In this article we draw attention to the recent and extraordinary increase in the
number of people in England and Wales recalled to prison during the licence period
of their sentence (by examining the published Parole Board and prison statistics).
This is followed by a description of the existing law and the recent changes to it,
which we suggest will exacerbate the current trend. We seek then to explain the
increase by looking primarily at the US experience (which reveals a system which is
costly, discriminatory and apparently ineffective at reducing crime) and at recent
judicial review cases (which reveal a system which is increasingly acknowledged to
be unfair), concluding that current sentencing law and practice puts inappropriate
emphasis on ‘front door’ sentencing practices rather than the
equally important ‘back door’ practices of release, supervision
and recall. Unsurprisingly, the article ends with a call for much more research in
this area.
Booth, M.B.
(1903) After Prison—What?New York: Fleming H. Revell Company
.
2.
Carter, M.M.
(2001) Responding to Parole and Probation Violations: A
Handbook to Guide Local Policy Development.
Washington, DC: US Department of Justice,
National Institute of Corrections
.
3.
Carter, P.
(2003) Managing Offenders, Reducing Crime.
London: Home Office
.
4.
Commission of the European Communities
(2004) The Approximation, Mutual Recognition and Enforcement
of Sanctions in the EU: Green Paper.
European Union: Commission of the European Communities
.
5.
Dodgson, K.
and
E. Mortimer
(2000) Home Detention Curfew Orders: The First Year of
Operation. Research Finding No. 110.
London: Home Office
.
6.
Dodgson, K.
,
P. Goodwin
,
P. Howard
,
S. Llewellyn-Thomas
,
E. Mortimer
,
N. Russell
and
M. Weiner
(2001) Electronic Monitoring of Released
Prisoners. Research Study No. 222.
London: Home Office
.
7.
Fletcher, H.
(2003)
‘Prison Licence, Community Order Breaches and the Prison Population’
, Napo News149:
1–1
.
8.
Gendreau, P.
,
F.T. Cullen
and
J. Bonta
(1994)
‘Intensive Rehabilitation Supervision: The Next Generation in
Community Corrections?’
, Federal Probation58:
173–184
.
9.
Glaze, L.E.
(2002) Probation and Parole in the United States, 2001.
Washington, DC, Bureau of Justice Statistics
.
10.
Gray, M.K.
,
M. Fields
and
S.R. Maxwell
(2001)
‘Examining Probation Violations: Who, What and When’
, Crime and Delinquency47:
537–557
.
11.
Home Affairs Committee
(2005) Rehabilitation of Prisoners: Volume II, Oral and
Written Evidence (HC 193-II).
London: The Stationery Office
.
12.
Home Office
(1996) White Paper: Protecting the Public. Cm. 3190.
London: Home Office
.
13.
Home Office
(2003) Prison Statistics 2002. Cm. 5996.
London: Home Office
.
14.
Hucklesby, A.
(1994)
‘The Use and Abuse of Bail Conditions’
, The Howard Journal of Criminal Justice33:
258–270
.
15.
Hucklesby, A.
(2002) ‘Bail in Criminal
Cases’, in
M. McConville
and
G. Wilson
(eds) The Handbook of the Criminal Justice Process, pp.
115–136.
Oxford: Oxford University Press
.
16.
Irish, J.F.
(1989) Probation and Recidivism: A Study of Probation
Adjustment and Its Relationship to Post-Probation Outcome for Adult Criminal
Offenders.
Mineola, NY: Nassau County Probation Department
.
17.
Kershaw, C.
,
P. Dowdeswell
and
J. Goodman
(1997) Life Licensees: Reconvictions and Recalls by the
End of 1995. Home Office Statistical Bulletin Issue 2/97.
18.
Kleiman, M.
(1999)
‘Community Corrections as the Front Line in Crime Control’
, UCLA Law Review46(6):
1909–1925
.
19.
Lynch, M.
(1998)
‘Waste Managers? The New Penology, Crime Fighting and Parole
Agent Identity’
, Law & Society Review32:
839–869
.
20.
McArthur, V.
(1974) Coming Out Cold: Community Reentry from a State
Reformatory.
Lexington, MA: Lexington Books
.
21.
McCleary, R.
(1978) Dangerous Men: A Sociology of Parole.
Beverly Hills, CA: Sage
.
22.
Maruna, S.
(2001) Making Good: How Ex-Convicts Reform and Rebuild Their
Lives.
Washington, DC: American Psychological
Association Books
.
23.
Morgan, R.
and
A. Owers
(2001) Through the Prison Gate: A Joint Thematic Review by HM
Inspectorates of Prisons and Probation.
