Projects per year
Abstract
In recent years, the United States and England and Wales have witnessed growing re-incarceration rates. This growth is not only due to the courts sending more people to prison (‘front-end sentencing’), but also due to an increasing number of revocations of early release measures, mainly following technical violations of licence conditions (so called ‘back-end sentencing’). However, it is unclear whether the same phenomenon exists in other (European) countries. Therefore, we empirically studied prison recall decision-making processes in Belgium by file analysis, complemented with focus groups with the decision-makers involved in the recall process of prisoners with a sentence of more than three years. We found that the recall process in Belgium is embedded in a strong narrative of ‘giving chances’ and that all decision-makers deploy a large amount of discretion, which they use to make deliberate decisions in an attempt to facilitate parolees’ reintegration process. Non-compliance with imposed conditions does not automatically lead to recall and even when a parolee is sent back to prison, recall is framed by the decision-makers as a step in the reintegration process, not the end of it.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 6-25 |
Number of pages | 20 |
Journal | Probation Journal |
Volume | 67 |
Issue number | 1 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 22 Jan 2020 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This work was supported by the Research Council of Flanders (FWO) (Nr. G0B7214 N, ‘Back-end sentencing’. Exploring decision-making processes and practices of recall to prison, promoter Kristel Beyens. The empirical research was conducted by Lars Breuls, Lana De Pelecijn, and Veerle Scheirs).
Funding Information:
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This work was supported by the Research Council of Flanders (FWO) (Nr. G0B7214 N, ?Back-end sentencing?. Exploring decision-making processes and practices of recall to prison, promoter Kristel Beyens. The empirical research was conducted by Lars Breuls, Lana De Pelecijn, and Veerle Scheirs).
Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2020.
Copyright:
Copyright 2020 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
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Dive into the research topics of 'Recall to prison in Belgium: Back-end sentencing in search of reintegration'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.Projects
- 1 Finished
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FWOAL713: ‘Back-end sentencing’. Exploring decision-making processes and practices of recall to prison
Beyens, K. & Scheirs, V.
1/01/14 → 31/12/17
Project: Fundamental