Longer jail terms fail to deter crime – study

LONGER prison sentences have proven ineffective in curbing crime because criminals do not fear being caught in the first place, according to the SA Institute of Race Relations.

A survey showed there had been an “astronomical leap in lengthy prison sentences”, it said yesterday.

Prisoners serving at least 10 years had increased from 2 percent (of 84 000) in 1995 to 48 percent (of 91 000) in 2012.

“This means that prisons are increasingly populated by inmates who stay longer, rather than by new convicts, but the law does not seem to deter perpetrators of serious crimes. The rate of aggravated robbery has increased by 25 percent between 1997, the year in which the minimum sentence legislation was introduced, and 2013,” Kerwin Lebone of the institute’s research department said.

He said global trends had shown the certainty of being arrested, a key feature of efficient detective work, as well as sound preventative measures, were more effective deterrents to crime than long sentences.

Lebone said that in 1995 only 2 percent of sentenced prisoners were serving 10 years or more, while 55 percent were serving less than six months. This was “almost the exact reverse of the current scenario”.

“The survey shows sentences of between five and seven years declined by 53 percent between 1995 and 2012, while life sentences increased by almost 1 900 percent over the same period.”

He said the institute had sourced data from the Department of Correctional Services and the Presidency’s development indicators. – Staff Writer