Meaning of Rehabilitation and its Impact on Parole

Dr. Rita Shah is an Assistant Professor of Criminology at Eastern Michigan University. Her research combines textual analysis with qualitative and visual methods to understand the ways in which correctional systems are socially and legally constructed. Her work has been published in the British Journal of Criminology and Contemporary Justice Review and is supported by NEH and NSF grants. Bridging the areas of criminology and law and society, her courses focus on the social construction of crime, the relationship between law and society, and issues of social justice. She received her BA in Communications, Legal Institutions, Economics and Government (CLEG) from American University and her MA in Social Ecology and PhD in Criminology, Law and Society from the University of California, Irvine. In her free time, she can be found on photographic expeditions or watching football.

Shah pushes deeper than current debates about sentencing reform. She investigates what California meant by rehabilitation, how public policy changed bureaucracy, and the work of parole officers. The Meaning of Rehabilitation is thus an important read for anyone who wants to demand more from their Department of Corrections. —Paul Leighton, Professor, Department of Sociology, Anthropology and Criminology, Eastern Michigan UniversityThis book sheds much needed light on the complicated relationship between ideologies around punishment and rehabilitation, and how this tension has fueled the creation and shape of parole. Dr. Shah masterfully illustrates the the complexities of rehabilitation—what it means, what we think it looks like, and how we measure it—in a pedagogically useful and accessible text.—Kaitlyn J. Selman, Assistant Professor, Sociology Department, Framingham State University The Meaning of Rehabilitation and Its Impact on Parole sheds much-needed light on ideological dimensions of rehabilitation. Its detailed account of legislative changes makes it an ideal text for teaching historical approaches to law and crime policy. A rich, yet accessible analysis that will appeal to scholars, students, and practitioners.—Kate Henne, Assistant Professor & Canada Research Chair, Department of Sociology and Legal Studies, University of Waterloo

• Acknowledgments IntroductionChapter 1: Building a Parole Bureaucracy: Inception to 1930sChapter 2: The Rise of the Rehabilitative Ideal: 1940s to Mid-1970sChapter 3: The Fall of Rehabilitation: 1970s to 1990sChapter 4: Re-Emergence of Rehabilitation: 2000 to 2005Chapter 5: Correcting Corrections: 2005 to PresentConclusionAppendix A: On Methods