Rehabilitation: Headline or footnote in the new penal policy?

This article examines the role of ‘rehabilitation’ in contemporary penal policy. Drawing on the work of Cullen and Gilbert (1982), and Rotman (1990), it advances a rights-based approach to rehabilitation. It is suggested that the vision of rehabilitation contained in recent policy documents and legislation does not match up to the theoretical model that is outlined, and that current rehabilitative efforts are window-dressing on an overly punitive ‘managerialist’ system.