For better or worse?
| DOI | 10.1177/0264550510380138 |
| Published date | 01 September 2010 |
| Date | 01 September 2010 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
For better or worse?
The triumphalism of the Labour Party victory at the 1997 election, whose campaign
anthem under Tony Blair signalled the promise that ‘things could only get better’,
was in marked contrast to the somewhat dejected figure of Gordon Brown, leaving
Downing Street, having failed to reach an agreement with the Liberal Democrats
that would have secured a fourth term of office. In the 13 years between these two
events the impact of ‘New Labour’ upon the Criminal Justice System has undoubt-
edly been profound. For the Probation Service it has meant an unprecedented level
of change which has in some respects resulted in a greater sense of organizational
purpose and operational efficiency but with its ‘humanistic sensibilities’ (Nellis,
2007) severely undermined and its future in a continuing state of uncertainty.
In a series of commentaries published in Probation Journal in 1997 various con-
tributors were asked to reflect on the possibilities for criminal justice and the penal
system under the incoming Labour Government. Looking back one sees amongst
those contributing a guarded optimism and hope for a more enlightened approach
replacing the moral paucity that had marked the ‘prison works’ dogma of the previ-
ous Conservative administration. With the formation of a Conservative/Liberal
Democrat coalition government effectively bringing to an end the New Labour gov-
ernmental project, the Editorial Board, prompted by Professor Maurice Vanstone,
commissioned a series of articles and personal reflections on the government’s
penal record. In the opening article in this edition’ People are Not Things: What
New Labour has done to Probation’, Lol Burke and Steve Collett evaluate how penal
policy developed over the three terms of office under New Labour and the cumula-
tive impact upon the Probation Service. Alongside the other pieces in this edition,
the authors highlight the duality of New Labour’s approach to law and order which
has vacillated between paternalistic care and greater control and surveillance. This
has been particularly evident in its drugs policies as Julian Buchanan in ‘Drug Policy
under New Labour 1997–2010: Prolonging the War on Drugs’ points out. Drawing
on his personal experiences as a probation officer working with drug users in the
1980s, the author traces the changing patterns of drug use in British society. He
argues that since 1997, despite considerable funding and some recognition of the
structural and personal context associated with problematic drug use, the govern-
ment have been drawn into a futile ‘war on drugs’ that has heightened public
The Journal of Community and Criminal Justice
Copyright ª2010 NAPO Vol 57(3): 227-231
DOI: 10.1177/0264550510380138
www.napo.org.uk
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