National Mentoring Day raises awareness and celebrates the significant role that mentoring programmes play in multiple areas of society. To mark this important occasion, Dr Melissa Henderson writes about the benefits of mentoring in prison settings.

Celebrating National Mentoring Day: Providing Mentoring in Prison Settings

The 27th of October is National Mentoring Day, founded by business mentor Chelsey Baker in order to raise awareness and celebrate the significant role that mentoring programmes play in multiple areas of society.

Mentoring functions as a form of ‘teaching, sponsoring, encouraging, counselling and befriending’^[1] and has been widely established within areas of professional development and education as a way of providing both practical and emotional support. More recently, mentoring interventions have also been implemented within criminal justice services, most commonly within a youth justice context but increasingly mentoring programmes for adults are regarded as a successful means to aid rehabilitation programmes and reduce reoffending. Through the development of an empathetic, trusting relationship between mentor and the offender, mentoring is regarded as being able to help facilitate improved self-esteem, health, motivation and increased self-confidence.^[2]

Peer mentoring interventions in particular are a more common form of mentoring used within prison settings, where a prisoner will act as a mentor to their fellow prisoners. Peer mentoring in prison is distinct from other forms of prison programmes in that it has a greater focus on the concept of role modelling, is able to provide support in a wide range of areas, and emphasises offender well-being.^[3] One of the most commonly used mentoring interventions in prison is the Listeners scheme, a programme that was developed with the same ethos as the Samaritans^[4]; offering prisoners a listening ear and confidential support to help them manage their time in prison. A significant aspect of peer mentoring is that the mentor is also able to benefit from the programme by having a purposeful and meaningful role whilst in prison and a way to develop and improve their sense of self-worth.^[5] Peer mentoring allows offenders to gain an insight into what motivates their own offending behaviour, with some research^[6] indicating that this helps to support the peers' own rehabilitation. This concept is also reflected in the NOMS Commissioning Intentions 2013-2014 Discussion Document, with peer support being regarded as a significant method to reduce rates of reoffending through the provision of sufficient support systems to encourage a positive alternative to an ‘offender identity’. Peer mentoring support is therefore seen as a mutually beneficial way to improve and enhance life in custody and promote positive attitudes and behavioural changes amongst prisoners. 

As a result of this increasing use of peer mentoring programmes in prison, research was undertaken with a female prison in England in order to determine whether incorporating peer mentoring programmes could assist with developing pro-social networks that supported reduced reoffending rates for women on release.^[7] A specific focus on female experiences of peer mentoring was thought to be useful considering the significance of positive relationships for women as part of their re-entry into the community.^[8] Women disproportionately experience relationships based on ‘disconnection and violence’ during their childhood, which can then be intensified by experiences with the criminal justice system.^[9] Within the research prison, mentoring programmes were used in multiple areas and with different approaches and outcomes; within the education unit to provide practical help with maths and reading exercises, within the recovery unit to support substance abuse recovery and in the IOMU (Integrated Offender Management Unit) to assist women when first entering into the prison. For the mentees within the recovery unit, involvement in the mentoring programme was rarely voluntary; more commonly it was a mandatory requirement of their sentence plan, with the majority of research respondents stating this was their primary motivation for being mentored. This suggested there were parallels to be drawn between the ways in which mentoring was run in the prison and traditional drug recovery programmes within the community.

For women in prison, having a mentor to talk to about the difficulties of prison life and someone who understood the experience firsthand was regarded as the most significant benefit of having a peer mentor. The ability for peer mentors to be able to personally relate to an experience is what enabled them to be ‘quality mentors’ by the mentees’ standards. One mentee described her mentor as being a ‘safety net’, helping to steer her away from negative behaviours but able to ‘catch’ her if she did relapse or make a mistake. Peer mentors enabled women to feel empowered and helped to establish long-term goals for the future. For women in the education area of the prison specifically, mentors were used to offer extra practical help and to inspire confidence with learning. These peer mentors were regarded as being more successful at engaging positively with women than other similar forms of support from professionals or prison staff.

As mentioned previously, one of the key benefits with regards to peer mentoring in prison is the mutual benefit that can be gained from this kind of intervention. Peer mentors described having been given a purpose through peer mentoring; they were able to contribute in a positive, meaningful way to someone else’s life during a difficult period, which reinforces the recognition that positive-impact opportunities can have for ‘generative’ action on pathways to desistance from crime.^[10]

Whilst all prison programmes are not without their challenges, peer mentoring can be seen as an important rehabilitation intervention, drawing on the benefits of a traditional mentoring role to support the development of a non-offender identity. With regard to supporting female offenders specifically, mentoring is gaining momentum as a contemporary and particularly influential means to inform women’s desistance from crime and assist community reintegration on release from prison. This is achievable by meeting more intangible and complex needs of women in the criminal justice system, such as emotional support and empowerment, alongside the practical advice and encouragement that mentoring connections can offer. When implemented correctly and well-regulated, peer mentoring interventions in prison can have significant long-term impact. 

Dr Melissa Henderson and Professor Rosie Meek have recently published a chapter titled ‘Peer Mentoring for Women in Prison: Experiences of Power, Control and Reliving Past Trauma’ in Masson, I. and Booth, N. (2022), The Routledge Handbook of Women’s Experiences of Criminal Justice. London: Routledge