{"title":"The struggle is real: Theorising community justice restructuring agonistically","authors":"J. Buchan","doi":"10.1177/2066220320927353","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/2066220320927353","url":null,"abstract":"This article is a novel use of the ‘agonistic framework’ – a theory of penal change developed in the US, which emphasises the role of hidden conflict – to analyse recent organisational reforms to probation in Scotland. It begins by drawing on recent empirical data to analyse the role of conflict between centralising and localist interests in driving these reforms. This is contrasted with a Scottish policy consensus over decarceration through diversion to community penalties, which despite broad support has been unsuccessful. To explain this contradictory situation, the article builds on recent agonistic literature on the exclusion of some conflicts from penal fields, adding new insights about the circumscription of smaller penal fields. It argues that together these factors serve to ‘crowd out’ debates necessary for substantive change. This new development of the agonistic framework helps explain Scotland’s lack of progress towards decarceration, with policy relevance for other smaller jurisdictions.","PeriodicalId":44523,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of Probation","volume":"12 1","pages":"73 - 90"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2020-05-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/2066220320927353","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42220543","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Book review: Olga Petintseva, Rita Faria and Yarin Eski, Interviewing Elites, Experts and the Powerful in Criminology","authors":"I. González-Sánchez","doi":"10.1177/2066220320918125","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/2066220320918125","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":44523,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of Probation","volume":"12 1","pages":"150 - 152"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2020-05-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/2066220320918125","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46762000","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Enabling change: An assessment tool for adult offenders that operationalises risk needs responsivity and desistance principles","authors":"Rachel Horan, Kevin Wong, Kirstine Szifris","doi":"10.1177/2066220319883555","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/2066220319883555","url":null,"abstract":"This article examines the extent to which the risk needs responsivity (RNR) model and desistance principles have been integrated and operationalised in the development of the Enablers of Change assessment and sentence planning tool developed by a Community Rehabilitation Company provider in England. We consider the constructs that underpin the tool, identifying points of departure and similarity between RNR principles (Andrews and Bonta, 2007), the ‘good lives’ model (Ward and Maruna, 2007) and desistance principles (McNeil and Weaver, 2010) and their integration. We examine how these constructs have been operationalised in the tool, which aims to assess needs, strengths, protective factors and contribute to risk assessment. Given the tool’s innovation, this article is of international significance and will make an original contribution to the evidence base on operationalising desistance in the management of people with convictions in England and Wales and other jurisdictions.","PeriodicalId":44523,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of Probation","volume":"12 1","pages":"1 - 16"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2020-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/2066220319883555","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47117614","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"‘From disaster to master’: Exploring the journey beyond desistance in Ireland","authors":"Wayne Hart, D. Healy, D. Williamson","doi":"10.1177/2066220320907109","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/2066220320907109","url":null,"abstract":"Desistance scholars maintain that innovative and sustainable mechanisms are needed to support the enhancement of human development. Failure to desist is often attributed to limited personal agency and structural disadvantages such as a lack of education attainment and meaningful employment. Therefore, it is argued that criminal justice responses should break down educational and employment barriers in the desistance process, if we are to help remove hurdles to both social cohesion and social integration. To provide additional insights into this phenomenon, this article presents an autobiographical, reflective and experiential account of these challenges in the life of a desister from multiple perspectives. The narrative reveals that the change process extends beyond the attainment of education and meaningful employment, and describes the challenges faced by both work colleagues and the desister. These accounts are accompanied by a reflective academic commentary that situates these personal work experiences within the wider desistance literature, helping to add a critical appraisal of existing knowledge as viewed through the lens of one person’s desistance process over a 10-year period through education and into employment.","PeriodicalId":44523,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of Probation","volume":"12 1","pages":"53 - 71"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2020-03-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/2066220320907109","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43313657","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Employment after prison: Navigating conditions of precarity and stigma","authors":"Amy Sheppard, Rosemary Ricciardelli","doi":"10.1177/2066220320908251","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/2066220320908251","url":null,"abstract":"In an effort to extend understanding of the employment concerns faced by former prisoners released into the community, we draw from the voices of 24 individuals released from federal prison in Canada. We explore how the stigma imposed on individuals with prior experiences of incarceration interacts with the employment programming government and community-based agencies offer; particularly within the current climate of precarious employment. Findings evidence that participants, too often, attain employment involving manual labour and report experiencing low-wage and non-gratifying jobs, despite participation in pre-employment programming, which drives their re-evaluation and re-creation of career aspirations. We show how the conditions underpinning the movement toward employment for former prisoners can encourage the potential exploitation of their labour within both formal and informal job markets.","PeriodicalId":44523,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of Probation","volume":"12 1","pages":"34 - 52"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2020-02-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/2066220320908251","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44279934","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"A home is more than a roof over your head: Post-prison reintegration challenges in Austria","authors":"Doris Schartmueller","doi":"10.1177/2066220320908252","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/2066220320908252","url":null,"abstract":"Life after prison can pose challenges