The aim of this book is to provide a collection of essays that outline and discuss criminal justice practice in relation to risk and rehabilitation, with particular reference to substance misuse and mental health problems. These problems, which often constitute the ‘bread and butter’ of criminal justice caseloads, are often complex and appear to be intractable, thus presenting difficulties to a criminal justice system predicated upon notions of rational choice, punishment and deterrence. It is precisely because of some of the perceived difficulties in working with these issues, and because of the numbers of people in the criminal justice system who present with them, that criminal justice sanctions have increasingly come to be seen as a solution to some of these problems. As a result of this, a number of specific court orders have emerged, which in themselves have been presented by the government as ‘innovative’. In this book, a range of issues and developments in relation to the delivery of criminal justice for substance misuse (including alcohol) and mental health will be critically analysed within the context of current criminological and criminal justice discourse, including an examination of the contested nature of the evidence base.

This is a timely discussion given that the Coalition government's plans for the criminal justice system and a ‘rehabilitation revolution’ exist within a context of financial austerity allied with a localised agenda as distinct from the centralism (organisational and financial) of the New Labour approach, which saw a centrally driven corrections industry being definitive of the ‘what works’ era. The developments of Probation Trusts, changes to the training of Probation Officers and a quasi-market in correctional work, including private prisons and payment by results, are testament to an agenda that is rapidly developing in criminal justice. Of course, periods of change and uncertainty offer opportunities as well as threats, and this book is concerned with not just the legacy of the last 15 years, but also what the opportunities might be both within and beyond the criminal justice system. This is particularly true for substance misuse and mental health, where the rapid development in our understanding of the complex nature of these problems is not informing best practice in criminal justice, and may in truth be exposing the often unethical and unpractical nature of interventions based on coercive sanctions.