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In his book, Parole, Rob McKeon, a former BBC radio presenter, gives us the inside track on what it is like to be a parole board member. The book is accessible and clear in explaining many aspects of the wider Criminal Justice System (CJS), including the courts, probation, and prison services.
For those already working in the CJS it may serve a different purpose—an opportunity to reflect on the remit within which they work, including the constraints as well as the windows of opportunity where creativity can flourish to meet the needs of some of the most vulnerable people in society.
Readers of this journal will find many areas of overlap with parole board members including the need to have curiosity about the other, the holding of hope for the hopeless, an enquiring stance to ask the deeper, usually more difficult questions, and perhaps most importantly, to assess risk so as to protect the public from further harm.
The parole board has judicial powers; however, its goal is not punitive in the way a court is. McKeon demonstrates his recognition of the prisoners’ humanity and capacity for change. Despite high-profile releases reported in the media, McKeon notes that serious further offence rates for parole releases stands at less than 1% evidencing the board's efficacy in decision-making and
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risk assessment. However, he echoes what many practitioners fear—that in making risk assessments, you don't know what you don't know. He writes about how the unknown risks and drivers for offending can also be exacerbated by a prisoner's denial of their offending and the barriers this can cause for making accurate risk assessments.
McKeon highlights key areas of the work, including victims’ experiences of the prisoner's index offence and the parole process, the aging prison population, the prolific nature of domestic violence, and the political landscape. There is an entire chapter devoted to John Worboys, the “Black Cab Rapist”