for the formerly incarcerated, their families, and wider communities. This research studies Austria where probation services are either mandated by the court or sought voluntarily after prison. Through semi-structured interviews with formerly incarcerated individuals, reintegration experiences from their perspectives are examined. The narratives emphasized social factors that either assuage or complicate life after prison. The main factors addressed were stable housing, the maintaining and (re)building of relationships, and employment. Overall, a lack of stable housing appeared to complicate life after prison the most and also negatively affected relationships and employment. For some, life after prison was further exacerbated by immigration status and a perceived stigma related to the nature of one’s convictions. This study shows the importance of working towards a better understanding of the social context individuals are released into after prison to better meet their individual needs and to counteract recidivism.","PeriodicalId":44523,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of Probation","volume":"48 4","pages":"17 - 33"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2020-02-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/2066220320908252","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41263968","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Giving and getting parole: The changing characteristics of parole in England and Wales","authors":"N. Padfield","doi":"10.1177/2066220319895798","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/2066220319895798","url":null,"abstract":"This article is written as part of a special issue of the European Journal of Probation, which seeks not simply to describe and to critique ‘parole’ as it has evolved over time, but to focus on the justifications and the actors involved in parole decision-making and supervision. This article explores the changing face of ‘parole’ in England and Wales. The Parole Board today has little in common with the Parole Board of 1967. The characteristics of the prisoners who appear before panels of the Board have also changed. ‘Parole’ is now a very different process, no longer ‘early conditional release’, but what might better be described as ‘delayed conditional release’. This requires a fundamental re-analysis of its purpose and the justifications for its use.","PeriodicalId":44523,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of Probation","volume":"11 1","pages":"153 - 168"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2019-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/2066220319895798","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44121349","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Marginal gains or diminishing returns? Penal bifurcation, policy change and the administration of prisoner release in England and Wales","authors":"Thomas Guiney","doi":"10.1177/2066220319895802","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/2066220319895802","url":null,"abstract":"Prisoner release has emerged as a key site of penal policy contestation in England and Wales. A series of crises have undermined public confidence in the parole system and reopened longstanding debates over the confused normative basis of prisoner release policy and practice. This article attempts to locate current concerns within an ideational interpretation of penal policy change. It will argue that prisoner release has been fundamentally re-shaped by a bifurcated penal strategy that emerged as one possible response to the unique challenges of late-modern crime-control. Over time this strategy has provided an enduring guide to collective action and a political template for successive penal reform programmes. However, there are signs that we may now be reaching the conceptual limits of this strategy. While the logic(s) of bifurcation will continue to yield marginal political gains in the short-term, this article concludes that the long-term prognosis is one of diminishing returns with significant implications for the legitimacy, effectiveness and administrative coherence of prisoner release in this jurisdiction.","PeriodicalId":44523,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of Probation","volume":"11 1","pages":"139 - 152"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2019-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/2066220319895802","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46158906","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The pains of parole for life sentence prisoners in Ireland: Risk, rehabilitation and re-entry","authors":"Diarmuid Griffin, D. Healy","doi":"10.1177/2066220319891522","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/2066220319891522","url":null,"abstract":"The number of people serving life sentences in Irish prisons has increased substantially in recent years, such that one in nine sentenced prisoners is now serving a life sentence. Critical attention on the release of life sentence prisoners in Ireland has tended to focus on the political and informal nature of parole decision-making. Yet little is known about the experiences of those navigating the release process. This article begins to address the gap by offering a critical reflection on the parole process, focusing on the potential ‘pains’ experienced by life sentence prisoners when seeking parole. The analysis is organised into three themes that broadly fall under the umbrella of risk management: dealing with a serious criminal past, engaging with in-prison rehabilitation services, and reintegrating into society after release from custody. An analysis of this kind is timely given the growing concerns both nationally and internationally regarding the administration of life sentences and the appropriate mechanism of release.","PeriodicalId":44523,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of Probation","volume":"11 1","pages":"124 - 138"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2019-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/2066220319891522","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47938115","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"French early release: McProcedures and McRe-entry","authors":"M. Herzog-Evans","doi":"10.1177/2066220319897238","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/2066220319897238","url":null,"abstract":"Before 2009, the main rationales of the French early release system were reinsertion and resocialisation; the prevention of reoffending, the interests of society; and the rights of victims. With the chronic prison overcrowding and the cost for public finances a radical change occurred with three law reforms (2009, 2014, 2019). The new main – if not unique – objective is to free as many prisoners as possible, this, as quickly as possible, without through the gate programmes that address prisoners’ release needs. As a research conducted from 2014 to 2016 shows ‘bad fast’ procedures are rejected by both reentry judges (they lack ‘moral alignment’) and with prisoners (they are perceived as unfair and unsupportive). This article will deal with these subjects by drawing upon theories of innovation diffusion and legitimacy of justice.","PeriodicalId":44523,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of Probation","volume":"11 1","pages":"188 - 201"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2019-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/2066220319897238","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43784935","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}