Book review: A Hucklesby and S Lister (eds), The Private Sector and Criminal Justice
| Published date | 01 November 2019 |
| DOI | 10.1177/1362480618792770 |
| Date | 01 November 2019 |
| Author | Wendy Fitzgibbon |
| Subject Matter | Book reviews |
566 Theoretical Criminology 23(4)
and the author presents a deterministic narrative. Narratives of desistance and change
were not presented in Middlemass’ work and recidivism was assumed as an outcome.
Neither author presents potential deviant themes uncovered in their work, which would
provide nuance to the narratives and precision to the qualitative analysis. Although there
is a breath of research on the negative effects of imprisonment on life trajectories, and
there are many, it is equally important to understand the potential for hope and mercy in
the narratives. The mark of a criminal record is not monolithic, and future research
should continue to unpack the ways in which individuals manage the label.
Like most research of this type, the nature of the study samples limits the potential
generalizability of the work. The works only capture a small snapshot of the reentry tran-
sition, a process that can last years. In addition, a challenge with both books is that the
study of reentry remains primarily relegated to large cities, particularly metropolitan areas
on the East Coast. Both studies were conducted in states where Medicaid expansion pro-
vides at least minimal treatment and healthcare services to individuals in the community.
In fact, Boston has Mass Health, one of the most extensive, state-funded insurance pro-
grams available. Scholars should be encouraged to continue the study of reentry outside
of the metropolis. It is not clear how the results would apply to individuals who return to
a small town in the South or a rural community in the mountain West. In addition, broad-
ening the scope of the work to include people of other races and ethnicities, physical abili-
ties, and sexual orientations is particularly important when describing the social disability
theory as described by Middlemass. Individuals are not solely marked by a criminal
record; instead, reentry should be considered in light of a multitude of identities.
Western and Middlemass provide important and nuanced description of the lived
experiences of individuals returning home from prison. Both books make it clear that the
reentry process is far from linear and that reintegration cannot be considered absent of
the social and political context of which it occurs. The books provide humanizing
glimpses into the lives of individuals and provide detailed, personal narratives that are
often absent from academic work of this type. The works are accessible reads for stu-
dents, scholars, and policy makers alike. In fact, the legal and political perspective pro-
vided by Middlemass is an excellent complement to the narratives of violence and
poverty described by Western. Together, the books would be appropriate for use in a
graduate class. The authors should be encouraged with this line of research, particularly
as the net of corrections continues to broaden and deepen with the growth of jail incar-
ceration, rising numbers of individuals sentenced to probation, and the proliferation of
economic sanctions.
A Hucklesby and S Lister (eds), The Private Sector and Criminal Justice, Palgrave Macmillan:
London, 2018; 312 pp.: 9781137370648, £101.00 (hbk), £80.50 (ebook)
Reviewed by: Wendy Fitzgibbon, University of Leicester, UK
The mounting criticism of at least one area of outsourcing of criminal justice (the proba-
tion service in England and Wales) to the private sector makes this important collection
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