Transforming Rehabilitation and its impact on a locally-based rehabilitation programme for Black and Minority Ethnic and Muslim offenders

Abstract

This article discusses the outcomes of a proposed evaluation of an offender rehabilitation programme called ReachingOut, which operates in north-west England and is tailored to the needs of Black and Minority Ethnic and Muslim offenders. The start of the evaluation coincided with the major restructuring of the probation services in England and Wales, as part of the Transforming Rehabilitation (TR) agenda. Six months into the evaluation, no primary research data had been made available for the evaluation. This article discusses the events that conspired to thwart the evaluation and analyses critically the policies underpinning TR, with reference to the literature and continuing neo-liberal governmental approaches to cost cutting across public services.