Modernising monstrosities and transformational traumas: social theory, criminal justice and morality

The final chapter draws together the theoretical and empirical insights advanced in this book. The author justifies the claim that the probation service, criminal justice system, and penal policy, have been subjected to systematic political incursions since 1997 that constitute modernising monstrosities and transformational traumas. In fact, criminal justice reflects and reproduces the organisational logic of neoliberal capitalism, supported by the new public management. These monstrosities and traumas have serious implications for probation staff and their practices, the 21 Community Rehabilitation Companies, community supervision, the prison system that continues to expand, and the moral foundations of criminal justice. This theoretical and empirical excavation of criminal justice from 1997 to 2015 is a detailed case study of politico-economic, ideological and material reconfiguration under the harsh realities of the neoliberal order.

Modernisation and cultural change under New Labour: views of solicitors, clerks, magistrates, barristers and judges

There is a paucity of empirical research on solicitors, court clerks, magistrates, barristers and judges conducted within the criminal justice system in England and Wales. Even though the research conducted for this chapter is now several years old, it is included and retained because of the valuable insights provided into the era of modernisation. Importantly, it provides insights into what criminal justice professionals perceived of probation during a period of critical change under new labour. Accordingly, this chapter constitutes a slice of criminal justice history, in North-East England, that can be accessed and utilised by other criminal justice researchers. In doing so it is intended to compensate for empirical paucity in this specific domain of interest.

Introduction

The first edition of this book was published in 2010 and included an analysis of the years from the election of new labour in 1997 to 2009. This second edition has been extended to include 1997 – 2015. The author introduces his expertise and experience within the field of probation service, with which he has been involved for nearly forty years. The author then gives brief examples of critical events or hinge moments that have occurred to both probation and criminal justice services in general throughout that time. The chapter concludes by giving an outline of the content of the remainder of the book.

Putting theories and moral sensibilities to work

This chapter puts bodies of social theory assembled in chapter 2, and a history of moral sensibilities in chapter 3, to work within the interrelated fields of probation, criminal justice, and penal policy. The argument advanced is that disparate bodies of social theory, in addition to a remaining vestige of religion, personalism, and ethico-humanitarian impulses, combine to excavate to provide an explanatory account of the political dynamics of modernisation and transformation. This is the central academic task of this chapter that puts to work a nuanced and multi-textured theoretical grid.

The religious and personalist tradition: or, reflections on the moral economy of criminal justice

When excavating probation and criminal justice since 1997, it is not possible to remain content with the bodies of theoretical resources established in chapter 2. This is precisely because there is a distinctive religious and personalist tradition of considerable longevity that must be factored into this analysis. Furthermore, the perspective advanced in this chapter is developed by refining the conceptual device of moral economy. Not only does moral economy critique the recent history within the criminal justice domain, it also provides the intellectual resources to reconstruct the moral dynamics of what is a people-facing organisation. Moral economy constructs an original perspective that can be applied to probation, criminal justice, and penal policy with illuminating effects.

Assembling the resources to theorise probation and criminal justice

This chapter begins the task of assembling the academic resources to theorise the probation domain and criminal justice system during the era of modernisation and transformation. Bodies of social theory constitute the essential tools to engage in scholarly activity. Selected theories are advanced to develop and refine theoretical work within the criminal justice system. It is argued that Durkheim, Weber, Marx, Foucault, Lacan, and Žižek combine to construct a refined theoretical grid of critical resources that will later be put to work. The combined weight of these intellectual resources indicates the multifaceted theoretical framework required to excavate probation and criminal justice from 1997-2010 then 2010-2015.

Probation and criminal justice, 1997–2015: from New Labour to the Coalition government

This chapter excavates substantive developments in probation, criminal justice, and penal policy, from the election of new labour in 1997 to the end of coalition government in 2015. New labour modernised and the coalition government transformed the criminal justice system, an essential component of public service reform. The latter constituted a series of political incursions that culminated in a rehabilitation revolution. By October 2014 a large proportion of probation work had been privatised through the creation of 21 Community Rehabilitation Companies. Payment by Results is an important signifier of substantive ideological and material changes throughout the system of justice in England and Wales.