ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the everyday in terms of social practice–the things people do, their dispositions–habits, propensities and inclinations, and subjective experience–of consumption, meaning and emotion. It explores the relevance of paying close attention to problems of material distribution as well as the trivial details of everyday experience as they impact on actions and decision-making involved in criminal desistance; the capacity of offenders to envisage new possibilities and futures. A guiding principle of the social work approach is that through forging a therapeutic alliance between offenders and practitioners based on a firm foundation of mutual trust and professional support it is possible to explore needs, frustrations and desires normally hidden from view. The methodological problem presents is how to analyse individual offenders in relation to the myriad personal and social contexts which impact emotionally on them throughout the course of everyday life. Punishment is aim of imprisonment to reform offenders; to address the causes of their criminal behaviour.
