The failure of recall to prison : early release, front-door and back-door sentencing and the revolving prison door in Scotland
Weaver, Beth and Tata, Cyrus and Munro, Mary and Barry, Monica (2012) The failure of recall to prison : early release, front-door and back-door sentencing and the revolving prison door in Scotland. European Journal of Probation, 4 (1). pp. 85-98. ISSN 2066-2203 (https://doi.org/10.1177/206622031200400108)
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Abstract
This article seeks to explain the reasons for the sharp rise in prison recall rates in Scotland. It argues that recall practices need to be understood not as a technical corner of the justice system, but as part of a wider analysis of the politics of sentencing and release policy. While there are sound reasons for a policy of ‘early release’ (incentivizing good behavior and enabling the resettlement of prisoners), in practice early release has increasingly been used as a tool to try to limit the growth in the custodial population. Unable to control prison numbers through the ‘front door’ (judicial sentencing and bail/remand), successive governments have increasingly relied on early release as a surreptitious way of, in effect, re-sentencing prisoners. We argue that this political strategy is ultimately self-defeating, not least in feeding public cynicism about the penal system and community supervision in particular. This article reviews the changing legislative, policy and practice landscape of the regulation of non-compliance and recall practice, and draws on the desistance literature to illustrate how offender-supervisor relationships can be undermined by recall policies which threaten the legitimacy of both the supervisory relationship and the conditions of supervision orders.
ORCID iDs
Weaver, Beth ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1711-1068, Tata, Cyrus ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1033-478X, Munro, Mary and Barry, Monica ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4060-854X;-
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Item type: Article ID code: 37036 Dates: DateEvent1 March 2012PublishedSubjects: Social Sciences > Social pathology. Social and public welfare
Law > Law (General)Department: Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences (HaSS) > Social Work and Social Policy > Social Work and Social Policy > Social Work
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences (HaSS) > Strathclyde Law School > LawDepositing user: Pure Administrator Date deposited: 24 Jan 2012 16:09 Last modified: 29 Nov 2024 01:07 URI: https://strathprints.strath.ac.uk/id/eprint/37036