Valuing Desistence? A Social Return on Investment Case Study of a Throughcare Project for Short-Term Prisoners

Abstract

A social return on investment (SROI) has been widely promoted by both third sector organisations and the Scottish Government reflecting greater demands for financial accountability among the voluntary/third sector and charities who are under increasing pressure to evidence their effectiveness. There has been little academic scrutiny of the use of the SROI by human service agencies in the field of criminal justice where the impact of desistence from crime is valued, but the quality of data in social agencies is often problematic. This paper draws from the evaluation of the Routes out of Prison Project (RooP), a peer support prison throughcare initiative, to provide a case study of how the SROI model might be applied positively to a criminal justice context and provide a consistent framework for valuing and comparing initiatives aimed at promoting desistence from crime. The paper provides an overview of both the RooP and the SROI, before examining the issues raised by RooP and the advantages and limitations of SROI in this context.