Pros And Cons Of Imprisonment

Crime is a social problem. Everywhere some human beings have fallen outside the pattern or permitted conduct. Crime cannot be abolished except in a non-existent Utopia. The primitive societies did not have well-developed agencies of criminal justice administration, therefore, settlement of private wrongs was entirely a personal matter and aggrieved party could settle the issue directly within the wrong-doer.1 With the advance of time, primitive societies gradually transformed into civil societies and the institution of kingship began to exercise its authority in settling disputes. Thus private punishment fell into disuse giving rise to public disposition of wrongdoer.2 With the state assuming charge of administration of justice, the process of public control of private wrongs started which eventually culminated into modern penal systems of the world. The common modes of punishment prevalent in different parts of the world included corporal punishments such as flogging, mutilation, branding, pillories, chaining, imprisonment, forfeiture of property, fine etc. Imprisonment presents a most simple penal and common form of sentencing for incapacitating the criminals. The development of imprisonment as a form of penalty for violation of laws is in the historical sense rather new. For a prisoner, the imprisonment itself is a punishment and thus, prisons are expected to be a place of rehabilitation, not places where extra punishment is added resulting to the violation of their