Transforming Rehabilitation

Abstract

After some 30 years of using probation as an object of neoliberal economic and ideological thinking in order to redesign the delivery of what was a long established locally accountable public service, a radically new delivery landscape has been fashioned within the criminal justice system of England and Wales. Whilst much of the ideological and practical leg work had been undertaken by New Labour during their three terms in office (1997−2010), further conceptualization and meaning to what a Rehabilitation Revolution might look like was quickly taken forward by the incoming Coalition Government from May 2010 in the guise of the Transforming Rehabilitation project. Offender rehabilitation and public protection now face some severe challenges in the form of fragmentation, local accountability, communication, staff morale and occupational status and culture. As Transforming Rehabilitation receives a further injection of momentum from the Prime Minister, David Cameron, in his February 2016 vision for the future operation and role of prisons, we are left to ponder where this leaves probation in the context of reducing resources and increasingly scarce social provision and welfare benefits.