ABSTRACT

FOR more than a century it has been recognized that the man leaving prison is likely to need some assistance in resettlement; nevertheless, in this sector of the penal system the task has been largely left to the well-meaning efforts of private citizens working through voluntary agencies. 2 In this sphere, as in many others, Pentonville is the living heir to the dead past when the problems of discharged prisoners were seen as wholly financial, and when the provision of assistance was regarded as an act of Christian charity and not as a form of rehabilitation functionally linked to the penal treatment of the offender.