The President of Czechoslovakia, Vaclav Havel, spent several years in
prison. From there he wrote frequently to his wife Olga. In spite of strict censorship by
the prison authorities he managed to express to her the following sentiment
"I never feel sorry for myself, as one might expect, but only for
the other prisoners and altogether, for the fact that prisons must exist and that they are
as they are, and that mankind has not so far invented a better way of coming to terms with
certain things." (Havel 1983) [14]
Over the past two decades, considerable effort has been put into
developing other methods of "coming to terms with certain things". In his report
on non-custodial alternatives in Europe for the Helsinki United Nations Institute, Norman
Bishop noted: [2]
"all European governments consider imprisonment to be a sanction
which has serious negative effects on the prisoner and his or her social situation. It is
also a costly sanction to administer. For these reasons alone it should not be used with
offenders for whom an alternative sanction would serve as well."(Bishop 1988) [2]
In the commentary to the United Rules Standard Minimum Rules for
Non-Custodial Measures it is argued that
"Imprisonment cannot be considered an appropriate sanction for a
wide range of offences and many types of offenders, in particular those who are not likely
to repeat offences, those convicted of minor crimes and those needing medical, psychiatric
or social help."
"Developing views around the world about the problems of
imprisonment have led to increased interest in finding effective ways of helping offenders
in the community without resorting to imprisonment. Doubts are increasing about whether
imprisonment can rehabilitate offenders. It is often suggested that sending offenders to
prison can turn them into worse criminals and that, for that reason, imprisonment should
be reserved for the more serious and dangerous offenders. Imprisonment, which is itself a
costly undertaking, brings with it other social costs. Prison overcrowding is a problem
faced by many countries. In severely overcrowded prisons it can be impossible to train
prisoners to lead law-abiding lives following their release."
In any case, the commentary points out
"Most penal sanctions imposed on convicted offenders are in fact
non-custodial".
A wide range of alternatives is now in use throughout the world. Ways of reducing the
use of prison through using other measures can be introduced at three stages, pre-trial,
sentencing and after some part of a prison sentence has been served.
