ABSTRACT
The maelstrom of daily life in secure units is the background to many of the discussions in the following pages, but before stepping into this world it is necessary to take a few steps back. We have already acknowledged that in residential work with children and young people the smallest details and events of daily life may acquire a disproportionate significance. However, the importance of this detail is only truly understood when it is given its place on a larger canvas and becomes part of the whole picture. Similarly, the different and wider contexts in which work in secure units takes place have also to be identified. This means paying some attention to the links between the social policies which have shaped current provision and practice, the historical processes from which these have emerged and the intellectual traditions which have informed their development. For our purposes the strands of social policy, history and intellectual tradition need to be woven together so that we may see more clearly how society has chosen over the years to look after its most needy and delinquent children and young people.
