Reimagining Rehabilitation

This book aims to make the case for and provide some of the resources necessary to reimagine rehabilitation for twenty-first-century criminal justice. Outlining an approach to rehabilitation which takes into account wider democratic processes, political structures and mechanisms of resource allocation, the authors develop a new model of rehabilitation comprising four forms – personal, legal, social and moral. Personal rehabilitation concerns how individuals make their journeys away from offending and towards reintegration and how they can be supported to do so, whilst legal rehabilitation concerns the role of the criminal courts in the process of restricting and then restoring the rights and status of citizens. Moral rehabilitation is concerned with the ethical basis of the interactions between the individual who has offended and the people and organisations charged with providing rehabilitative services. Social rehabilitation explores the crucial contribution civil society can make to rehabilitation, exploring this through the lens of citizenship, community and social capital. Drawing on the conceptual insights offered in the late Stan Cohen’s seminal work – Visions of Social Control – and specifically his insistence that modern social institutions can aspire to doing good and doing justice, the authors argue that these values can underpin a moral pragmatism in designing social interventions that must go beyond achieving simply instrumental ends. Reimaging rehabilitation within the context of social action and social justice, this book is essential reading for students and scholars alike, particularly those engaged with criminal justice policy, probation and offender rehabilitation.

This book provides a comprehensive and positive reimagining of probation practice in England and Wales across all the key settings in which work with people subject to supervision takes place. Bringing together chapters co-authored by academics and practitioners, it offers an overall conceptualisation of the rehabilitative endeavour within the realities of a probation service recently unified after the acknowledged failure of the Transforming Rehabilitation reforms. Reimagining Probation Practice covers the main themes and job functions of probation practice, from court work to individual and group interventions, to resettlement and public protection, to partnerships, to education and training. Each chapter includes a brief critical history of the area of practice, the current policy context, the applicability of different forms of rehabilitation (personal, legal/judicial, social and moral) to this area of practice, an overview of current good practice and areas in need of development. The book argues that the principles of parsimony, proportionality and productiveness should be applied to the criminal justice system in its work to rehabilitate individuals. This book is essential reading for practitioners and all those engaged in probation training, as well as policy makers, leaders, managers and those interested in social and criminal justice. .

Do offenders have the right to be rehabilitated and should the state be responsible for their rehabilitation? Should the public expect punitive and coercive approaches to offender rehabilitation? Why should the state be interested in the reform of individuals and how can helping offenders be justified when there are other disadvantaged groups in society who are unable to access the services they desperately need? Finally, why does the state appear to target and criminalise certain groups and individuals and not others? These are just some of the questions asked in this new text, which offers an analysis of the delivery of rehabilitative services to offenders over the past two decades. It focuses particularly on the ideological and political imperatives of a neoliberal state that intends to segment the work of the Probation Service and hand over the majority of its work to the private sector. Issues covered include: governance, politics and performance of probation, occupational culture and professional identity, markets, profit and delivery, partnership, localism and civil society, citizenship, exclusion and the State. This book is aimed at academics, practitioners, managers and leaders within the field of corrections and wider social policy. It will also appeal to undergraduates and postgraduates specialising in criminal justice, criminology, politics and social policy.

This book shows how prison officers may be able to significantly influence extra-programmatic conditions, to enhance rehabilitation outcomes and contribute to reducing reoffending. It does so through a detailed review of the literature relating to prison-based rehabilitation programmes, examining factors influencing their outcomes and the effects of the prison officer role. Firstly the book explores current understandings about the role of the prison and effective offender rehabilitation programmes. It then describes the processes of the integrative review of how prison officers can support rehabilitation programmes in prisons. Review findings suggest three main routes by which prison officers can contribute to enhancing rehabilitation outcomes: influencing prison social environments, enhancing prisoner treatment readiness and programme engagement and identifying and supporting prisoners’ wider needs. This book also explores avenues for further research in this area using a declarative sentence mapping approach. Bridging two previously distinct areas of research - prison officers and their role; and prison rehabilitation interventions – this book offers new understanding in the real-world context of prisons and their staff as to how we can enhance rehabilitation outcomes. It will be of great interest to academics in penology, forensic psychology, probation, and offender rehabilitation fields. The book is also valuable to postgraduate students and professionals working on prison policy.

