Could Prison Mentors Reduce Australia's Sky High Recidivism Rates?

Currently, the number of prisoners in Australian jails who are released, only to reoffend and return to prison, is at an all time high. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistic, in 2015 at least 50 percent of adult prisoners around Australia—except in South Australia—had been imprisoned before.

Findings from the US, the world's prison capital, suggest a far lower rate of reincarceration. In a report released earlier this year, the US Sentencing Commission found only 24.4 percent of offenders were reincarcerated in the next eight years.

For young people locked up in Australia, there's an even more dire picture. The younger you are, the more likely you are to reoffend. For 10- to 13-year-olds it's 70 percent. Although that's still less than Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island youth, who face reoffending rates of 76 percent, falling to 53 percent when they hit adulthood.

As Australia's prison population explodes, reducing recidivism is vital. A substantial study conducted over 10 years in Western Australia found a number of factors that can reduce reoffending risk, including whether the prisoner upskills during their incarceration or even if they just complete classes while on the inside.

But a new report, released August 24, suggests there could be another way that's worked around the world: peer mentors. Literally, ex-offenders working with those still behind bars.

Claire Seppings from the William Churchill Memorial Trust spent seven weeks in the UK, Republic of Ireland, Sweden, and the US studying the role mentoring from ex-offenders has in reducing cases of recidivism. According to her report, peer mentoring had a remarkable success rate in these countries. Seppings says these programs are "long overdue" in Australia and could halt the country's rates of reoffending and incarceration rising.

"Through the gate" mentoring forms a significant part of these programs. It allows reformed offenders to enter correctional facilities and provide one-on-one rehabilitation and resettlement advice to prisoners. Information sessions are also provided to larger groups of inmates.

The philosophy behind this approach is that inmates are adverse to advice given to them by corrections officers and outside professionals. Seppings' study found inmates were more likely to engage positively with an individual they identify as having "walked in their shoes."

So far "through the gate" mentoring has yielded impressive results. In the UK, Seppings found 90 percent of those who participated in the Merseyside Offender Mentoring program had recorded no offences, or at least a reduction, since joining. "It's an aspect that just makes sense," she says. "It's hard to say why other agencies haven't thought of it before."

Seppings told VICE that the inspiration behind the report was close to home. Her partner was in prison, and during a visit he admitted to her that he had no idea how to reintegrate into the community. She says it was these words that "clinched it" for her.

"For those of us who've never been in prison or who have never committed a crime, we can't possibly know what that's like," Seppings says. "It's almost impossible to think 'how do I live mainstream?'"

Seppings says these programs are the "missing link" the Australian Government needs in its correctional facilities. "It's been well-established in the drug and alcohol area," Seppings says, noting the approach is also popular in the mental health area."Now that we have the evidence, and that respective jurisdictions in other countries are doing it, then it makes sense."

In 2013, then-UK Minister for Prisons, Jeremy Wright, began advocating peer mentoring, saying it would give inmates "an option to build a life outside of the prison walls by helping other people do exactly the same."

In the USA, mentoring programs have been active for decades. According to the report, programs such as Exodus provide mentoring services to 2,000 offenders every year, while the Fortune Society in New York provides mentoring services to over 4,600 male and female offenders every year.

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