Rehabilitation and Probation in England and Wales, 1876-1962

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Description

Rehabilitation and Probation in England and Wales, 1876-1962 draws on a wide range of archive material to describe the arrival of a modern probation service. Focusing on the first half of the twentieth century, it describes the debates, conflicts and compromises that resulted in the creation of a state sponsored, centrally controlled, professional, secular, social work and psychological based agency. Following a chronological structure, Ray Gard explores the arrival of the so-called period of 'penal optimism', showing how rehabilitation arrived in the courts of England and Wales. The book uses archive and original material to give voice to those devising and implementing policy, revealing an uneven path to a modern probation system.

Reviews

Rehabilitation and Probation constitutes a useful contribution to the field ... [Its] detailed description is also one of the book's foremost strengths. Any historian researching the history of probation will be struck by the scarcity of secondary material and Gard's detailed account will therefore be a very useful starting-point. -- Magnus Niklasson, University of York, UK * Twentieth Century British History *
[The book] pays due attention to the detail of most relevant histories while at the same time adds sufficient fresh detail and insight to enrich the cumulative history of recent years ... Each chapter is backed by copious notes on source and other information which will be invaluable to future historians ... A well-written and commendable work of scholarship. -- Maurice Vanstone, Swansea University, UK * Criminology and Criminal Justice *
Gards overall argument is persuasive, his range of sources impressive, and his contribution to the history of probation considerable. * The Journal of Legal History *

Author Bio

Raymond Gard is a former probation officer and independent scholar based in Germany.