This important and informative work appears at a time when the Irish prison population has reached record levels and when the need for informed and constructive debate on the sentencing of offenders and the management of prisoners has never been more urgent. Sentencing: Towards a Coherent System accepts that judicial discretion is essential to deliver fair and effective sentences but argues that further initiatives are needed to eliminate disparity and to produce more consistency of approach on the part of trial courts and appeal courts. The author, Thomas O Malley, a leading authority on sentencing, surveys developments over the past 25 years in Britain, the United States, Commonwealth countries and elsewhere to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the strategies available to structure judicial discretion. He examines: American-style sentencing guidelines Mandatory sentences Judicially-developed principles Sentencing information systems Narrative guidance Sentencing: Towrds A Coherent System: Argues for a system of principled discretion Closely examines the nature of judicial decision-making Provides an authoritative account of mechanisms for structuring sentencing discretion Analyses parole and early release options Offers a blueprint for reforming the sentencing process Thomas O Malley is a Senior Lecturer in Law at NUI Galway and a practising barrister. His earlier books include Sexual Offences: Law, Policy and Punishment (1996), Sentencing Law and Practice (2nd ed., 2006) and The Criminal Process (2009).