Using Data to Improve Reentry Programs: Evaluating the Effectiveness of Peer Mentoring

Best practices in reentry

In the United States, there are an estimated 1.2 million people currently incarcerated in state and federal prisons, and more than?650,000?are released from prison every year. Two-thirds of them will likely be re-arrested within three years following their release

The typical narrative about reentry goes as follows: "In the United States, we have a large prison population, virtually all these prisoners will be released, most are unprepared to integrate back into society, former inmates face increased difficulties at every turn, most will commit additional crimes and be sent back to prison or jail, and the whole process is a huge burden on budgets and society" (Koschmann & Peterson, 2013, p. 189).

Therefore, we must improve our reentry efforts to break this cycle by incorporating programs that are rehabilitative in nature, rather than being concerned primarily with supervision and control.

In the fields of criminal justice and public safety in the U.S., reentry is a prevalent topic of discussion. Helping formerly incarcerated individuals re-integrate into their communities and become productive members of society is of growing interest.

What can be done to help people who are released from prison avoid re-arrest? With few job prospects, very little money, and no place to live, returnees often face the same pressures and temptations that landed them in prison in the first place.

Providing formerly incarcerated men and women with assistance finding and keeping employment, identifying transitional housing, and receiving peer mentoring have been identified as important forms of reentry support in several studies (see?Kendall, Redshaw, Ward, Wayland, & Sullivan, 2018 for a systemic review of community reentry programs, for example).

Arguably, one underlying cause of recidivism is being cut off from networks and meaningful relationships that provide the necessary social capital needed for successful reintegration. It, therefore, makes sense to consider mentoring as a key component of reentry success.

Mentoring in reentry programs

Mentoring provides important links to coordinated service delivery and valuable resources for creating a favorable postrelease environment for successful reentry.

Networks of relationships connect people to opportunities and information they might not otherwise have access to. Unfortunately, many formerly incarcerated men and women have been cut off from these relationships, or they never had the connections to begin with, which makes it incredibly difficult to manage the complexities of postrelease life (Koschmann & Peterson, 2013).?

Koschmann and Peterson evaluated one of the few established reentry mentoring programs in the U.S. in their 2013 case study. The FOCUS program was created around the idea of self-empowerment, which is mainly accomplished through motivational interviewing. Motivational interviewing is a counseling approach that develops motivations that facilitate individual change (Souders, 2019).?

“Most commonly used to increase motivation toward behavioral change, motivational interviewing is an evidence-based approach designed to encourage clients to talk themselves into making beneficial changes in their lives” (Souders, 2019). Motivational interviewing encourages clients to think and talk about their reasons for change, ultimately increasing motivation.

Mentors in the?FOCUS reentry program?offer an invaluable service by providing a first point of contact on release and helping people through the initial transition. Mentors might drive people to appointments or help them manage the overwhelming amount of paperwork and responsibilities necessary to comply with the terms of their release. They might go for meals together, go hiking, go to the library, go shopping, and so on. In this program, mentors and mentees meet weekly for approximately 12 months.?

How do you measure reentry success?

If you have incorporated peer mentoring in your reentry programming, for example, how do you know it is achieving its intended results? How do you know if it was effective in meeting the needs of your clients? Are you accomplishing what you set out to accomplish? Is the program worth the resources it costs? What is the “return on investment” for this program or service?

Increasingly, reentry programs and initiatives across the country are partnering with independent evaluators to better understand the effectiveness of their recidivism reduction strategies and identify ways to use data to further refine their practices.

Read the rest of the article on our blog to see how we would evaluate a reentry program.