By 1975, the long-standing rehabilitative ideal had collapsed, a demise that was sudden and advocated by conservatives and liberals alike. Through the prism of the author's personal involvement in the issue of correctional rehabilitation, what occurred from this time to the present is recounted. This story includes identifying a period of pessimism in which a “nothing works” doctrine was widely embraced and a period of optimism in which knowledge has grown about the effectiveness of offender treatment. Given the current context, eight developments are likely to unfold in coming years: the continued policy appeal of rehabilitation, widening influence of the risk-need-responsivity paradigm, popularity of desistance-based treatment models, use of reentry programs as a conduit for rehabilitation, integration of early intervention with correctional intervention, use of financial incentives to fund effective programs, spread of rehabilitation ceremonies, and growth of specialty courts that target treatment to specific categories of offenders. For the rehabilitative ideal to retain legitimacy, however, two major challenges will need to be addressed. First, with support from policy makers, practitioners must embrace evidence-based corrections and professionalism. And second, criminologists must take seriously their obligation to develop a correctional science that can invent treatment interventions capable of reducing offender recidivism.
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