Book review: Privatising Punishment in Europe?
| DOI | 10.1177/0264550519881914 |
| Author | Gwen Robinson |
| Published date | 01 December 2019 |
| Date | 01 December 2019 |
| Subject Matter | Book reviews |
Book reviews
Book reviews
Privatising Punishment in Europe?
Tom Daems and Tom Vander Beken (eds)
Routledge; 2018, pp.184; £39.99; pbk
ISBN: 9780367365240
Reviewed by: Gwen Robinson, University of Sheffield, UK
Readers of this journal hardly need reminding of the spread and proliferation of
privatised punishment in the United Kingdom (particularly in England and Wales)
but, as the editors of this book observe, relatively little has to date been written about
this trend in continental Europe. They further observe that while much of the literature
on privatised punishment has centred on the construction and/or management of
prisons, it is in fact a phenomenon that ‘has many faces and takes different shapes
and sizes’ (p. 2). In recognition of this fact, the chapters in this volume not only
consider developments in a range of jurisdictions but also extend their gaze beyond
the prison to include non-custodial sanctions and measures, including probation
services and electronic monitoring (EM).
Following a useful introductory chapter by the editors, there are eight stand-alone
chapters, each by a different author, addressing a specific topic. Four of the
chapters have a clear jurisdictional focus (Poland, Belgium, England and Wales,
and France), and the latter of these (by Martine Herzog-Evans and Lol Burke) focus
on privatisation as it has affected the probation services in their respective countries.
Burke’s chapter does an excellent job of tracing the twists and turns of the journey
towards probation privatisation in the context of the Transforming Rehabilitation
(TR) programme, and it manages to do so in a way that feels fresh (albeit that the
story of TR ends here in 2016, as necessitated by the publisher’s schedule). In the
following chapter, Herzog-Evans reflects on the Anglo-Welsh experience of TR in
her account of recent developments in France. She argues that the French probation
‘mission’ has been hollowed out and now largely rests in the hands of the not-for-
profit sector, whose (largely paid) staff are the real competitors as far as public-
sector probation workers are concerned.
The Journal of Community and Criminal Justice
Probation Journal
2019, Vol. 66(4) 468–473
ªThe Author(s) 2019
Article reuse guidelines:
sagepub.com/journals-permissions
DOI: 10.1177/0264550519881914
journals.sagepub.com/home/prb
To continue reading
Request your trial