London: Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Prisons
.
24.
Nellis, M.
(1999)
‘Towards “the Field of Corrections”:
Modernizing the Probation Service in the Late 1990s’
, Social Policy and Administration33:
302–323
.
25.
Nellis, M.
and
W.H. Chui
(eds) (2003) Moving Probation Forward: Evidence, Arguments
and Practice.
Harlow: Longman/Pearson Education
.
26.
Padfield, N.
(1998) A Guide to the Crime and Disorder Act 1998.
London: Butterworth
.
27.
Padfield, N.
(2002) Beyond the Tariff.
Cullompton, UK: Willan Publishing
.
28.
Padfield, N.
(2006)
‘The Parole Board in Transition’
, Criminal Law Review3:
3–23
.
29.
Parole Board
(2003) Annual Report 2002–3. HC 1182.
London: Home Office
.
30.
Parole Board
(2004) Annual Report 2003–4. HC 1100.
London: Home Office
.
31.
Parole Board
(2005) Annual Report 2004–5. HC 518.
London: Home Office
.
32.
Petersilia, J.
(1999) ‘Parole and Prisoner Re-Entry in the
United States’, in
M. Tonry
and
J. Petersilia
(eds) Prisons, pp. 479–529.
Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press
.
33.
Petersilia, J.
(2003) When Prisoners Come Home: Parole and Prisoner
Reentry.
Oxford: Oxford University Press
.
34.
Petersilia, J.
and
S. Turner
(1993) ‘Intensive Probation and
Parole’, in
M. Tonry
(ed.) Crime and Justice: An Annual Review of Research, vol. 19,
pp. 281–335.
Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press
.
35.
Piehl, A.M.
and
S. LoBuglio
(2005) ‘Does Supervision
Matter?’, in
J. Travis
and
C. Visher
(eds) Prisoner Reentry and Public Safety in America, pp.
105–138.
New York: Cambridge
.
36.
Public Accounts Committee
(2002) Reducing Prisoner Re-offending.
Fifty-third Report of Session2001–2002.
London: House of Commons
.
37.
Re-Entry Policy Council
(2005) Report of the Re-Entry Policy Council.
New York: Re-Entry Policy Council, Council of
State Governments (Eastern Regional Conference)
.
38.
Reitz, K.
(2004) ‘Questioning the Conventional Wisdom of
Parole Release Authority’, in
M. Tonry
(ed.) The Future of Imprisonment in the 21st Century, pp.
199–19235.
New York: Oxford University Press
.
39.
Sabol, W.J.
,
W.P. Adams
,
B. Parthasarathy
and
Y. Yuan
(2001) Offenders Returning to Federal Prison,
1986–1989. NCJ 182991.
Washington, DC: US Department of Justice,
Bureau of Justice Statistics
.
40.
Sentencing Advisory Panel
(2004) Consultation on Sentencing under the Sexual Offences
Act 2003.
London: Sentencing Advisory Panel
.
41.
Sentencing Guidelines Council
(2004) Guideline: Overarching Principles: Seriousness.
London: Sentencing Guidelines Council
.
42.
Simon, J.
(1993) Poor Discipline: Parole and the Social Control of the
Underclass, 1890–1990.
Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press
.
43.
Simon, J.
(1996) ‘Criminology and the
Recidivist’, in
D. Shichor
and
D.K. Sechrest
(eds) Three Strikes and You're Out: Vengeance as Public Policy,
pp. 24–50.
Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage
.
44.
Social Exclusion Unit
(2001) Reducing Re-Offending by Ex-Prisoners.
London: Home Office
.
45.
Taylor
,
Ralph B.
(2001) Breaking Away from Broken Windows.
New York: Westview Press
.
46.
Tonry, M.
(ed.) (2003) Confronting Crime: Crime Control Policy Under
New Labour.
Cullompton, UK: Willan Publishing
.
47.
Travis, J.
and
S. Lawrence
(2002) California's Parole Experiment.
Washington, DC: The Urban Institute Justice
Policy Center
.
48.
Travis, J.
and
J. Petersilia
(2001)
‘Reentry Reconsidered: A New Look at an Old Question’
, Crime & Delinquency47:
291–313
.
49.
Whitehead, J.T.
(1991)
‘The Effectiveness of Felony Probation: Results from an Eastern State’
, Justice Quarterly8:
525–543
.
50.
Wilson, J.Q.
and
G. Kelling
(1982)
‘Broken Windows’
, Atlantic Monthly211(March):
29–38
.
