ABSTRACT
This chapter explores perceptions and behaviours of staff working in or preparing to work in hostels. It draws on two ethnographic studies that included the full range of hostel staff, roles, literature review and then subsequent focus group activity and questionnaires with managers and deputy managers between 2002 and 2012. The chapter consider how the unique nature of hostel work can impact on staff approaches to offenders and how staff makes use of mundane resident interactions with residents. It suggests that ambiguity over hostels' status as 'one step in or one step out of community' for high risk offenders may shape the content and focus of staff-resident relationships. The chapter notes that a changed resident clientele may be putting new demands on staff and that staff training and support has not kept pace with such changes. Hostels are a challenging and potentially identity consuming domain of practice in comparison with other forms of community based criminal justice interventions.
