and support.
A prison sentence, however, doesn’t address this root issue at all. A person who is released may still be dealing with the same mental health challenges or addiction problems they had before their arrest. They may also quickly fall back into drug use. The prison sentence doesn’t act as a deterrent because it hasn’t resolved the underlying cause of the criminal behavior.
Destabilizing a person’s life
A second issue is that time in jail destabilizes a person’s life, making it very difficult to re-enter society. For instance, imagine someone is arrested at 17 while they’re a senior in high school. This prevents them from graduating and earning their diploma. They don’t attend college and, upon release, they face a criminal record and a lack of education, which makes finding a job very difficult. These circumstances can push them back into criminal activity as a way to earn money.
Since it is clear that prison time doesn’t always work as intended, it is very important for those facing charges to understand all the legal options available to them.