'Trying to make it matter': The challenges of assimilating a resettlement culture into a 'local' prison

Article


Cracknell, M. 2023. 'Trying to make it matter': The challenges of assimilating a resettlement culture into a 'local' prison. Criminology & Criminal Justice. 23 (2), pp. 165-182. https://doi.org/10.1177/17488958211037469
TypeArticle
Title'Trying to make it matter': The challenges of assimilating a resettlement culture into a 'local' prison
AuthorsCracknell, M.
Abstract

As part of the Transforming Rehabilitation reforms, 70 ‘local’ prisons in England and Wales were re-designated as resettlement prisons, in order to provide additional through-the-gate support to individuals serving short sentences. Drawing on staff and prisoner interviews in one case study resettlement prison, this paper considers what challenges were involved with implementing a resettlement culture in a local prison. Findings firstly outline factors inhibiting the resettlement status of the prison, these include: a tension between attempts to implement a more expansive resettlement remit into the prison, while also fulfilling more longstanding core institutional duties; the size and churn of the prison population; wide-scale apathy caused by change fatigue; and government austerity policies which caused significant difficulties in the day-to-day staffing of the prison. This paper then turns to practitioner responses to the re-designation, finding that practitioners interpreted resettlement in two limited ways: top-down managerial attempts to instil a wider resettlement culture into the prison, and resistance from prison officers who felt unwilling or unable to expand their roles beyond custodial and security concerns. This paper concludes by outlining how this set of inter-related barriers frustrated staff and prisoners alike, eroding a sense of hope and purpose and impeding true cultural change.

KeywordsAusterity; resettlement; prison cultures; prison policy; through the gate; transforming rehabilitation
PublisherSAGE Publications
JournalCriminology & Criminal Justice
ISSN1748-8958
Electronic1748-8966
Publication dates
Online13 Aug 2021
PrintApr 2023
Publication process dates
Deposited26 Jul 2021
Accepted15 Jul 2021
Output statusPublished
Publisher's version
License
Accepted author manuscript
File Access Level
Restricted
Copyright Statement

Cracknell, M. (2023). ‘Trying to make it matter’: The challenges of assimilating a resettlement culture into a ‘local’ prison. Criminology & Criminal Justice, 23(2), 165-182.
Copyright © The Author(s) 2021.
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Lficense (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits any use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)https://doi.org/10.1177/17488958211037469
Web of Science identifierWOS:000684888700001
LanguageEnglish
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