Social rehabilitation: are we supporting success?

Offender rehabilitation has been an area of great discourse and exploration; its roots well established in the works of John Howard (1777), the Gladstone Report of 1895, and more latterly the work of such esteemed individuals as Farrell (2002), Maruna (2004), Ward (2007), Murray (2007), and Shaw and Cantrell (2008). This paper seeks to highlight the continuing debate over the resettlement and rehabilitation of offenders, in a social environment quick to judge, label and stigmatise, but not always as quick to remove the label of ‘offender’, ‘prisoner’, ‘inmate’ or ‘criminal’. The paper reminds us that ultimately, the ‘individual’ has the right to return to the social community, their successful re-integration and rehabilitation is as much about developing a positive self-worth and motivation to change, as it is about maintenance of the court order, or (licence) parole conditions. The paper makes specific reference to the findings of a number of interviews undertaken in the United Kingdom, supporting the argument that success may as easily be hampered by the social barriers which seek to protect the wider social whole, as support the successful reintegration of the individual.