The Conference on "Prisons, Drugs and Society" was held in Bern from 20 to 22 September 200. The conference proceedings include 8 papers, presneted to the conference by delegates from different countries, including Vivian Stern from the UK, and Alexander Gunchenko from the Ukraine. The report concludes with a consensus statement agreed by the conference, on principles, policy and practice.

This book calls attention to criminal offenders and ex-offenders in urban environments. Rather than providing a prescriptive correctional supervision model, Delgado argues that effective work can be achieved by applying the capacity enhancement, or strengths perspective, approach to practice that enables these individuals to better capitalize on their strengths and social workers to better serve urban communities.