ABSTRACT
This chapter starts by exploring how the concept of ‘resettlement’ is used in a variety of different political, policy and academic contexts (and is compared with the use of the word ‘rehabilitation’, as in the ‘rehabilitation revolution’). In England, the law on sentencing, and on the release and recall of prisoners, is complex, and frequently changing. The system is currently badly under-resourced, which exacerbates the underlying tension between security and justice, between public protection and rehabilitation. The chapter also explores the current focus on risk assessment, which has diverted attention from the needs of offenders as individuals. Another tension is that between supervision-as-support and supervision-as-control. The fragmentation of resettlement provision, driven by the Government’s privatization policy, does not appear to address the specificity of prisoners’ need.
