The North Piedmont Confinement in Response to Violation facility in Lexington, North Carolina recently wrapped up the first year of its peer mentorship program, where participants apply to be chosen as peer leaders and assist their teachers with class work and activities.
“A peer mentor is the leader of the group — a teacher’s assistant, so to speak,” said Program Manager Chris Petrozza, who runs the reentry program for female probation violators. “They assist their facilitator with group facilitation, setting up the group room and assisting other participants with homework and completion of Moral Reconation Therapy steps.”
Program Requirements
North Piedmont CRV is one of three CRV in-custody programs set up through the North Carolina Department of Public Safety and operated by GEO Reentry Services. Starting in February 2019, CRV participants could apply to be their group’s peer mentor for a one-month period by completing a peer mentor application and submitting it to teacher/facilitator for review. The facilitator then determines which candidates would be best suited for the position.
Because the CRV is an incentive-based program centered around treatment, programming and improving lives and outcomes, there are also strict criteria for potential peer mentors to meet: they must not have had any behavioral sanctions received since entering the facility, and they must have passed step two in their MRT curriculum, said Petrozza.
“Participants in the program must also be reliable and exhibit positive behaviors both inside and outside of the classroom, and they must receive the approval of their probation officer, dorm officer and GEO Reentry program manager,” he said.
So far, North Piedmont’s peer mentors have been quite effective, actively working to set a good example for their peers, Petrozza said, adding that other area CRVs operate similar programs, including the Robeson CRV in Lumberton.
“A lot of times you will have participants who don’t read or write very well, so they rely on their peer mentor to help them with the work they need to complete,” he said. “I would say a lot of people in the group feed off the peer mentors, if they are chosen appropriately.”
Program Incentives
Peer mentors also receive weekly incentives for completing their mentoring duties: they get to have their five-by-seven-inch headshot displayed on the facility’s peer mentor wall and to paint a portion of the wall, and they receive a weekly item from the North Piedmont CRV’s GEO Reentry store. Participants can choose from a selection of hygiene products, snacks, batteries for their radios, headphones, pens and pencils and other small, practical items.
“They get paid on a weekly basis as well,” added Petrozza. “It’s like a job: the Department of Public Safety pays them a small stipend over four weeks. Since family members are not allowed to put money on their cards during the program, anything they get here they earn.”
Mentors are also called first to the program’s weekly incentive event and receive a peer mentor certificate upon successful completion of their one-month term, he said. “They’re able to use that certificate when they’re applying for gainful employment in the community or at a court hearing to show they were a leader of their group for a certain amount of time,” Petrozza said.
Program Impact
A 2017 paper published by The National Reentry Resource Center found that peer mentoring programs that assign reentry program participants to mentors with similar experiences can have a potentially profound impact on adults returning to their communities from incarceration.
At North Piedmont, the program’s success lies in its ability to offer participants a sense of responsibility for themselves and for others. In a prosocial atmosphere, these peer mentors get to provide personalized guidance to mentees with similar reentry and incarceration experiences and help them develop a genuine motive for change.