Capabilities of practitioners supporting young men with mild-to-borderline intellectual impairment

This paper identifies key capabilities for practice identified by community practitioners who seek to support the re-entry and reintegration in community after imprisonment of young men with mild-to-borderline intellectual impairment. It is based on a recent qualitative study undertaken in south-east Queensland, Australia, drawing on in-depth and semistructured interviews with community practitioners working with this population group that is over-represented in the criminal justice system. Applying the capability approach based on the work of Amartya Sen, the study examined community practitioners’ self-reported engagement with young men with mild-to-borderline intellectual impairment involved in the criminal justice system. The analytical strategy was based on grounded theory and from the findings a set of practitioner capabilities and functionings were developed to guide future work by practitioners who support young men with mild-to-borderline intellectual impairment in community re-entry and reintegration. IMPLICATIONS Systems for community re-integration of young men with mild-to-borderline (MB) intellectual impairment involved in the criminal justice system require revisioning with a view to developing effective practice in engagement. A capabilities framework for community practitioners, informed by research, is required to guide practice in re-entry services for young men with MB intellectual impairment