Content area
Full Text
Making good: How ex-convicts reform and rebuild their lives By Shadd Marunap Washington, USA: American Psychological Association Press, 2004, £21.00, ISBN 1557987319
In the last 20 years, across the criminal justice systems of most of the Western world - with the possible exception of the USA - we have witnessed the 'rediscovery' of rehabilitation. Somewhat ironically, this rediscovery has coincided with a rise in prisoner numbers that has seen prison populations grow to previously unrecorded levels.
That most 'informed' citizens have somewhat glibly accepted the rising prisoner population is probably down to two things. Firstly, in Europe, although numbers have increased, the rate of increase is significantly lower than in the US. secondly, prisoner numbers have risen as a direct result of direct government action to 'get tough' on crime. However, getting tough on crime has been only one aspect of the political agenda. Getting 'tough on the causes of crime' has also been an integral feature of the message. Addressing offending behaviour directly has, therefore, become a government-led initiative and not simply an initiative driven by prison or probation services.
The current rehabilitation agenda is, however, somewhat different to its predecessors. To borrow from the business world, this 'rehabilitative zeal' has been rebranded and repackaged, the programmes better (and more aggressively) marketed, and the markets more intensively exploited. Thirty years ago, any conversation on rehabilitation - particularly one that took place across international boundaries - would have involved descriptions of locally developed initiatives, and strategies that reflected culturally unique approaches to dealing with the issue of offending. Today, any discussion on rehabilitation would be remarkably similar in most 'advanced' jurisdictions, revolving around discussions of evidence-based, evidence-driven approaches. These discussions would reveal common risk and needs assessment approaches (using broadly similar tools), almost identical interventions, based on similar principles and integrated case management systems that are almost interchangeable.
That the adoption and spread of these interventions, based on cognitive...