Improving Resettlement Outcomes During a Penal Crisis: Implementing Change Through the Lens of Front-line Practitioners

• In Event: Implementing Policy into Practice through the Lens of Practitioners in England and Wales

Abstract

In 2013 the UK government published plans to radically reform resettlement provision for released prisoners via a Through the Gate scheme to be introduced as part of its Transforming Rehabilitation agenda. Under the scheme 70 of the 123 prisons in England and Wales were re-designated ‘resettlement prisons’ and tasked with establishing an integrated approach to service delivery. These changes have taken place against increasing concerns about prison conditions within England Wales that have led the Chief Inspector of Prisons to describe them as ‘unacceptably violent and dangerous places’ (HMIP, 2016:8). In this session the researchers will present findings from a longitudinal case study in one resettlement prison undertaken over an 18 month period. Drawing on insights provided by practitioners within the prison environment, the presenters will critically consider the implementation of these new arrangements and explore how front-line workers adapt and make sense of wide-ranging policy changes in an increasingly volatile working environment. Ultimately, they argue that unless there is a significant renewal of the structures, processes and mechanisms of administering support for addressing the rehabilitative needs of prisoners the current operational flaws within Through the Gate provision risk deepening the sense of a penal crisis.

Authors

• Lawrence Burke, Liverpool John Moores University

• Stuart Taylor, Liverpool John Moores University