34 research outputs found

    Offender management in and after prison: The end of ‘end to end’?

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    In 2013 a joint report by the Inspectorates of Probations and Prisons in England and Wales concluded that offender management in prisons was ‘not working’ and called for a fundamental review. This article considers why existing arrangements have failed and draws upon theory and research on resettlement, case management and desistance from crime, to define what a more effective system of ‘rehabilitative resettlement’ – both inside prison and ‘through the gate’ – might look like. It also comments on emerging proposals for radical change, including abandonment of the ‘end to end’ model of offender management by an outside probation officer and the development of ‘rehabilitative prisons’, in which more responsibility is placed on prisoners for managing their own rehabilitation, and a formal motivational role is created for large numbers of prison staff.10.1177/1748895816665435 Published in the Journal Criminology & Criminal Justice published by Sag

    Post-release reforms for short prison sentences: re-legitimising and widening the net of punishment

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    Transforming Rehabilitation (TR) promised a ‘revolution’ in the way offenders are managed, providing a renewed focus on short sentence prisoners. The TR reforms extends mandatory post-release supervision and tailored through-the-gate resettlement provisions to a group that has predominately faced a ‘history of neglect’ yet often present with the most acute needs within the criminal justice system. However, existing literature underlines that serving short sentences lack ‘utility’ and can be counter-productive to facilitating effective rehabilitation. This article explores the purposes of providing post release supervision for short sentences, firstly exploring a previous attempt to reform short sentences; (the now defunct) ‘Custody Plus’ within the 2003 Criminal Justice Act and then the Offender Rehabilitation Act 2014 within the TR reforms. This article contends that both post release reforms have sought to re-affirm and re-legitimise prison as the dominant form of punishment in society- or what Carlen refers to as ‘carceral clawback’. This article will also use Cohen’s analysis on social control to establish that post release supervision will serve to ‘widen the net’ extend the period of punishment and oversight and will only reinforce a form of enforced ‘state obligated rehabilitation’ that will undermine efforts made to resettle short sentence prisoners

    Establishing a 'Corstonian continuous care pathway for drug using female prisoners: Linking Drug Recovery Wings and Womens Community Services

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    This article outlines the findings from a rapid assessment of pilot Drug Recovery Wings (DRWs) in two women’s prisons and compares the DRW approach with work undertaken in Women’s Community Services (WCSs) commended by the Corston Report. The findings indicate that DRW1 was working more successfully in providing a ‘Corstonian’ approach than DRW2 and the reasons behind this are explored. The article argues that, while pockets of good practice such as WCSs and ‘Corstonian’ DRWs are to be commended, unless there is a continuous care pathway, modelled on Corston’s ideas for working with vulnerable female offenders such as recovering drug users, such work will be limited in its effectiveness. Ideas for how such a systematic approach might work will be outlined

    Assessing UK Drug Policy from a Crime Control Perspective.

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    Over the entire last quarter of the 20th century the British drug problem worsened, despite the implementation of a variety of approaches and commitment of substantial criminal justice and other resources. The link between chronic use of expensive drugs and property crime makes this experience important for understanding trends in crime and justice in Britain. The worsening of the problem can be seen in the growing number of new heroin users each year over almost the entire period 1975–2000, on top of which was layered, starting in the late 1990s, the first major outbreak of chronic cocaine use. This was not the common pattern in Western Europe over that time and by 2000 the UK had Western Europe’s most serious drug problem. The response initially took the form of increasing enforcement against drug markets; in just the decade 1994–2005 the number of prison cell years handed out in annual sentences has tripled. Even with this expansion we estimate that the annual probability of incarceration for a class A drug dealer is only approximately 6 per cent. Since 2000 there has also been a massive increase in treatment resources linked to the criminal justice system. The number of treatment assessments in recent years has been as large as 58 per cent of the number of persons estimated to be problematic users of Class A drugs. The government believes that drug policy has contributed to the decline in crime in the UK since 2000. Using what is known about treatment outcomes, we argue that despite impressive evidence of effect on individual level offending, the effect of treatment expansion in reducing overall crime rates is likely to have been limited

    Approaching Models of Nursing from a Postmodernist Perspective

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    This paper explores some questions about the use of models of nursing. These questions make various assumptions about the nature of models of nursing, in general and in particular. Underlying these assumptions are various philosophical positions which are explored through an introduction to postmodernist approaches in philosophical criticism. To illustrate these approaches, a critique of the Roper et al. model is developed, and more general attitudes towards models of nursing are examined. It is suggested that postmodernism offers a challenge to many of the assumptions implicit in models of nursing, and that a greater awareness of these assumptions should lead to nursing care being better informed where such models are in use
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