After a Guilty Verdict

Gills and Nafekh - After a Guilty Verdict (Imprisonment)

Gills and Nafekh obtained data on 23,525 Canadian prisoners all released between 1998 and 2005. Some employed on community employment programmes and matched with a control group of prisoners not employed on a community employment programme. They were matched on gender, sentence and risk level. The control group returned to prison in 11 months whereas it was 37 months for the employment programme group. Therefore this shows that planning a prisoners return back into the community is vital.

Dooley - After a Guilty Verdict (Imprisonment)

Data about unnatural deaths between 1972 and 1987 in England and Wales prisons. 442 were unnatural deaths and there were 300 suicides. They then looked into inmates background details, previous offences, statements from prison staff and inmates. They found that hanging was the most common way of suicide. They concluded that four factors influenced deaths - outside pressure, prison situation, guilt and mental illness. They also felt overcrowding may also be a factor. 

Zimbardo - After a Guilty Verdict (Imprisonment)

Zimbardo recruits 24 psychologically healthy students to play roles of guards and prisoners in a simulated prison underneath the university. They were randomly assigned roles. They were expected to stay for 2 weeks and each participant was arrested from their house by local police. Each participant was dressed in smocks, and there were no clocks or windows. The guards set up a strict regime. Guards became sadistic after a while and the prisoners did not think to leave the simulated prison. Even parents of the participants began to think it was real when they visited their children in 'prison'.

Mair&May - After a Guilty Verdict (Alternative to Imprisonment)

Mair and May wanted to investigate the experience of offenders on probation orders in England and Wales. 3299 offenders were chosen at random and represented all ages and offences. Subject attrition of 40% occurred. Interviews were conducted by independent researchers and questions were mainly closed questions, likert scales and multiple choice questions. 88% felt probation was useful, 60% thought probation officers would help them individually. However only 37% said it would stop them re-offending. Other factors such as socio-economic status, family and unemployment also need to be considered.

Sherman&Strang - After a Guilty Verdict (Alternatives to Imprisonment)

Sherman and Strang looked at restorative justice in practice and measured its effectiveness in terms of re-offending. Content analysis on 424 academic papers on restorative justice. They compared re-offending rates for those part of the restorative justice programme and those who were not. They found it was more effective for violent and property crime and that often it can be more useful for the victim than the offender.

Eberhardt - After a Guilty Verdict (Alternative to Imprisonment)

Eberhardt aimed to investigate whether there was support for the hypothesis that black offenders with stereotypical black features were more likely to get the death sentence than white offenders. Analysis of the database of death eligible cases in Philadelphia between 1979 and 1999. In 44 cases a black man had killed a white victim. These 44 photos were shown to 32 White, 15 Asian and 4 other people. They had to rate facial features on how stereotypically black on scale of 1 to 11. Most stereotypically black were 57.5% more likely to receive the death penalty. This suggests that stereotypically looking black men are seen as more 'death worthy'.

Cann - After a Guilty Verdict (Treatment Programmes)

Cann aimed to find out if cognitive skills programmes were effective in terms of lowering re-offending rates for a sample of women prisoners. 180 offenders who started enhanced thinking skills programmes between 1996 and 2000 including 14 participants who did not complete the programme. This was compared with 540 females who did not take part in a programme. Results found that there was no significant difference between the group on a cognitive skills programme and those who were not on expected re-conviction. 

Ireland - After a Guilty Verdict (Treatment Programmes)

Ireland aimed to assess whether anger management programmes work with young male offenders. The procedure was a Quasi experiment with 37 participants in a control group which received no anger management programme and these were matched to 50 participants receiving CALM anger management programme. Prisoners were given interviews and self reports and officers filled in check lists rating 29 angry behaviours of the prisoners. 92% showed an improvement on either the check list or the self report and 48% showed an improvement and both the check list and self report. In the short term the treatment seemed effective but there is no data to show re-offending afterwards so cannot see long term effects of the anger management programme.

Wheatley - After a Guilty Verdict (Treatment Programmes)

Wheatley aimed to evaluate the use of acupuncture and the effectiveness of ear acupuncture to treat drug addiction in prisoners. 350 participants in 6 high security prisons received acupuncture and standard care programme FOCUS. This was compared with a control group who just received FOCUS. 2 practitioners worked with small groups in a relaxed setting, needles inserted into 5 acupuncture points in the ear and prisoners relaxed for 40 minutes. Prisoners reported better sleep and improved relaxation as well as cognitive and health improvements. They found 70% reduction in drug related incidents in 6 months after treatment, 41% reduction in serious incident reports. Wheatley believes that there is enough evidence to expand the delivery of acupuncture throughout the prison system. It is believed that this treatment works best along side other programmes.