Diarmuid Griffin, Killing Time: Life Imprisonment and Parole in Ireland
| Author | Thomas Guiney |
| Published date | 01 April 2022 |
| Date | 01 April 2022 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/1462474520980344 |
| Subject Matter | Book reviews |
Book Reviews
Diarmuid Griffin, Killing Time: Life Imprisonment and Parole in Ireland,
Palgrave Macmillan: London, 2018; 251 pp.: ISBN 978-3-319-72666,
£99.99 (hbk)
In recent decades the field of penology has made considerable progress in seeking to elu-
cidate the commonalities and discontinuities that characterise national penal systems
(Cavadino and Dignan, 2006). Far from suggesting a global process of penal convergence
this burgeoning literature is beginning to reveal how broader shifts in the political
economy of crime coalesce at a national level to both catalyse and impede the spread
of punitive public discourses that marshal support for prison expansionism, indeterminate
sentences for public protection and greater use of life without parole for certain prescribed
offences (Barker, 2013; Lacey, 2008).
In his book Killing Time, Diarmuid Griffin, makes an important contribution to this
literature by examining how global trends in the use of punishment have interacted
with an Irish criminal justice system that has proved historically resistant to the ideational
claims of the rehabilitative ideal, the new penology and penal populism. In the first sys-
tematic review of the Irish parole system Griffin offers a meticulous, careful and balanced
analysis of the decision to release and documents the evolution of this system during a
period of intensifying penal severity which has seen the average time spent in custody
for those serving a mandatory life sentence for murder increase from an average of 7.5
years between 1974–1984 to 22 years in the period 2012–2016 (p.6).
For readers unfamiliar with the workings of the Irish criminal justice system, parole is
a political decision which confers considerable discretion upon the Minister for Justice
and Equality to authorise the ‘temporary’release of prisoners. The Parole Board is a non-
statutory advisory body which makes recommendations to the Minister in the cases of
individuals sentenced to (a) long determinate sentences of over eight years, (b) discretion-
ary life sentences and (c) mandatory life sentences for murder (pp.45–48). For the
growing proportion of Irish prisoners serving mandatory life sentences, eligibility for
parole is triggered after seven years in custody, although in practice, release is almost
never granted at first review. Parole dossiers are prepared by the Parole Board secretariat
and typically include submissions from the Garda Síochána (police), the Prison Governor
and Probation Service, a qualified psychologist and a victim impact statement, if submit-
ted. Decisions are taken by the Parole Board ‘on the papers’and while prisoners are
subject to interview by a parole board member, they are not entitled to an oral hearing
or legal representation (pp.69–77).
Punishment & Society
2022, Vol. 24(2) 284–301
© The Author(s) 2020
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DOI: 10.1177/1462474520980344
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