Book review: Justice on Trial: Radical Solutions for a System at Breaking Point; Prison by Any Other Name: The Harmful Consequences of Popular Reforms
| Published date | 01 June 2021 |
| Author | Mike Nellis |
| Date | 01 June 2021 |
| DOI | 10.1177/02645505211015744b |
| Subject Matter | Book reviews |
legitimacy of the system as well as the perceptions of those subject to the system.
Indeed, the preponderance of sentencing research to date tends to prioritise the
perspectives, roles, and experiences of sentencing professionals, in other words, of
those exercising power rather than those subject to it. Tata highlights this and
advocates that greater attention needs to be paid to the experiences of those subject
to sentencing by researchers and policy makers.
Tata’s (2020) book makes an impressive contribution to the current state of lit-
erature in sentencing research and policy is a must-read for anyone interested in
sentencing decision-making.
Justice on Trial: Radical Solutions for a System at Breaking
Point
Chris Daw QC
Bloomsbury; 2020, pp. 274; £16.99; hbk
ISBN: 978-14729-7788-5
Prison by Any Other Name: The Harmful Consequences
of Popular Reforms
Maya Schenwar and Victoria Law
The New Press; 2020, pp. 285; £22.64; hbk
ISBN: 978-1-62097-310-3
Reviewed by: Mike Nellis, Emeritus Professor, University of
Strathclyde
It is not every day that a conservative English barrister with 30 years’ experience of
criminal justice(and a regular Spectator column) finally despairs of politicalinertia in
penal reformand demands that we now ‘close all prisons’.His parallel argument, that
we ‘legalise drugs’ is not quite so original – libertarians on the political Right have
argued this awhile,but, using relevant examples from elsewhere Chris Daw indicates
how Britain mightsensibly do the same. His book isa bold moral argument for prison
abolition, free of explicit theory, replete with human stories andvery readable. There
is no doubting his outrage or sincerity. He has asked around, thought hard, and
learned from people he has defended. He has toured bad prisons in the USA and
better ones in Norway to inform his growing conviction that in England penal policy
has long been going awry and could and should be dramatically otherwise.
Justice on Trial has five core chapters, beginning with a short-potted history of
crime and punishment which unfortunately doesn’t explore the social and political
286 Probation Journal 68(2)
To continue reading
Request your trial