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Although it remains very much a Cinderella (Robinson, 2016) in the context of criminal justice, social work is attracting increasing attention from researchers, administrators and politicians in recent times. This trend has become seemingly even more evident during the pandemic and its aftermath. The explanations for this can be manifold, and some of them are certainly contained in the pages of this issue of Social Work Review.
Tomiță and Feher's article opens this special issue with a comprehensive analysis of the ways in which probation counsellors in the West adapted institutionally and procedurally to the COVID 19 pandemic. Here we look at how probation staff have developed their spectrum of client interaction skills using digital media.
But this transformation has not been easy or without its challenges. On the contrary, the adaptations that probation staff have learned have fully demanded their resilience. This is also the subject of the following article (Tomiță and Ungureanu) where the concept of resilience is analysed and re-constructed in the context of legal sciences, where it is promoted as legal resilience.
The following four articles present the conclusions of careful reviews of the existing literature on the transfer of penal policies (Iuliana Cărbunaru), the new sufferings of incarceration (Mathe Arpad), mental health management in probation services (Anastasia Văraru) and addiction management in the same institutional context (Delia Marin). All these articles provide a good starting point for further research.
As an application of previous theories and experiences in working with people convicted of motoring offences on public roads, Durnescu and Manolache's article presents a new behavioural rehabilitation programme for this group. Beyond the description of the programme itself, the article also presents a way of evaluating the impact of this programme that could be taken up by other programmes and interventions of this type.
One of the great absences in existing behavioural rehabilitation programmes in correctional services around the world, but especially in Romania, is the gender dimension. In their article, Galatanu and Balahur investigate probation counsellors' perceptions of gender and propose some realistic solutions for its integration into current practice.
This challenge, and many others, are detailed in Poledna's article which, starting from the concept of the involuntary client, introduces us to the phenomenology of the supervision process. We thus learn many details about strategies and tactics used by probation counsellors in Cluj to develop effective working alliances.
Also about challenges is the following article about transgender prisoners in Romanian prisons. The mismatch between biological sex and gender identity often places them in situations of maximum vulnerability. As the prison environment is an area dominated by power relations, the protection of this vulnerable group presents numerous dilemmas and operational difficulties. Oancea talks about them in his article that concludes this special issue of the Social Welfare Review.
The SARS COV 2 pandemic has forced prisons around the world to implement radical measures to prevent COVID infections among both inmates and staff. To make up for the absence of visits and permissions, prisons have widely expanded the use of online communication tools. Most research conducted worldwide has focused on how staff have perceived this paradigm shift in communication. The article by Dăghici, Calu, and Voinea represents one of the few exceptions that have examined how incarcerated individuals have perceived online communication.
I hope that these few lines have aroused your curiosity to read these articles. I wish you a pleasant reading!
References
Robinson, G. (2016). The Cinderella complex: Punishment, society and community sanctions Punishment and Society, 18, 1, https://doi.org/10.1177/1462474515623105
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