Introduction

Until 2001, probation officers in England and Wales qualified as social workers. Probation was a social work agency based in the courts and prisons, focusing its work on the rehabilitation of offenders. The changes to probation training were the result of broader moves within criminal justice policy that led to more punitive approaches to offending (Garland, 2001). Social work practice in England and Wales has now been marginalised in the Criminal Justice System (CJS) (Cummins, 2016). In particular, the training and roles of probation officers have changed very dramatically. One of the most significant cultural changes has been the removal of a broader consensus around penal policy that focused on the rehabilitation of offenders and sought to limit the use of imprisonment to the most serious offences. As Simon (2007) notes, progressive political parties have found it difficult to challenge the basic assumptions of the new, punitive approach, which holds that crime is rising and the proper response should be to introduce longer sentences and harsher conditions in prison. The result in England and Wales has been a doubling of the prison population since the early 1990s. The first private prison, HMP Wolds, was opened under the Major Government in 1992. Since then, in addition to the expansion of the use of imprisonment, the private sector has played an increased role in the CJS. As well as running prisons, private companies such as G4S and Serco have won contracts in several areas, for example, the electronic tagging and monitoring of offenders. In political terms, the only influential politician to raise doubts about our addiction to imprisonment has been Kenneth Clarke MP, on his return to the Ministry of Justice in 2010. The appointment of Rory Stewart MP as the minister responsible for prisons in 2018 was another important step. Early in his tenure, Stewart made a number of statements about the need for a rethink on penal policy, emphasising that prisons had to tackle deeply entrenched issues such as staff shortages, violence and drugs if they were to fulfil a rehabilitative function.

The CJS has historically been a key site of social work intervention. Wacquant (2009) argues that the growth of social insecurity and the expansion of the penal state are key features of neoliberalism. These have been accepted by parties of both the Left and the Right.