Claims that public and community archaeology can help ‘change lives’ have recently come under criticism. Challenging these critiques, this article explores how archaeology can be socially beneficial in the rehabilitation of offenders. Using a case study from South Wales, this article demonstrates how a prison-based outreach project can offer an innovative trajectory for public archaeology, highlighting the links between archaeology and political agendas. The article challenges the concept of ‘archaeologist-as-social-worker’ and considers the successes and limitations of such an approach, including the challenges of measuring impact. Ultimately, it demonstrates that archaeology-based activities can provide positive life experiences for offenders, but only through a successful partnership between heritage and offender management specialists, as part of a wider programme of support and intervention.

中文翻译：

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罗马人与减少累犯：威尔士的考古学、社会福利和与罪犯合作（第 1 部分）

声称公共和社区考古可以帮助“改变生活”的说法最近受到了批评。本文挑战这些批评，探讨考古学如何在罪犯康复方面产生社会效益。本文使用来自南威尔士的案例研究，展示了基于监狱的外展项目如何为公共考古学提供创新的轨迹，突出考古学与政治议程之间的联系。这篇文章挑战了“考古学家作为社会工作者”的概念，并考虑了这种方法的成功和局限性，包括衡量影响的挑战。最终，它表明基于考古的活动可以为罪犯提供积极的生活体验，但只有通过遗产和罪犯管理专家之间的成功合作，