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Desistance, Rehabilitation and Learning

Fergus McNeillUniversity of Glasgow

Fergus.Mcneill@glasgow.ac.ukTwitter: @fergus_mcneill

Desistance

How can criminal justice impede or

support desistance?

How can criminal justice impede or

support desistance?

Learning, identity and belonging

• “Learning can also be viewed as participation in social practice whereby newcomers to a particular community are both absorbing, and being absorbed in, the ‘culture of practice’. From this perspective significant learning is what changes the ability to engage in practice and to understand why it is done, so learning arises out of ‘the inherently socially negotiated character of meaning...in, with, and arising from, the socially and culturally structured world’ (Lave and Wenger 1991: 51). Such learning is not just the acquisition of memories, habits, and skills, but also the formation of an identity through participating in a new practice or community (Wenger, 1998)” (Tett et al., 2012: 181).

Two forms of penal power

Negative power(Slicing off)•Imposing harms•Taking away life•Taking away (negative) liberty•Taking away time or demanding effort•Taking away worth/money

Positive power(Grafting in)•Requiring goods•Life enhancing•Developing (positive) liberty•Constructive time and work•Enhancing worth/Compensating loss

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7Based on McNeill and Maruna (2010); McNeill (2012)

Integration as a positive social good

8From Ager and Strang (2008)

Prison(er) Learning

• The duty to promote social goods versus ‘public acceptability’– Democratic accountability, human rights and the rule of

law• Prisoner education

– Human dignity and human development– Preparation for social citizenship

• Public education and development– Preparation for collective duties

• Political education and development

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Smart Rehabilitation?

• Outcome-focused– Yes, but process too… and think carefully and

creatively about processes and outcomes• Joined-up

– Absolutely. Rehabilitation depends on it (Repression does not).

– A focus on positive social goods helps with joining up.• Values-driven

– That’s what it is ALL about. Justice.

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