Despite being in existance for over a century residential hostels are a relatively neglected area of the criminal justic system, and for most of their history have recived little academic, political or media attention. This book brings together the findings from two research projects conducted between 1994 and 1998. This study was of bail hostel provision for women awaiting trial. Through ethnographic methods it aimed to capture the experiences of residents and staff, highlighting the particular needs of female defendants and the ways in which bail hostels aim to support. Three different types of hostels were studied: women-only; women-only with a provision for children; and a mixed hostel (mixed in this context refers to a small group of women in an otherwiser male group). The author conducted further interviews with staff working in a men-only hostel, exploring their particular experiences of conducting residential work with male offenders. The book is intended to be read sequentially, although each chapter is relatively self-contained to allow readers to dip into the book. It offers a critical discussion of the growth of increasingly punitive approaches to crime control within a society which emphasises law and order politics and then goes on to examine how this has impacted on probation policy broadly and day-to-day practice with offenders. THe following chaptewr reflects on the compatibility of the national sTandards for the Supervision of Offenders in the Community with staff expectations of residential work, and consders the problems of translating aims and objectives into practice. The text then goes on to discuss the sociological processes of becoming a residential worker, dealing in particular with the development of knowledge, expertise and professional identites and the problems faced by newcomers. Special attention is paid to the dilemas of practice which include managing risk, danger, and coping with stress. The author also explores the residential worker's accounts of feelings of safety and danger and their strategies for managing risk and vunrablity. The ways of mananging the various sources of stress, are discussed in detail. The author then goes on to consider the approach developed by residentail workers in response to the realities of working with offenders, and the ways in which the approach is translated into practice. He identifies the potential dilema of reaching an agreement on what constitutes success in relation to residential work with offenders. A critque is offered of the offical measure of the effectiveness of residential work with offenders.