ABSTRACT
Rather than summarising the chapters, the conclusion brings the edited collection together by identifying six key characteristics of probation practice that emerge from our contributors; characteristics that point to what reimagined probation practice might look like in terms of its forms, activities and aspirations. These centre around legitimacy, relationships, professionalism, social bonds, institutional capital and campaigning. We argue that although the Probation Service has been negatively affected by Government’s doomed Transforming Rehabilitation strategy, probation practice has proved to be remarkably resilient. Providing the political process can commit itself to a strategy of reducing penal excess, the Probation Service could reimagine its practice not simply in terms of reducing re-offending but its contribution to the development of inclusive and supportive community engagement in the desistance journeys of people on probation.
