Anopen prisonoropen jail is any jail in which the prisoners are trusted to complete sentences with minimal supervision and perimeter security and are often not locked up in their prison cells. Prisoners may be permitted to take up employment while serving their sentence. This provides an opportunity for criminals to reintegrate into society and withdrawal from their criminal behavior. Without the constraints and stresses of typical incarcerations, criminals can discover more positive lifestyles through support and light supervision from the criminal justice system. Open prisons provide the opportunity for prisoners to increase their mental health and opportunity for employment. Some scholars have pointed out that new forms of “pains of imprisonment” can arise within open prisons, due to the stresses of “liberty under constraint.”[1]
In the UK, open prisons are often part of a rehabilitation plan for prisoners moved from closed prisons. They may be designated "training prisons" and are only for prisoners considered a low risk to the public.
In Indonesia, open prisons have been used to substitute immigrant detention centers and closed prison incarceration. This change has been helpful in creating a humane environment for immigrants that is less confining than incarceration and detention centers. These open prisons tend to do a better job at providing basic needs and creating better conditions than detention centers. The assistance of the International Organization of Migration contributed to Indonesia's government efforts to create alternative systems to detention. In 2018, refugees and asylum seekers no longer housed in immigration detention centers, and open prisons became one of trial substitutes for immigrants. Entry into open prisons may be dependent upon agreements to follow Indonesia law, consistently report to local authorities, and adhere to discretionary rules while being in the country.
The idea of an open prison is often criticized by members of the public and politicians, despite its success towards rehabilitation compared to older, more draconian methods.[2] Prisoners in open jails do not have complete freedom and are only allowed to leave the premises for specific purposes, such as going to an outside job.[3] In Ireland, there has been controversy about the level of escape from open prisons, attributed to their use by the Irish Prison Service not just to transfer prisoners suitable for open conditions, but also to reduce overcrowding in closed prisons. The idea of open prisons is to rehabilitate prisoners rather than to punish them.[4]
In Germany the "Offener Vollzug" is part of the rehabilitation process for about 16% of prisoners.[6]
Trumble, a fictional open prison in Florida, is the major setting for John Grisham's novel The Brethren.
Andvig, E., Koffeld-Hamidane, S., Ausland, L. H., & Karlsson, B. (2021). Inmates’ perceptions and experiences of how they were prepared for release from a Norwegian open prison. Nordic Journal of Criminology (Routledge), 22(2), 203–220. {{doi|10.1080/2578983X.2020.1847954}}
Baumann, M., Meyers, R., Le Bihan, E., Houssemand, C., & Baumann, M. (2008). Mental health (GHQ12; CES-D) and attitudes towards the value of work among inmates of a semi-open prison and the long-term unemployed in Luxembourg. BMC Public Health, 8(1), 214–223. {{doi|10.1186/1471-2458-8-214}}
Easing overcrowding in Indonesia’s prisons: Opening unexpected opportunities. Australian Government Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. (n.d.). https://www.dfat.gov.au/development/australias-development-program/stories-impact/easing-overcrowding-indonesias-prisons-opening-unexpected-opportunities
Missbach, A. (2021). Substituting immigration detention centres with “open prisons” in Indonesia: alternatives to detention as the continuum of unfreedom. Citizenship Studies, 25(2), 224–237. {{doi|10.1080/13621025.2020.1859193}}
Easing overcrowding in Indonesia’s prisons: Opening unexpected opportunities. Australian Government Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. (n.d.). https://www.dfat.gov.au/development/australias-development-program/stories-impact/easing-overcrowding-indonesias-prisons-opening-unexpected-opportunities
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