In this seminar, Harry Annison (University of Southampton) will present findings from the ‘Rehabilitating Probation’Link opens in a new window ESRC research project. This seminar will focus on the findings published recently as ‘Making Good?Link opens in a new window’, which examined national policy makers’ reasoning relating to the wholesale nationalisation of probation in England and Wales, dramatically reversing privatization policies enacted only a few years prior. In so doing, Harry explores questions of narrative, purpose and values. Harry argues that the story of English probation’s renationalization resists simple categorization, containing elements of both heroic and tragic narratives, for reasons that he will explain. In closing, he will suggest ways in which this particular story connects with wider questions of purpose and values in relation to penal policy, at this present moment