Comment piece: The inspection of Offender Management in Custody – new resettlement policy, same old problems
| Published date | 01 September 2023 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/02645505231191455 |
| Author | Matthew Cracknell |
| Date | 01 September 2023 |
Comment piece: The
inspection of Offender
Management in
Custody –new
resettlement policy,
same old problems
Matthew Cracknell
Department of Sociology and Criminology, Middlesex University,
School of Law, London, UK
Abstract
Two inspection reports regarding the latest resettlement policy –Offender
Management in Custody –have recently been published (HM Probation
Inspectorate and HM Prison Inspectorate, 2022; HM Inspectorate of Probation,
2023). This comment piece provides a brief analysis of these inspection reports,
which demonstrates how Offender Management in Custody is undermined by five
issues: a fixed and fragmented model of delivery; poor identification of needs and
service provision; poor quality keywork; understaffing in prisons and probation;
and finally, poor communication between prison and probation practitioners. This
comment piece then places these failures into context, asserting that there has been
a longstanding ‘common thread’of issues that has undermined past resettlement pol-
icies and that these have permeated through to Offender Management in Custody.
This commentary concludes by suggesting a possible way forward with the
Offender Management in Custody model, noting that no resettlement policy will be
successful unless the staffing crisis in prisons and probation is resolved, and the prac-
titioners responsible for Offender Management in Custody are provided with suffi-
cient time and resources to provide quality resettlement support.
Corresponding Author:
Matthew Cracknell, Department of Sociology and Criminology, Middlesex University, School of Law,
London, UK.
Email: m.cracknell@mdx.ac.uk
Comment The Journal of Communit
y
and Criminal Justice
Probation Journal
2023, Vol. 70(3) 298–307
© The Author(s) 2023
Article reuse guidelines:
sagepub.com/journals-permissions
DOI: 10.1177/02645505231191455
journals.sagepub.com/home/prb
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