Exploring the role of food in enabling people with convictions to live a ‘good life’, this book examines the tangible ways in which the growing, cooking and eating together of food has the potential to be both transformative and small-steps incremental in facilitating desistance journeys for people with convictions.

At its most reductive, food sustains us physically, it’s the fuel which keeps us alive. Of course, emotionally, culturally and socially it does more than that. This edited book addresses an under-researched area of resettlement and rehabilitation which has real-world application to policy and practice in criminal justice and related areas such as mental health, physical health, employment and education. Importantly, given the relatability of food growing, cooking and eating to the wider public, it offers opportunities to connect the desistance journeys and lives of people with convictions to the wider public.

The Role of Food in Resettlement and Rehabilitation will be of great interest to students and scholars of criminology, sociology, social work, and food studies. It is also important reading for government policy makers in criminal justice; and health care, social policy, and criminal justice practitioners including prison governors, social workers and providers of services for people with convictions in custody and community.

Julie Parsons is Associate Professor in Sociology and Criminology. Since 2015 she has conducted a series funded research projects at a resettlement scheme for criminal justice affected people, establishing the PeN project (https://penprojectlandworks.org/) there in 2016. She is passionate about the power of everyday foodways in bringing people together.

Kevin Wong is Reader in Community Justice and Associate Director, Policy Evaluation and Research Unit, Manchester Metropolitan University. He is Editor of the British Journal of Community Justice, Director of the Manchester International Crime and Justice Film Festival, and an Associate Member of the UK Ministry of Justice Corrections Services Accreditation and Advisory Panel.