Book review: Reimagining Probation Practice: Re-forming Rehabilitation in an Age of Penal Excess
| Published date | 01 June 2023 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/02645505231174747 |
| Author | Liz Dixon |
| Date | 01 June 2023 |
| Subject Matter | Book reviews |
Book review
Reimagining Probation Practice: Re-forming Rehabilitation
in an Age of Penal Excess
1st Edition
Lol Burke, Nicola Carr, Emma Cluley, Steve Collett and Fergus McNeill,
Routledge; 2023, pp. 268; £34.99; pbk
ISBN: 9780367775940
Reviewed by: Liz Dixon, Retired Probation Officer
Reimagining Probation Practice is the third book in an evolving series about desis-
tance and rehabilitation. The first two volumes explore McNeil’s desistance theory
and his four forms of rehabilitation, the personal, the moral, the social, and legal
or judicial rehabilitation. This third volume continues to explore desistance, but
the book’s focus is actual probation practice. The book describes the main themes
and job functions of probation and explains how the work can be reimagined
and reformed for the better. Each chapter includes a brief critical history of a key
area of probation practice and the authors highlight opportunities to promote desis-
tance, drawing on the four domains. The authors are front-line practitioners and aca-
demics, which gives them greater appeal and credibility.
The editors present a compelling analysis of the challenges in the reunified proba-
tion service. They conclude that the policy changes over the last few decades have
gradually impinged upon effective practice and the relational processes necessary
to help people ‘get sorted’. The editors go on to highlight the risks of correctional
rehabilitation. The importance of social reintegration and social justice reverberates
throughout the book. Readers are invited to think about desistance as not just an indi-
vidual process or journey but rather a social movement. There is an appeal to pro-
bation workers to consider the moral dimensions of the work rather than moralise
and then seek to create a dialogue to repair relationships and make reparation.
The implication is that a focus on personal rehabilitation is inadequate –we need
to commit to social, moral, and legal/judicial rehabilitation. This is helpful and
gives a clear vision about how things could be if there was a greater commitment
to rehabilitation.
Book review The Journal of Communit
y
and Criminal Justice
Probation Journal
2023, Vol. 70(2) 202–204
© The Author(s) 2023
Article reuse guidelines:
sagepub.com/journals-permissions
DOI: 10.1177/02645505231174747
journals.sagepub.com/home/prb
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