The What Works agenda was introduced in order to meet several policy imperatives: the need to decarcerate, to achieve some positive intervention with offenders, and to be seen to be tough on offenders even if they remain in the community. The National Probation Service was established to ensure delivery of the What Works strategy. The aim of probation intervention is intended to ensure the successful reintegration of offenders into the community and a reduction in their offending. One of the key principles behind the What Works agenda is community reintegration. However, the question was raised as to why should community reintegration be an essential element of society’s criminal justice strategy. In answering this question, it is first acknowledged that a society that has no processes of community reintegration is one that is fragmented and fractured and socially divisive. Therefore, an inclusionary and integrated society utilizing the processes of informal social control is likely to be more crime reductive. The more extensive the social linkages which bind society together the more likely people are to have broad-based social networks creating more integrated individuals. The development of a social capital is seen as a priority for the National Probation Service. With this in place, reintegration can begin to work for the offender who can be properly rehabilitated and reintegrated into the community and the community develops sustainable means of managing offenders who live in it. The ultimate benefit of community reintegration lies in its assistance in the process of rehabilitation, ensuring respect for the ex-offender as a full citizen. References