Principles of European Prison Law and Policy: Penology and Human Rights. By D. Van Zyl Smit and S. Snacken (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009, 464pp. 75.00 hb)

Abstract

This is a large, dense book that no one is ever likely to read from cover to cover. It is a work of reference, a text into which one might dip to get answers to historical, developmental questions, or a feel for what principles inform the judgments of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) or inspection bodies like the Council of Europe Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) when it comes to prisoner conditions or various decisions relating to prisoners. How well does the text work from those standpoints? First, the authors are eminently well qualified for their task. Both are distinguished academics who have been around and got their feet dirty. Both speak the principal, relevant, European languages fluently, have worked closely as insiders with the Council of Europe and the CPT (for whom Sonja Snacken is regularly employed as an ad hoc expert undertaking inspection visits), have close associations with leading academic centres in different European countries, and yet have wide experience outside Europe (in Dirk van Zyl Smit's case, mostly in South Africa, where he previously held an academic post in Cape Town). So, their view is not confined to textual analysis: they understand the relevance of the law for the inhabitants of cell blocks and they are at home with the literature on the sociology of the prison and the psychology of imprisonment. Thus, Chapter Two comprises a review of the latter and Chapter One is a history of European prison law and policy—the creation and practice of the ECtHR, the operation of the CPT since 1990, the various iterations of what are now the European Prison Rules and other related codes, etc. These domains are covered deftly and with authority.