Rather than imprisonment, it's great! (4)
I believe the answer is:
fine
'rather' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'imprisonment it's great' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'it' could be 'e' ('e' can mean 'electronic' which is similar to 'IT') and 'e' is found in the answer.
The remaining letters 'fin' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't understand.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
'than' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for fine that I've seen before include "Very high quality money penalty" , "Excellent kind of monetary penalty" , "Magnificent" , "Very thin - excellent?" , "Super" .)