Book Review: Corcoran, M. S. (2006). Out of Order: The Political Imprisonment of Women in Northern Ireland, 1972-1998. Devon, UK: Willan. xxi pp., 261 pp

Abstract

probation administrators and the difficulties of communication and offender management between these groups; (b) the effects of privatization on probation and prison services; (c) the fragmentation involved in a national service such as this one, including the disjunction that is likely to occur between administration, management, and line staff, given that each group may have conflicting goals (e.g., the administration wants to reduce recidivism and reoffending by incarcerating those most likely to reoffend, whereas line staff may think that the individuals on their caseload are victims of circumstances beyond their control and thus may overlook some less serious technical violations); (d) the pressure to reduce costs (perhaps at the expense of quality services) brought about by the competitive nature of the NOMS system; (e) the loose (and often nonexistent) relationship between increased incarceration and crime in the community; and (f) the resistance of sentencers to use all community sentencing options available under an offender management system, whose goal is to use incarceration as a last (rather than a first) resort. The authors provide a number of suggestions concerning how to deal with these difficulties, with the aim of making the transition to the offender management system as smooth as possible. An additional strength is the detailed history of the evolution of NOMS provided at the beginning of the book.Nevertheless, the major weakness of this book involves the redundancy of the arguments made by the authors throughout the book. This redundancy made the final chapters particularly difficult to finish and, as such, the papers at the end probably did not get the attention they deserved. I fear that my experience will be that of other readers as well. In addition, although the editors attempted to arrange the book in an intuitive sequence, I am still not convinced that all the papers presented were necessary. The book would have been improved by incorporating a thorough review of the literature concerning offender management systems currently being used internationally at the beginning of the book and then including a much "tighter" discussion of NOMS in the second and subsequent papers presented in the book.Given these caveats, however, the book does achieve its original purpose. The authors provide an intelligent discussion of a move toward a national offender management system in Great Britain and provide advice concerning how to deal with the difficulties this move is sure to bring about. In addition, this book also provides a reader who is largely unfamiliar with offender management in Great Britain (like myself) a good opportunity to learn about that system. Finally, this book is a necessary resource for anyone interested in national offender management systems in general. As such, it is a valuable addition to the library of anyone who fits into one of those groups discussed above.