Improving interagency collaboration, innovation and learning in criminal justice systems: supporting offender rehabilitation. S. Hean, B. Johnsen, A. Kajamaa & L. Kloetzer (Eds.) Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan/Springer Nature Switzerland AG. 2021. 475pp. €53.49 (hbk); €42.79 (pbk) ISBN: 978‐3‐030‐70660‐9; 978‐3‐030‐70663‐0; open access ISBN: 978‐3‐030‐70661‐6 (ebk)
| Published date | 01 September 2022 |
| Author | Vivian Geiran |
| Date | 01 September 2022 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/hojo.12491 |
DOI: 10.1111/ho jo.12491
BOOK REVIEWS
Improving interagency collaboration, innovation and learning in crimi-
nal justice systems: supporting offender rehabilitation
S. Hean B. Johnsen A. Kajamaa L. Kloetzer
Cham, Switzerland: PalgraveMacmillan/Spring er NatureSwitzerland AG. 2021. 475pp. €53.49 (hbk); €42.79 (pbk) ISBN:
978-3-030-70660-9; 978-3-030-70663-0;open access ISBN: 978-3-030-70661-6 (ebk)
Although by no means a ‘given’, in terms of implementation in practice, good multidisciplinary
working and interagency co-operation have always been critically important as goals to be
achieved by criminal justice organisations and the other systems with which they interact. Such
co-operation is especially important if positive client outcomes are to be maximised. In more
recent times, such themes and issues have achieved more prominence, as governments, their
ministries and agencies have striven to ensure more‘joined-up’ working between the criminal jus-
tice system and the health and social service sectors, to drive greater effectiveness and efficiency.
Consideration of interagency co-operation though, is often set against a backdrop of frustra-
tion expressed by various players and stakeholders regarding the perceived and real barriers to
productive collaboration.
These barriers are frequently evidenced in so-called ‘siloed’ working and thinking, where indi-
vidual organisations and agencies – and those working in them – can sometimes appear to be
more concerned with preserving and protecting their own interests and resources, as opposed to
‘putting the person/client at the centre of concerns’.To begin with, interagency co-operation can
be a challenge even within and among the various criminal justice agencies themselves; however
such challenges are often magnified and more difficult to resolve in relation to how the penal
system, for example, collaborates with health and social services more widely.And just to add to
these challenges, it can be difficult, if not impossible, for those involved to ‘get under the bonnet’
of interagency relationships, so as to better understand and thereby improve them. The present
publication goes some way to exploring and explaining these challenges and demystifying many
of the issues involved.
As referenced in one of the papers in this book, interagency and multidisciplinary collabora-
tion is ‘a fuzzy concept’ (p.258), which can lead to lack of mutual understanding, language and
goals, not to mention a lack of shared analysis of appropriate processes and waysto improve them.
This general lack of understanding in common can militate, in conjunction with a range of other
factors, against the ready or easy application of such co-operation in practice, even with the best
intentions of those involved.
© 2022 The Howard League and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
Howard J. Crim. Justice. 2022;61:399–404. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/hojo 399
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