Do you mean the prison has every incentive for that? I didn’t think prison operators got to choose the length of a sentence. Or are you meaning them trying to influence politics and parole boards and so on?
It’s hard to know how much influence they have. They don’t have any say in the initial sentence.
But their incentive is to increase prison populations and sentences. And as a stakeholder, they will get a seat at the table. They might lobby government for longer sentences, they might attempt to influence public opinion, they might give less favourable behaviour reports to parole boards. They might do none of those things. But I don’t think it’s a good idea to give people a financial incentive to keep people in jail longer than they need to be.
Do you mean the prison has every incentive for that? I didn’t think prison operators got to choose the length of a sentence. Or are you meaning them trying to influence politics and parole boards and so on?
It’s hard to know how much influence they have. They don’t have any say in the initial sentence.
But their incentive is to increase prison populations and sentences. And as a stakeholder, they will get a seat at the table. They might lobby government for longer sentences, they might attempt to influence public opinion, they might give less favourable behaviour reports to parole boards. They might do none of those things. But I don’t think it’s a good idea to give people a financial incentive to keep people in jail longer than they need to be.