Imprisonment and alternatives to prisons: changes and prospects in a comparative perspective

A cross-sectional and cross-sectional view of post-adjudication provisions is given which can help to understand what trends sanctions systems are developing, how and why certain types of sanctions are extended, what forces are operational when new criminal sanctions are adopted in a specific criminal justice system; and finally, how criminal sanctions are implemented and to what end. The imposition of penalties on the implementation process are themes of innovation in the systems of criminal sanctions and the process of change that arise. There are two possible processes, there could be a transfer of sentencing and punishment policies across national borders, from one system or jurisdiction to another or from one group of countries to others. Pressure and incentives can play a role in joining particular types of policies. Certainly, there are also limits to transfers of penal sanctions and punishments and methods of correction, limits that can perhaps be explained historically, culturally or simply by sticking to habits. It is this normative nucleus of penal sanctions where the problems of legitimation are located and that explains why many systems adhere equitably to rehabilitation, deterrence, proportionality and justice as sentencing objectives. It also presents an overview of the current evolution in the use of criminal sanctions in Europe, as it is a new concern for imprisonment. Figures from European prisons provide some evidence that there is a trend towards increasing rates of incarceration since the late 1980s. What is reported in virtually all European countries is a fairly high rate of incarceration in the mid-1990s compared to the 1970s and 1980s. In addition to alternatives to incarceration, they have succeeded in replacing detention as a criminal mechanism in the case of resident and individual criminals. However, they are fines and suspended sentences or probation. The latter is expressed in particular through old and new sentencing powers that allow the combination of alternatives. The changes that occurred in the last decades and that have been due to basic changes in criminal policies that today are more expressive than instrumental. First, it is a trend towards longer prison sentences, in particular for drug trafficking and violent crimes that contribute to the increase of prison populations in Western Europe. Second, it is a trend towards increases in the size of precarious populations, populations most likely to be eligible for prison sentences. Precarious groups come especially from immigrant and migrant populations, as well as groups of long-term unemployed. The criminals who attract prison sentences in the 1990s belong to unstable groups such as irregular immigrants or criminal networks that do not provide the confidence that is evidently required to be eligible for alternatives to imprisonment. Alternatives to imprisonment in the face of changes in criminal policy and sentences include: Civil and criminal forms of confiscation, administrative measures (such as deportation) and procedural and investigative powers that provide surveillance and control based on suspicion alone.