NO SHELF CONTROL

Title: Parole

Author: Rob McKeon

Publisher: Quarto Publishing Group

Publication Date: September, 2024

Genre: Memoir

Pages: 288

My Rating: ★★★★★

Rob McKeon is an independent member of the Parole Board and has reviewed the cases of over 5000 prisoners. It is his, and his colleagues, responsibility to consider whether a prisoner is safe to be released, and how well they will be monitored and managed in the community.
This book takes us through some of Rob’s past cases and gives us insight in to what is considered before a prisoner is let out of prison.

The Parole Board typically deal with serious assault, sexual offences, terrorism, gang related crime and organised crime. Rob reinforces the belief that the UK has on rehabilitation and not focusing on punishment, and quite surprisingly to me, the number of prisoners released by the parole board who go on to be accused of a further serious offence is less than one per cent.

Rob tackles questions like:
Is the UK soft on crime?
Should life mean life?
Do violent criminals deserve a second chance?

I really enjoyed this and found it very interesting. My husband was a prison chef for a long time, ultimately leaving because of pay and hours, and not because he didn’t like the job, or build bonds with the prisoners. I could never understand how he could work with such people (it was a sex offenders prison), and this book helped me gain a better perspective of how people end up in prison, and the benefits to be had by treating them with respect and the human rights they deserve. Sadly, childhood trauma, mental health and substance abuse feature a lot.

Rob explains how he has to put aside moral judgement, have empathy and remain impartial, essentially making very difficult, and sometimes unpopular decisions. A huge hats off to him, I don’t think many people possess those skills.

I found Keith’s story fascinating and was pleased how the negativity of Covid changed the hearing process for the better, improving technology and resulting in more cases being heard, without the quality of those cases being impacted.

I’d definitely recommend, it’s eye opening just how much work, and thought, really does go in to the rehabilitation of offenders. I was genuinely under the impression they just opened the door and kicked them out like you see on the television!

Many thanks to NetGalley and Quarto Publishing Group for my advanced copy.