Mentoring in Practice: Rebuilding Dialogue with Mentees’ Stories

This research aims to highlight the transformations that took place in the views of a group of young prisoners as a result of their participation in a narrative workshop, where the prisoners told and heard autobiographical stories. The transformations that emerged during the workshop are connected with the decision of the migrants to leave their country, the causes that led them to prison and their plans for the future.

Human Resource Development International, 2009

Contrary to popular myth, modern prison environments are often workplaces that embrace change and reform. Stakeholders such as policy makers, managers and administrators currently look for innovative ways to rehabilitate offenders and re-integrate them back into the community, rather than continuing to incarcerate offenders to reduce harm to the community. In some cases, innovative models of offender rehabilitation require new ways of working among staff, whose typical roles are functional and well-defined within the disciplines of custody, medical care, counselling, education and probation and parole.

Probation Journal, 2018

This paper draws upon research documenting the implementation, management and delivery of Through the Gate service provision in one case study area across an 18-month period. In referring to interviews and focus groups with professionals, male prisoners, and the families of these men, the paper provides a critical examination of the practice implications of administering Through the Gate provision in a resettlement prison. In doing so we reflect upon the changes in organisational structures, the evolution of occupational culture(s), and on the impact on multi-agency partnership working practice evident within this Transforming Rehabilitation led period of transitional change.

2014

conference concerning some of the fundamental "knowns " in the field of incarceration and various forms of detention. It is important to set these "knowns " out clearly because every piece of research on these matters indicates the same things. In the field it is known that the crime rate does not go down the more people are put in prison. It is also known that NSW and New Zealand could halve their prison populations tomorrow, and do no damage to the crime rate by not putting offenders with a sentence of under six months into prison, but rather by giving them a semi-custodial or community order with supervision. Everybody knows that our gaols are full, but not of murderers, rapists and armed robbers. They form only some 10 to 15 per cent of the prison population. Our prisons are full of people who are there for highly identifiable and predictable social reasons like being poor, being black, living in the wrong suburb and being ill-educated. A statement that every...

2019

This study focussed on prisoner learning within Tasmanian adult prisons. This thesis was undertaken to explore understandings and perceptions from various stakeholder groups in order to provide rich data from a range of perspectives.

The Howard Journal of Criminal Justice, 2009

This article presents prisoners' perspectives on participation in a prison employment project. Forty-four interviews were conducted with 28 offenders, in prison and post release, to explore motivations for taking part, views on training experience, expectations of how it might help employment prospects and the extent to which expectations were fulfilled. Perceived benefits included accruing a qualification and work experience, a fulfilling role relative to other employment opportunities in prison and increased self-confidence through project activities. However, problems of short-term funding for the project as well as potential for unrealistic expectations about employment chances were also noted.

2011

This paper is the second in a series that investigates the involvement of the third sector in the resettlement of prisoners. Working paper 57 found that nearly 20,000 third sector organisations reported engagement in work with offenders through seven resettlement pathways. The current paper scopes prisoners' experiences of these organisations by presenting key findings of an all-prisoner short survey distributed in eight prisons nationally. The findings indicate that prisons engage with an average of 20 organisations, but respondents are aware of an average of only four organisations and report engaging with no more than one. There is an apparent mismatch between the stated involvement of TSO in work with offenders in prisons and prisoners' awareness and use of their services. The main policy and practice implications of these findings are discussed, including one proposed solution to introduce more systematically third sector co-ordinators in prisons, who could improve marketing as well as access to these services.

Peer mentoring is an increasing feature of UK criminal justice, yet very little is known about the micro dynamics of this practice. Drawing upon an ethnographic study, this article identifies a number of ‘core conditions’ underpinning the practice, including caring, listening and encouraging small steps. Mentors and mentees highlight these conditions as antidotes to what they often perceive as disconnected, unhearing and technocratic criminal justice practices. Peer mentoring is claimed to release suffering, to unburden the self of grief and to explore new directions, given that mentors ‘genuinely care’ and are tolerant of slip-ups. Respondents offer valuable insight into the experience of being intervened upon and advocate for manageable shifts, which could meaningfully improve services for a range of vulnerable and stigmatized populations. However, the article also introduces tensions, including the expectation of emotional toil for little financial reward and the context of an in...

Youth Justice, 2017

This qualitative longitudinal study focused on adolescent males who were being formally mentored during their transition from a juvenile justice centre to the community. Pre-release, the young men feared being exposed to negative peer influences and uncertainty about the future. In response to this anxiety, the young men valued the mentor as a guide, confidant and “watchdog”. Post-release, the concerns of the young men turned to a sense of disconnection, institutionalisation and difficulties securing employment. Here, the young men required their mentors to be reliable, build confidence and assist with educational and occupational opportunities. The findings both inform our theoretical understanding of mentoring and provide direction for supporting young offenders in the transition back into the community.