Living the Sentence

This book examines the “court-to-custody” gap in sentencing in New South Wales: the divergence between judicially articulated sentencing purposes and how those purposes are experienced and operationalised in practice. While sentencing law emphasises punishment, deterrence, rehabilitation, and community protection, these aims are frequently reshaped by correctional processes, institutional constraints, and individual lived experience. Drawing on a qualitative multi-method design—including interviews with people serving sentences (including some whose cases attracted substantial public attention), analysis of sentencing remarks, and doctrinal legal review—the book demonstrates how sentencing is not a discrete judicial act but a continuous, lived process extending beyond the courtroom. The book deliberately uses person-centred, non-labelling language, recognising people as more than their offences or legal status. It highlights how breakdowns in communication, program access, and institutional alignment affect legitimacy, compliance, rehabilitation, and reintegration outcomes. The book addresses a key gap in criminology and sentencing scholarship by integrating legal theory with empirical lived experience. It offers practical, legally grounded reforms to improve communicative sentencing, procedural fairness, and alignment between courts and correctional systems. It is relevant to academics, judicial officers, practitioners, correctional leaders, and policymakers seeking to improve sentencing effectiveness and justice system legitimacy.