This handbook provides a unique overview of rehabilitation as practiced internationally in criminal justice. Through the contributions of a diverse group that includes, among others, academics (some of whom are former practitioners), research students, a judge, and a probation chief, it reflects common features of criminal justice in different countries and documents their diversity and celebrates their vitality. In recent times the idea of ‘law and order’ has been expropriated by populist, authoritarian and doctrinaire regimes, almost always and nearly everywhere in the service of arbitrary and unjust rule. By and large this handbook does not include such regimes. But ‘law’ itself also has the capacity to constrain rulers, and ‘order’ in the form of social peace is a universally approved civic asset. In part, the book provides a counter-narrative demonstrating that although criminal justice dispositions such as probation, prisons, and parole can be represented as a ‘via dolorosa’, rehabilitation as illustrated in these pages can become a journey that leads by degrees towards the possibility of a better life. The handbook will be of interest to students, academics, practitioners, managers, policy makers and all those who wish to gain insight into the why and the how of rehabilitation in criminal justice systems across the world.

This book provides a comprehensive analysis of the current directions in social rehabilitation scholarship and research by bringing together the voices of legal scholars, criminal justice professionals, social scientists, and people directly impacted by criminal justice in a comparative, international, and interdisciplinary fashion. The volume offers a narrative of social rehabilitation in penal contexts through five main domains: theoretical-philosophical, legal-comparative, human rights, social scientific, lived experience, and policy. Collectively, the contributions provide a systematised examination of the normative facets of social rehabilitation and illustrate avenues for its implementation in criminal justice domains in the full respect of the rights of justice-involved individuals, casting a critical gaze on some the mainstream narratives dominating contemporary penal policy. The overarching legal approach is complemented by a selection of perspectives in social rehabilitation research emanating from social psychology, critical criminology, penology, and neuroscience. These perspectives inform and enrich the legal and jurisprudential debates on the qualification of social rehabilitation as a fundamental goal of justice across domestic and international legal systems. The book will be of value to academics, practitioners, advocates, and policymakers interested in current research dealing with the problem of punishment and the potential of social rehabilitation to more effectively deal with crime.

The first volume in the Lucy Cavendish College Lecture Series, Coercion and Trust, provides a unique, multi-disciplinary dialogue on the complex links between coercion and trust from perspectives in the social sciences, medicine, and literature, combining high-quality academic research with professional recommendations. Part I analyses adolescent-adult relationships in youth fiction alongside research on the sexual coercion of women, and the link between animal and domestic violence. Part II investigates blind trust and coercion in social media grooming, challenges, and solutions to coercion by misinformation. Part III investigates coercion and trust in migration-detention-deportation, kidnapping in violent political campaigns, and sentencing in rehabilitation. The book makes a significant, original contribution to multi-disciplinary research, professional practice, and advanced development, with theoretical and empirical chapters linking theory, practice, and training. This book will be of interest to academic researchers, professional practitioners, and postgraduate students in research and training in multiple fields across the social sciences, humanities, and medicine, for whom there is no comparable book available worldwide.

An Introduction to Penology is a concise, informative, scholarly guide that will speak to a variety of audiences interested in how the notion of punishment plays out in community and custodial settings with people who have broken the law. With a particular focus on prisons and probation, the book provides an opportunity for readers to critically engage with the concept of punishment (in theory and practice) and consider different ways in which we, as a society, can respond to lawbreaking. The text will allow students to pursue a more in-depth study of two of the main criminal justice institutions through the lens of their organisational structures, cultures, service delivery and responses to the needs of minority and vulnerable groups. Throughout the text, students will be encouraged to critically engage with longstanding penological debates taking into consideration the theory, policy and practice of punishment, and will explore ways in which we can rethink penology on an individual and social level and begin to make a case for social justice rather than criminal justice. This innovative and contemporary text is a must read for students studying criminology, criminal justice, penology and those interested in pursuing a career in either the prison or probation services. Lol Burke is Professor in Criminal Justice and Dr Helena Gosling is a Senior Lecturer in Criminal Justice at Liverpool John Moores University.