The first issue pertains to the lack of due process principles governing the decision-making. The second issue focuses on a forthcoming law reform that intends to allocate the power to grant permissions to prison governors. In other words, permissions are about rehabilitation. Since the main interest of governors is to keep good order, one can expect that if they were transferred the decision-making power, they would shift from this reentry-rehabilitation focus to a safety-discipline one.
Robert et al. In Belgium, after a prisoner submits an application for prison leave, the prison director has to provide a written opinion about it, which is then sent on to the Service for the Management of Imprisonment SMI , which decides whether a prisoner should obtain prison leave. Five years after implementing the Release Act, the Directorate General of Penitentiary Institutions mandated a national study of prison leave decision-making practices.
The study showed that both key actors, prison directors and the SMI, used their own highly discretionary approach to decision-making. Since then, attempts have been made to structure discretionary decision-making. In this article, they go on to reconstruct steps in an ongoing process of structuring discretionary decision-making.
These have led to an increased proportion of prison leaves being granted, with more concordance in decision-making between prison directors and staff at the SMI. The Special Issue sheds light on prison leave as an often overlooked institution.
The contributions in this Special Issue can be of interest to researchers in penology, practitioners and policy makers involved in prisons and penal policy more widely.
The articles provide an important overview of prison leave and how it is being used across Europe. As for policy makers and practitioners, the accounts from several countries can give them new policy ideas and assist in reflecting about the use of prison leave as an important but as of yet mostly underused institution.
Finally, we also hope that the normative issues raised in these papers will be taken into account when the time comes to elaborate a future European Recommendation on Prison Leave that helps guiding the policy of the different European countries.
Maruna , p. Cheliotis, L. Reconsidering the effectiveness of temporary release: a systematic review. Aggression and Violent Behavior, 13 3 , — Article Google Scholar. Before the next storm: some evidence-based reminders about temporary release. Cohen, S. Psychological survival. The experience of long term imprisonment. New York: Vintage Books.
Google Scholar. Prisoner resettlement in Europe. London: Routledge. Book Google Scholar. Durnescu, I. Prison leave in Romania and the power of street level bureaucrats. European Journal on Criminal Policy and Research , 26 2. Herzog-Evans, M. French prison day leave and the rationale behind it: resocialisation or prison management. Prison leave in Finland: legal and empirical fundamentals of an established practice. Larrauri, E. Reducing discretion in the administration of prison leave: in search of legitimacy.
European Journal of Criminal Policy and Research, 26 2. Liebling, A. Temporary release: getting embroiled with prisons.
The Howard Journal of Crime and Justice, 28 1 , 51— Maruna, S. Who owns resettlement? Towards restorative re-integration. British Journal of Community Justice, 4 2 , 23— Padfield, N. Release from prison. European policy and practice. Cullompton, Devon: Willan Publishing. Petersilia, J. When prisoners come home. Parole and prisoner reentry. Oxford: University Press.
Robert, L. Storgaard, A. Prison leave in Denmark: how a tradition of combining rehabilitation with discipline developed into putting access to justice at risk. Symkovych, A. The eye of a needle: temporary prison leave in Ukraine. Talini, S. Prison leave in Italy: legislation and practical application. Is the Italian regulation on prison leave ensuring the constitutional purpose of punishment? Toch, H.
Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, 4 2 , — Travis, J. But they all come back. Facing the challenges of prisoner reentry. Washington: The Urban Institute Press. Introduction: viewing public safety through the reentry lens. Visher Eds. Cambridge: University Press. Chapter Google Scholar. Van Zyl Smit, D. Leave of absence for West German prisoners.
The British Journal of Criminology, 28 1 , 1— Principles of European prison law and policy. Penology and human rights. Download references. You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar. Correspondence to Luc Robert. Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Reprints and Permissions. Eur J Crim Policy Res 26, — Download citation. Published : 07 July Issue Date : June Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:.
This loss is first and foremost a loss in opportunities for norm-clarification. He goes on to sketch the beginnings of what have since become internationally recognised as a community-based, informal justice alternative to mainstream criminal justice. Is re-integration also property? Professionals cannot re-integrate anyone no matter how much training they have. Ex-offenders can re-integrate themselves and communities can re-integrate ex-offenders. But the most that the State can do is to help or hinder this process see McNeill, Words Matter This might be why the word re-integration is so little used today.
As a descriptive term, literally meaning the movement of persons from one situation i. In his tremendous history of parole in the United States, Jonathan Simon argues forcefully for a need for a coherent theory in resettlement practices. This cynical view is shared by many of those on the receiving end of resettlement help as well. Dear Dr Maruna: I have read with great personal interest your article in Safer Society where you discuss resettlement of offenders.
It encompasses the totality of work with prisoners, their families and significant others in partnership with statutory and voluntary organisations cited in Morgan and Owers , p. The biggest risk about the use of meaningless words is that they run the risk of connoting different things to different audiences. Take, for just one example, the crucial issue of housing. As such, one would presume the first effort of a sane, reentry policy would be to repeal these and other post-conviction penalties denying housing to ex-offenders.
Instead, reentry monies are used to create new halfway houses specifically for ex-offenders. He was sentenced to four years custody, assessed as a high-risk offender and put on the sex offender register. On his release he was placed under licence with condition that he stayed in a hostel. However, his behaviour at the hostel in targeting a younger resident led to recall to prison before any further offending could take place.
