New Book: Rehabilitation Work by Hannah Graham: ‘A truly remarkable achievement’

A new book by Scottish Centre for Crime & Justice Research (SCCJR) and University of Stirling criminologist Dr Hannah Graham has been hailed as “a truly remarkable achievement” and an “important contribution to the recovery and desistance literature”.

Rehabilitation Work: Supporting Desistance and Recovery reveals compelling differences between official and institutional accounts of rehabilitation work, and the fascinating realities of what practitioners actually do in practice.

Conversations about rehabilitation and how to address the drugs-crime nexus have been dominated by academics and policymakers, without due recognition of the experience and knowledge of practitioners. Not enough is known about the cultures and conditions in which rehabilitation occurs.

This book asks why it is that significant numbers of practitioners are leaving the alcohol and other drugs field, while disproportionate numbers of criminal justice practitioners are on leave.

Rehabilitation Work, published internationally by Routledge, provides unique insights into what happens behind the closed doors of prisons, probation and parole offices, drug rehabs, and recovery support services drawing on research from Tasmania, Australia.

Dr Graham, hailed as “one of the most interesting and important new voices in the study of rehabilitation” by Professor Shadd Maruna of the University of Manchester, uses practitioner interviews, workforce data, literature and researcher observations to reveal compelling differences between official and institutional accounts of rehabilitation work, and what practitioners actually do in practice.

Applied examples of how different types of practitioners collaborate, lead and innovate in the midst of challenging work and working conditions are complemented with evocative illustrations of insider humour and professional resilience.

This book, which is part of Routledge’s International Series on Desistance and Rehabilitation overseen by series editor Professor Stephen Farrall, is among the first to provide a dedicated empirical and theoretical examination of the interfaces between the concurrent processes of desistance from crime and recovery from substance misuse, and the implications for helping professionals doing rehabilitation work in the two fields of interest.

Rob White, Professor of Criminology at the University of Tasmania, Australia, said: “This fascinating book provides important new insights into the real world of rehabilitation and a sophisticated account of the challenges and opportunities experienced by diverse groups of practitioners as they grapple with how best to respond to people with complex needs. Issues of collaboration, morale, resources, vision and hope have never been more pressing, nor the stories of those working at the coalface more compelling. A truly remarkable achievement.”

The SCCJR’s Fergus McNeill, Professor of Criminology and Social Work at the University of Glasgow, said: “This is an exceptionally thoughtful, reflective and ambitious book. It confirms the emergence of Hannah Graham as a unique and important voice in global debates about rehabilitation theory and practice. She brings to her work and to this book an unusual and precious gift; the ability to synthesise knowledge from across a range of disciplines and on a number of related (but much too rarely connected) topics. For that reason, this book should be read by everyone who cares about what rehabilitation is and what it could and should be.”

For more reviews and information on the book, please see the Routledge website.