Forensic Therapeutic Communities

This ebook blends together the collective, even communal wisdom from colleagues working in a range of forensic TCs. Combining evaluations of treatment effectiveness, narrative accounts of the living-learning experience of forensic TCs and philosophical and managerial considerations, we hope to offer meaning and understanding of the unique potential that TCs can offer for those with a forensic history.Ian Williams and Gary Winship at HMP Dovegate offer a new conceptualisation of the operating characteristics of a TC. Describing what they refer to as H3 they provide a discussion on Hope, Homeliness and Humour as three essential ingredients for an effective forensic TC.Jamie Bennett outlines his personal journey through the management of the first and largest prison TC in the UK at HMP Grendon. Bennett offers a perspective on the delicate balance facing prison TCs as wider systems demand a combination of retribution and cost efficiency alongside the optimism and rehabilitation that each prison community tries to offer those who have the courage to venture though the doors. Laura Aslan highlights the potential that therapeutic communities can offer for those who have developed a reliance on drugs. With particular attention being paid to the fidelity of TCs, Aslan draws attention to the need for long-term support and a pathway that sustains the living-learning experience beyond the time spent in a TC.The living and learning experience of imprisonment is the focus of the paper by Christian Perrin, Jayson Ware, and Andrew Frost. They pull together a powerful review of the barriers that traditional prison cultures present for those men (largely) who have caused harm as a result of their sexual behaviour.Geraldine Akerman provides us with an articulate narrative that explores gang membership, a focus of the current UK Secretary of State for Justice, and the manifestation of this type of social relating within a prison TC.Highlighting detailed themes from his interpretative analysis, the Gareth Ross study captures some critical components of the rehabilitative culture and describes the relationship between these components and the individual motivation that sees prisoners move beyond their status as liabilities.This ebook provides some persuasive and convincing evidence that therapeutic communities are active, alive and well within forensic TCs. However, it also goes one step further. It also makes clear that they continue to provide a necessary and highly relevant contribution to forensic services where they have shaped and inspired developments which would, until recently, have been unthinkable.