The role of storylines in penal policy change

Bringing policy reform to fruition is an enterprise fraught with difficulty; penal no different. This paper argues that the concept of ‘storylines’, developed within studies, capable generating valuable insights into internal dynamics change and particularly ‘commmunicative miracle’ whereby participants sufficiently align achieve reform. I utilize part-privatization part-marketization probation services in England Wales (‘Transforming Rehabilitation’) as a pertinent case study: disaster foretold, but nonetheless inaugurated at breakneck speed. Drawing on interviews makers, demonstrate means by which ‘rehabilitation revolution’ storyline resolved (at least temporarily) tensions problems inherent project; without it would have struggled succeed. We see storylines play three important roles for makers: they enable specific policies ‘make sense’, ‘fit’ line their pre-existing beliefs. They provide sense meaning, moral mission self-legitimacy. And deflect contestation. In closing, consider implications scholars change.