Mentors to break jail cycle
Geelong trial of program
REFORMED offenders will mentor prisoners to help them navigate the end of their sentence and transition to post-prison life in a program aimed at cutting reoffending rates.
In an Australian first, inmates from Geelong suburbs will be paired with former offenders up to six months before their release as experts work to cut Victoria’s increasing reoffending rate and give prisoners hope.
The Deakin University and Department of Justice and Regulation trial will be rolled out at the Margoneet Correctional Centre jail this year. Program leader and Deakin professor Joe Graffam said similar models in the UK and US had better than expected results.
“Our national recidivism rate is 45 per cent — meaning they go back to prison within two years, while 55 per cent go back within four years,” Professor Graffam said. “The current model doesn’t work.”
For the Margoneet Correctional Centre trial, successful ex-offenders — who have jobs, stable housing and employment — will be paired with offenders before their release. The mentors will act as a support to prisoners on release by using their experiences in finding employment and housing.
Prof Graffam said 2015 research showed half of Victoria’s prison population comes from only 6 per cent of suburbs — including Corio.
“Much of a person’s pathway to prison is determined by where they come from,” he said. “If you come in with this background and then go back into this community, on release, then you have little chance (of reforming).”
Margoneet Correctional Centre general manager Wayne Harper said Deakin experts would evaluate the success of the small-scale trial and its ability to be implemented at a higher level.
“The purpose is to reduce recidivism. We acknowledge that the challenges facing people leaving the prison system are enormous,” Mr Harper said.
“While we deliver a lot of services . . . we want for prisoners to feel safe, that there is someone they can approach for advice.”
The program, supported by Geelong’s Give Where You Live Foundation, the Ian Potter Foundation and the HMS trust, is based on a program run by UK charity User Voice, founded by former prisoner Mark Johnson.
Mr Johnson was using alcohol by the age of eight and hooked on heroin by 11. He was in and out of prison until he was 29, went to rehab and found work with ex-offenders.
“People with convictions feel marginalised by society, with rehabilitation services often inaccessible and unhelpful, and a system that doesn’t value their input,” he said.
The program has worked with one in three inmates jailed in the UK and Mr Johnson said it had an enormous effect and influenced policy on the issue.
“We have a system which advocates justice — and part of justice is punishment and reform. We do the punishment part but don’t do the reform,” he said.
Mr Johnson said former prisoners provided invaluable guidance because they were able to establish trust and relationships with inmates.
“One of the biggest factors is distrust. We need to join up all the dots and if you can show that you made it, then (prisoners) will believe there is life after prison,” he said.