Book Reviews
| Author | Gavin Dingwall |
| DOI | 10.1177/1466802503003002005 |
| Published date | 01 May 2003 |
| Date | 01 May 2003 |
| Subject Matter | Reviews |
Sue Rex and Michael Tonry (eds)
Reform and Punishment: The Future of Sentencing
Cullompton, Devon: Willan, 2002. 236 pp. (incl. index). £30.00 ISBN
1–903240–94–8 (hbk)
•Reviewed by Gavin Dingwall, University of Aberystwyth, UK
One has to feel a certain sympathy for John Halliday, the senior Home Office
civil servant appointed by Jack Straw to review sentencing in England and
Wales. As early as page 2 of this collection, which evaluates Halliday’s
proposals along with those relating to the magistracy in the Auld report, the
editors comment that ‘[the review], though intelligently, ambitiously and
professionally executed, was misconceived. Too much was expected from too
few in too little time’.
To compound matters further, Halliday did not have a free hand. His
recommendations had to accommodate a number of Straw’s stated policies
and, given these covered matters as central as the nature of community
supervision, increased punishment for repeat offenders and the retention of
mandatory minimum sentences, he had to try and devise a coherent package
around a range of disparate sentencing measures not necessarily of his choos-
ing. Working within such political constraints and with such limited
resources—as the editors note the review was effectively the work of one man
in less than 18 months—it is hardly surprising that the contributors to this
collection raise a considerable number of theoretical and practical difficulties
with his proposals. However, these objections are tempered by a recognition of
the pressures that Halliday was working under and a general, though not
universal, acknowledgement that the report does contain much of merit.
The collection is based on papers originally presented at a two-day Crop-
wood Conference on Sentencing Policies and Possibilities held in Cambridge at
the end of November 2001. It is an enormous credit to the authors, editors and
publisher that the book has come out so quickly after the event. In keeping
with the aim of Cropwood Conferences the participants comprised of aca-
demics, policy makers and practitioners. Three things are notable about the
delegate list. First, the participants were exceptionally well qualified to com-
ment on the Halliday proposals. Second, the academic participants were
outnumbered by those working in the Home Office or the criminal justice
BOOK REVIEWS
Criminal Justice
© 2003 SAGE Publications
London, Thousand Oaks
and New Delhi.
1466–8025(200305) 3:2;
Vol. 3(2): 213–221; 033384
213
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