Book Review: The Penal Crisis and the Clapham Omnibus: Questions and Answers in Restorative Justice

• Author: Alan Mobley,Rick Marinez
• Published date: 01 December 2011
• Date: 01 December 2011
• DOI: 10.1177/1057567711421216
• Subject Matter: Book Reviews

D. J. Cornwell

The Penal Crisis and the Clapham Omnibus: Questions and Answers in Restorative Justice

Hampshire, United Kingdom: Waterside Press, 2009. iv, 254 pp. $39.95. ISBN 978-1904380474

Reviewed by: Rick Marinez and Alan Mobley, San Diego State University, San Diego, CA, USA

DOI: 10.1177/1057567711421216

This is a good and usefulbook, and a needed addition to the literature on restorative justice. It showsa

variety of readerswhere we are in the current prison mess, tellsus how we got here, and signals a solid

way forward. It doe s so from what we like to c all a ‘‘relatively enlightene d’’ practitioner perspectiv e.

The author, David J. Cornwell, claims many years of executive experience in Her Majesty’s Prison

Service,andheaimsforthebooktobeusefulfarbeyond Britain. His target audience, in fact, is the

relatively educated publics of Western civilizations. This is both a great strength and a terrible

weakness of the book, at least for American readers. The strength is that it tells us that we are not

alone in the present ‘‘penal crisis.’’ Penal expansion, high spending, and overcrowding, do indeed

grip much of the Western world. The unfortunate part is that the book does not address a key aspect

of what has been called ‘‘American exceptionalism.’’ That is, the book does not deal with race.

This is a grave critique. Like most American students of criminal justice, we too struggle with

questions around race. One issue for us was where in the review to place ‘‘the race card.’’ As you

can see, we came to the conclusion that race is so central to discussions of both restorative justice

and the penal crisis, that its mention could not escape the opening paragraph. Race does, however,

largely escape the pages of this otherwise excellent book. And although America is indeed excep-

tional in its racial history, it is not in terms of race relations. Minorities and immigrants tend to be

overrepresented in European penal systems as well. But rather than dwell on what is not in the book,

as significant an omission as it is, let us move on to some of what is.

The Penal Crisis and the Clapham Omnibus is Cornwell’s third book in a series on restorative

justice. Cornwell’s previous experience in the prison service does offer a rare perch from which

to examine the penal crisis and lends credibility to his suggestions for solutions. Cornwell begins

by illustrating the obstacles facing penal systems in many Western-style nations. These include high

incarcerationrates, rising costs, overcrowding, and high recidivismrates. Perhaps more importantthan

simply outlining the problems, he shows that suchdifficulties are the result of a punishment-oriented

justice model,and therefore apt to beingsolved by doing justice differently. By startingthe book in this

manner, the author prepares readersto encounter a new perspective onwhat justice could be, and how

it should be carried out.

Restorative justice advocates in the United States and elsewhere often take as their point of depar-

ture a current overreliance on the use of prisons. The staggering increase in the number of people

incarcerated in the United States, for example, has given rise to what are by now many studies con-

firming what some had long suspected: That when compared with other developed countries, the

United States stands alone in the scale of its imprisonment. Historical comparisons also confirm that

recent trends in incarceration depart significantly from previously established U.S. norms. Thus,

from the perspectives of both contemporary and historical comparison, the size and composition

of America’s prison population indicate that something significant is going on. This multifaceted

anomaly has caughtthe eye and harnessed the energiesof many reformers organizingunder the banner

of restorative justice. With this book, they now have something of a ‘‘how to’’ manual for change.

Like other works on restorative justice, the book does a good job of illustrating the core ideas of

the theory or paradigm. Where this work moves ahead is in laying out a feasible strategy to imple-

ment such a radical system of change. Cornwell attempts to build upon restorative ideals while

working within the limitations of an imperfect world. He characterizes the various Western publics

as dominated by media-fueled fears of violence and desensitiz ed by years of punitive sanctions. He

464 International Criminal Justice Review 21(4)