Book review: Fergus McNeill, Pervasive Punishment. Making Sense of Mass Supervision
| Author | Marta Marti |
| DOI | 10.1177/2066220319853996 |
| Published date | 01 April 2019 |
| Date | 01 April 2019 |
| Subject Matter | Book review |
https://doi.org/10.1177/2066220319853996
European Journal of Probation
2019, Vol. 11(1) 49 –51
© The Author(s) 2019
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DOI: 10.1177/2066220319853996
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Book review
Fergus McNeill, Pervasive Punishment. Making Sense of Mass Supervision, Emerald Publishing:
United Kingdom, 2019; 245 pp.: ISBN: 978-1-78756-466-4, €32 (pbk)
Reviewed by: Marta Marti, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Spain
Pervasive Punishment. Making Sense of Mass Supervision, by Fergus McNeill, offers a
complete analysis of contemporary penal supervision in the community in Scotland and
England and Wales, with references to the North American and European contexts. The
aim of this book is to make the supervisory forms of punishment in the community vis-
ible, which, according to the author, have been insufficiently observed in academic and
public discussions of criminal justice. In order to do so, McNeill – who has previously
been a practitioner in criminal justice social work – draws on an academic analysis and
creative methods, such as story-telling and photography.
The book begins placing the reader in the waiting room of a community supervision
service, where Joe, the main character of this short story, is waiting to meet his supervi-
sor for the first time. Joe, a 49 year-old man sentenced to penal supervision for 18 months,
is anxiously waiting, inspecting the room and wondering ‘what she would be like –
Pauline – the unknown woman who now held the keys of his freedom’ (p. 2). Each of the
seven chapters of the book starts with a short story about Joe’s case from different points
of view (including the supervisor’s perspective, that of the supervision service manager
and the supervisee himself), which is used to ‘bring to life’ (p. 3) the different aspects of
mass supervision.
Chapter 1 highlights two main ideas: (1) supervision is a pervasive punishment, not
only because it pervades the lives of those who are supervised, but also because it
extends all through society; and (2) the effects of community supervision (both on indi-
viduals and society) are diffuse and unobserved, partly because supervision is hardly
deemed as a punishment. Chapter 2 provides the conceptual framework to understand
the evolution of mass supervision. It emphasises that in order to make sense of penal
change it is necessary to analyse not only the distal influences on penalty (economic,
social, cultural and political changes in society) but also the more proximate influences
(how each system generates and circumscribes, governs and deploys penal power) and
local influences (how distal and proximate influences are moderated by the specific
characteristics of the system). Chapter 3 illustrates the amount and dispersion of mass
supervision drawing on data on incarceration and community supervision rates in the
US and Scotland. Chapter 4 explores how supervision has been legitimated in policy
and practice discourses and how it has adapted to changing social conditions. Chapter 5
853996EJP0010.1177/2066220319853996European Journal of ProbationBook review
2019
Book review
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