As he came up for re-release … local beat officers were briefed about his history. After some minor concerns about his behaviour, a police officer witnessed Les with a boy who appeared to be drunk. The officer saw Les kiss the boy on the cheek. Les was immediately arrested and charged with indecent assault, an offence for which he was sentenced to eight years. After all, consider the use of recalls to prison in England and Wales over the last few years as prisons and probation move toward a resettlement model of offender management.
Since , the number of former prisoners on licence recalled to prison has jumped from under 2, to around 10, a year by see Padfield and Maruna, forthcoming. Could this be safer resettlement too, as in the case of Les? Here, reintegration is understood as involving more than just physical resettlement into society, but also a symbolic element of moral inclusion.
It is in this restorative terrain — forgiveness, acceptance, secular redemption, and reconciliation — that the contemporary discussion of resettlement in the UK and reentry in the US seems to be the most silent.
The problem is nicely summarised by Robert Johnson. Yet, what would such a restorative reentry look like in practice?
I would argue that restorative re-integration would require four, key elements, outlined below. Restorative Re-Integration is Community-led To say restorative re-integration needs to be community-led is almost a tautology. Yet, whereas resettlement is typically characterised by an insular, professionals-driven focus on the needs and risks of offenders, restorative re-integration would instead seek to draw on and support naturally occurring community processes through which informal support and controls traditionally take place see e.
Citizens, not professionals, would be the primary agents of reintegration. This sort of community support, provided by members of various religious congregations, may help to explain some of the documented success of faith-based initiatives in prisons Johnson and Larson, Mentoring schemes e. Likewise, efforts by NIACRO and other organizations to offer direct support and assistance to the families of offenders before and after incarceration is also central to restorative re-integraton Sullivan, et al.
After all, it is these family members and not the over-worked probation officer with an over-stretched caseload who will be counted on to do the real work of aiding and befriending the ex- prisoner upon release Bobbitt and Nelson, This could certainly be a part of restorative reentry, and of course this sort of peace-making needs to begin almost immediately in any restorative framework Marshall, In civic community service work, individuals are offered an opportunity to volunteer their talents on projects meant to meet community needs, build community capacity and repair the harm caused by crime.
They take on leadership roles within these projects and often work side-by-side with volunteers from the wider community who are not involved in the criminal justice system.
In short they act to show that they are more than the sum of their offences. Examples of such projects abound in the United Kingdom and Ireland, but receive too little attention. In one strength-based resettlement project, prisoners nearing release from H. Participating in these forms of positive volunteer work is thought to lead to a sense of hope, an orientation toward the future, and the willingness to take responsibility for their behaviour.
Moreover, such demonstrations send a message to the community that the offender is worthy of further support and investment in their reintegration. Of course, former political prisoners in Northern Ireland have led the way in terms of taking on leadership positions at the highest reaches of government and society.
There is no reason why this redemptive story should be consigned only to political prisoners. Ex-prisoners of all persuasions have similar leadership skills and abilities they could draw on in such roles. Resettlement has become an almost entirely technical subject indeed, it has become a highly dull subject, in my opinion, as someone who reads a great deal of research on resettlement issues.
The increasingly widespread discussion of the topic in recent years basically revolves around numbers of hostel placements, number of completed offender behaviour programmes, numbers of basic skill awards, and numbers of individuals leaving prison with employment, training or education programmes organised prior to release. The talk is about multi-agency co-ordination, provision of drug treatment and counselling, release plan development, and integrated case management.
It is hardly mentioned that we are talking about individuals who have been temporarily banished from their communities returning from this acute state of shame and degradation.
As a society, we have become masters of what are called Status Degradation Ceremonies Garfinkel, If we are going to ritualise the process of exile, we need to do the same for the return. Yet, the very idea of such things sound awkward and strange to us, as if we are almost more embarrassed by reconciliation than we are about retribution.
Yet this is a dangerous mistake from a cultural, anthropological position. Restorative Re-Integration Needs to Eventually Involve Wiping the Slate Clean Perhaps the strongest form of symbolic de-labelling an offender could receive from the State is the chance to officially wipe the slate clean and literally alter his or her past as recognition of these forms of restitution and social contributions.
Yet, more use could be made of this important last step in the reintegration process for ordinary offenders. The past cannot be taken away, of course, and nothing can undo the harm that has been done. Convictions on the other hand are merely labels given by the State in the name of punishment, and equally these can be taken away in the name of reintegration, along with a restoration of the full civil rights, liberties and duties that all of us share. Yet, at least it is that: a vision, a coherent narrative based on a tangible, indeed testable, theory of social behaviour.
And, this might be just what has been missing from all of our considerable excitement around resettlement and reentry in recent years. So, who owns resettlement? Is there a role for agency work in this? Of course there is. The best they can do is to support, enhance and work with the organically occurring community processes of reconciliation and earned redemption. The worst they can do is interfere with these or impede the process of reintegration through invasive, heavy-handed and stigmatising interventions.
Auld, J. Bazemore, G. Immarigeon Eds After Crime and Punishment pp. Cullompton, UK: Willan. Bobbitt, M. New York: Vera Institute of Justice. Braithwaite, J. Crime, shame and reintegration. Conditions of successful reintegration ceremonies: Dealing with juvenile offenders. British Journal of Criminology, 34, — Criminology and Criminal Justice, 6 1 : 83— Christie, N. British Journal of Criminology, 17, 1- Culver, R.
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