The Council of State Governments Justice Center recently published “Mentoring as a Component of Reentry: Practical Considerations from the Field,” a 45-page report exploring the practical elements and benefits of integrating the practice of mentoring into reentry programs for adults.
Produced by the National Reentry Resource Center as a resource for professionals in community-based reentry, the report details practical, field-based considerations for incorporating mentoring into comprehensive reentry programs designed to reduce recidivism in the community.
The practice of mentoring is thought to provide prosocial benefits, such as access to a reliable listener and association with someone outside one’s own social network. These benefits are most evident in the practice of peer mentoring, which assigns program participants to mentors with similar firsthand experience of incarceration and reentry.
The report asserts that the effectiveness of a mentoring program in reentry depends on how well it is structured. This requires reentry programs to collaborate with correctional facilities, probation and parole, prudently match mentors and program participants, and develop guidance for concluding the mentoring relationship.
In addition, the report says, integrating a mentoring component into a reentry program requires the understanding that mentoring should be supplementary to services that address other important reentry needs, such as housing, health care, substance use treatment and employment.
The CSG is a region-based forum that was founded to foster the exchange of insights and ideas to help state officials shape public policy, and the CSG Justice Center develops research-driven strategies to increase public safety and strengthen communities.
GEO Reentry’s Alumni Services program has long employed the practice of mentoring to benefit former program participants, connecting them with GEO Reentry staff members and fellow program alumni to help them create a supportive social network. Ongoing mentorship is also supplemented by links to community resources for employment, educational and housing, as well as access to community service opportunities.
In addition, former participants are also allowed to return the favor by visiting GEO Reentry centers to offer current program participants guidance and support.
GEO Reentry Services provides evidence-based treatment and supervision for adult probationers, parolees and pretrial defendants in residential, in-prison and non-residential reentry centers.