Matt Tidmarsh, Professionalism in Probation: Making Sense of Marketisation
| Published date | 01 October 2023 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/14624745221079000 |
| Author | Jamie Buchan |
| Date | 01 October 2023 |
| Subject Matter | Book Reviews |
The third theme found in this book were various forms of active of resistance. There
were efforts to change the narrative regarding the problematic outcomes of mano dura
and the reasons for increased violence in the archipelago. The police were not bringing
solutions, thus residents replicated Chicago’s Cure Violence Model by creating their
own program of violence interrupters named Acuerdo de Paz built on a feminist frame-
work that paid its workers a living wage. The workers reached out to young people
encountering obstacles in a complex social context. They utilized developing a different
form of consciousness to disrupt gendered expectations regarding how to respond to per-
sonal affronts. Resistance also came from the involvement of university students working
to ensure better access and resources at public universities. In addition, social media was
utilized to change the perception of victimization and how traditional thinking about who
was worthy and unworthy maintained many classist, racist, and sexist viewpoints.
In summary, LeBrón’s interdisciplinary training provides a refreshing analysis to the
contemporary challenges in Puerto Rico as a colonial possession of the United States. The
book shines in outlining how political leaders in the territory ignored, neglected, and tar-
geted certain segments of the population. The use of the Puerto Rican Police Department
and National Guard resulted in enhanced inequality. As an act of survival from violent
victimization and incarceration, residents created several forms of self-help strategies
that lacked ongoing institutional support. Resolving these challenges may be more diffi-
cult after Hurricane María in 2017. I look forward to learning more from Dr. Marisol
LeBrón, regarding these evolving changes, as residents pursue solidarity and mutual
support in the face of inequality maintained by punitive governance.
Robert J. Durán
Texas A&M University
ORCID iD
Robert J. Durán https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1130-9164
Matt Tidmarsh, Professionalism in Probation: Making Sense of Marketisation,
London: Routledge, 2021; 222 pp. (including index). ISBN: 978-
0367621933, £36.99 (ebook), £120 (hbk)
Just seven years after it began in 2013, and amid a pandemic which has put enormous
pressures on criminal justice institutions, the Transforming Rehabilitation (TR) pro-
gramme was officially brought to an end. Under TR, and on the basis of little evidence,
probation in England and Wales was split into an outsourced provision for low- and
medium-risk offenders run by 21 regional Community Rehabilitation Companies
(CRCs), to be contracted out to private- and third-sector providers –with high-risk offen-
ders remaining under the supervision of a shrunken state-run National Probation Service
(NPS). CRCs would be incentivised to reduce reoffending through a largely untested
‘payment by results’model, alongside fixed ‘fees for service’for some required activities.
1144 Punishment & Society 25(4)
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