Most people leaving prison re-enter society with a drug addiction, few qualifications, and no money and return to the lives within which their crime(s) took place in the first instance. Others will have lost local connections to their family, their job, and their home. In situations such as these the likelihood of repeat offending is high.

Acknowledging this, and the fact that the practice of sending individuals to prison frequently leaves the needs of the victims, the offenders themselves, and their respective communities unmet, QCEA has undertaken research into the uses of alternatives to imprisonment sentences in Council of Europe member states. This report is the result of this research.