ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the changing measures for the support and surveillance of offenders during and after release from custody. By setting it in a historical context this chapter draws out the elements of continuity in the needs exprisoners have and in the continuity of various policy responses. We have witnessed three step changes in provision in the last 20 years. Firstly, the official response has moved towards compulsory licensing post-release which potentially reaches across the entire prison population with the advent of the Criminal Justice Act 2003. Secondly, an emphasis on What Works has sought to focus on internal processes of cognitive behavioural change in the individual offender as a necessary though not sufficient condition of reform and rehabilitation. Thirdly, the organisational arrangements for the delivery of resettlement services has been refashioned following the modernisation impulses of government, the Carter Report (2003) and subsequent legislation concerning the development of the National Offender Management Service. However, throughout the history of resettlement one element has remained constant. The delivery of support services, whether mentoring, education, training and employment, accommodation advice, drug and alcohol support or other services, reoccurs as a necessary condition for successful reintegration. The deliverers of such services may be changing but whatever the step changes in policy the importance of needs-based support to successful outcomes remains central.
