Residential Work with Adult Offenders: Greenhouses or Warehouses? (From What Else Works? Creative Work With Offenders, P 117-137, 2010, Jo Brayford, Francis Cowe, and John Deering, eds. - See NCJ-230924)

• NCJ Number: 230929
• Author(s): Francis Cowe; Sally Cherry
• Date Published: 2010
• Length: 21 pages
• Sale Source: Willan Publishing
• Publication Format: Book Chapter
• Publication Type: Legislation/Policy Analysis
• Language: English
• Country: United Kingdom

Annotation

This chapter argues that community-based hostels and approved premises for offenders in the United Kingdom are at risk of becoming "warehouses," and it proposes a creative way of working with high-risk offenders in the community called a "greenhousing" approach, which enables change and growth for offenders without compromising community safety.

Abstract

Hostels/approved premises are at risk of becoming "warehouses" when they focus exclusively on risk and risk management. Their purposes are becoming redefined and reshaped into a "new punitiveness." Emphasizing public protection, countering risk, and creating stigma may achieve a visible "get tough" image for a fearful public, but such an approach does little to change offenders or public safety in the longer term. An exclusive focus on control, surveillance, and monitoring mechanisms will tend to keep hostel residents separate from the wider community. The key to an effective change-focused regime is to create a context and environment for hostel residents that will facilitate their learning to behave differently. A "greenhousing" approach offers practitioners and policymakers an alternative strategy from a risk-driven approach. It suggests that the key to realizing hostels' rehabilitative and public protection potential is the quality of the relationship between hostel staff and residents and a commitment to change-focused practice. 1 table, 5 notes, and 52 references