Social work, payback and punishment

McNeill, Fergus and , Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research and , Scottish Policy Innovation Forum (2008) Social work, payback and punishment. In: Prisons and Sentencing Reform: Developing policy in Scotland. Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research, pp. 18-21. ISBN 978-0-9563526-1-3

Abstract

The heart of the Scottish Prisons Commission's report, and the core of the choice that the Commission sets out, can be found in their first two recommendations: 1. To better target imprisonment and make it more effective, the Commission recommends that imprisonment should be reserved for people whose offences are so serious that no other form of punishment will do and for those who pose a significant threat of serious harm to the public. 2. To move beyond our reliance on imprisonment as a means of punishing offenders, the Commission recommends that paying back in the community should become the default position in dealing with less serious offenders.

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