ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the development of prison as a social institution and describe key elements of prison life. It also discusses the empirical research on how prison might impact on individuals’ reoffending and prisoners’ children criminal behavior. To understand how incarceration may influence the development of crime across the life-course, it is important to highlight what experiences incarceration involves for the person incarcerated and for prisoners’ children left behind. This environment affects children with incarcerated parents, although the extent of the impact is likely to vary both with criminal justice and prison policies, and with children’s prior relationships with their parents and alternative caregiving arrangements. Labeling theory also predicts an increase in offending as a consequence of incarceration. Classic labeling theory suggests that being publicly labeled a criminal causes increases in an individual’s offending behavior, because people will act according to the label attached to them by society.
