Substance misuse (including alcohol) and mental health problems constitute a significant proportion of the work carried out in the criminal justice system. Approaches to these often intractable problems have seen the rise of a dominant risk paradigm concerned with public protection and the use of coercion through court orders to access treatment. This original and valuable book considers notions of risk and rehabilitation in detail within the practice of those court orders, whilst contextualising them within a wider comparative literature and research base. The efficacy of these approaches, practice issues and innovations including for example therapeutic jurisprudence are analysed. Risk and rehabilitation also includes discussions of the implications for partnership working and the importance of reconfiguring the nature of rehabilitative relationships. This is a timely book as probation practice in the UK and elsewhere moves into a post 'what works' era, providing opportunities to review the evidence base for effective interventions.

During the past decade, the UK government has increasingly sought to reduce levels of crime and anti-social behaviour through tackling problem drug use among offenders. Despite debates about the precise nature of the relationship between drug use and offending, a multiplicity of interventions have been introduced in an attempt to break the apparent link between problem drug use and crime, particularly acquisitive crime. These interventions have proliferated over time but have now been combined under the umbrella of the Drug Interventions Programme which aims to channel and, many would argue, coerce drug-using offenders into treatment.

This study represents the first systematic attempt to explore the functioning of the policing and criminal justice system in post-devolution Wales. Its particular relevance is underscored by the revelation that Wales has the highest imprisonment rate in western Europe. Drawing on official data as well as extensive interviews with senior figures, this book represents the first systematic exploration of the operation of the justice system in Wales across the jagged edge of devolved and non-devolved functions. There remains little understanding of how the justice system operates in the anomalous circumstances of post-devolution Wales This book aims to fill this gap in understanding and concludes with an assessment of the proposals of the Commission on Justice in Wales for reform.

This book is a major contribution to the debate on the nature of the relationship between drugs and crime, and provides an authoritative and much-needed overview of the range of issues associated with drugs-related crime.

This collection of research and evaluation explores issues in mental health and probation across the globe. The volume offers insight into a wide range of interrelated topics that address the mental health and mental health needs of those under probation supervision. The chapters embrace a range of diverse mental health concerns. The underpinning assumption is that offenders should receive mental healthcare that is ‘equivalent’ to that received by the general population where this is appropriate. This overview is informed by perspectives from academics and practitioners based in England and the Republic of Ireland, and also includes the views of people with lived experience of the Criminal Justice System. Building upon and adding to the existing literature in this field, the book will be a valuable resource for academics and researchers as well as those training to work in, and currently working in, the criminal justice and mental health field, and would also be of interest to those working in related healthcare settings.

In recent years, British drug policy has undergone a transformation: tackling 'drug-driven' crime through criminal justice interventions has arguably become the central priority and focus. The 'criminal justice turn', as the authors refer to current UK drugs policy, is based on three simple and linked assumptions: drug-driven property crime is a major driver of local area crime rates, especially in deprived neighbourhoods; the criminal justice system can be used to target these drug-motivated offenders and direct them into treatment; and treatment can lead to significant reductions in their offending. Tough Choices: Risk, Security and the Criminalization of Drug Policy explores a series of questions about the 'criminal justice' turn in British drugs policy, from why it happened at all to what led policy to unfold in the way that it did, by analyzing policy documents and over 200 interviews conducted with key players in the policy development and implementation process. At the practice level, the authors explore how the strategic vision of the drug-crime 'problem' has shaped the ways in which drug-using offenders are identified, targeted and managed - in other words, why the implementation of the Drug Interventions Programme on the ground has taken the forms that it has. This is addressed through a detailed examination of practice in three local areas. Both the emergence of this new policy direction and its implementation in practice can best be understood as part of a wider transformation in governance in which risk-based thinking has become central to the ways in which we seek to address our contemporary insecurities. The book is based on a 30-month ESRC-funded research project on the Drug Interventions Programme and draws on the extensive empirical data generated during the project.