Welcome to Incarceration: Are prisons a suitable punishment? This course explores the role of justice in both punishing and rehabilitating those who break the law.

In this activity, you will consider why we punish and the ethical implications of different forms of punishment.

In this activity you explore the prison environment itself and learn how current conditions compare to the aims and intentions of custody. This will help you think critically about what might solve some of the issues highlighted.

This activity looks at how ethical the treatment of prisoners is and considers the prison experience. You will critically compare some of the harsher prison environments with some seemingly more lenient prison regimes.

To close this week of the course, you will have the opportunity to reflect on the week and explore the glossary.

This week, you consider the alternatives to imprisonment. Using examples, you will consider whether non-custodial sanctions may be ethically more justifiable, and have a less detrimental effect on the offender longer term.

In this activity, you will consider what can be done to support offenders to help them desist from crime, both whilst they are incarcerated and as they leave prison, to help them desist from crime.

Prison may be the default sanction, but there may be more effective ways of punishing less serious offences. Custody is the most serious sanction, but is this appropriate for all crimes?

This activity continues to explore how judges and magistrates select an appropriate sentence. You will look at the practical and ethical implications of different punishments and assess the best outcomes.

In this final activity, you have the opportunity to reflect on your learning before completing the end of course test.