Student Mentors of Incarcerated Persons: Contribution of a Mentoring Program for Incarcerated Persons

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/08874034221130037
• Published date: 01 February 2023
• Date: 01 February 2023
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/08874034221130037

Criminal Justice Policy Review

2023, Vol. 34(1) 65 –87

© The Author(s) 2022

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DOI: 10.1177/08874034221130037

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Article

Student Mentors of

Incarcerated Persons:

Contribution of a Mentoring

Program for Incarcerated

Persons

Uri Timor1, Ronit Peled-Laskov2, and Etty Golan2

Abstract

This study evaluates the impact of a student program for mentoring incarcerated

persons. Mentoring has multiple goals for both incarcerated persons and mentors;

this article focuses on its contributions to incarcerated persons. The program

encourages incarcerated persons to think positively and constructively, apply anger

management, and learn about the normative society they will enter. Twenty-one

incarcerated persons participated in semi-structured in-depth interviews in this

qualitative research. The findings show that the students eventually became significant

others for the incarcerated persons, most of whom reported on forming excellent

relations with the students, and learning to act more deliberately and less violently

due to the students. They also described reducing their self-absorption, expanding

their horizons, and better understanding their criminal choices. Some mentioned

acquiring more structured worldviews and improving their behavior. The findings

point to significant benefits gained from the incarcerated person–student interaction

in the mentoring framework, and the importance of expanding the program.

Keywords

prisoners, mentoring program, students mentors, rehabilitation

1Department of Criminology, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Israel

2Department of Criminology, Ashkelon Academic College, Israel

Corresponding Author:

Dr. Ronit Peled-Laskov, Senior Lecturer, Department of Criminology, Ashkelon Academic College, Ben

Tzvi 12, Ashkelon, 78211, Israel.

Email: peleronit@gmail.com

1130037CJPXXX10.1177/08874034221130037Criminal Justice Policy ReviewTimor et al.

research-article2022

66 Criminal Justice Policy Review 34(1)

They do not regard you as a prisoner, but as an equal. They believe in you, and you want

to improve.

—Interviewee 19, Eshel Prison

Introduction

There has been a significant expansion of personal mentoring programs for youth and

adults with behavioral problems, including those exhibiting criminal and violent

behavior over the past 20 years (e.g., Brown & Ross, 2010; Buck, 2019; DuBois &

Karcher, 2005; Nixon, 2020). Research studies examining the effect of mentoring on

the perceptions and behavior of the mentees found that there was generally a consider-

able positive impact when the program was well-organized, conducted in a consistent

manner, and closely guided (e.g., Laniado & Timor, 2015; Tolan et al., 2013).

Concomitantly, the mentors derived a wide range of benefits from their activities with

the mentees (Beltman & Schaeben, 2012; Kennett & Lomas, 2015).

Bar-Ilan University and Ashkelon Academic College have been engaged in a men-

toring program for male incarcerated persons in six prisons, three in the center and

three in the south of Israel for about 30 years. Approximately 40 male and female

criminology students in the final year of their bachelor’s degree studies visit prisons

once a week throughout the academic year to act as mentors to incarcerated persons

(approximately 150 incarcerated persons every year). They are trained to serve as

mentors for inmates in special courses at the university, where they focus on the lives

of inmates in the prison, their difficulties, their functioning, the rehabilitation pro-

grams in the prison, and their relationships with the wardens. It is worth noting that

this structured program, in which students mentor incarcerated persons in Israel every

year on a regular basis, is the only one of its kind in Israel.

This study was conducted by three criminologists engaged in teaching and guiding

students who served as mentors for incarcerated persons. Its purpose is to examine the

contribution of the mentoring activity according to the incarcerated persons’ opinions,

including the effect of the program on incarcerated persons’ perceptions, attitudes, and

behavior. The assumption is that the program can make a significant contribution to

changing incarcerated persons’ worldview and perhaps reducing their criminal behavior.

We made efforts to ensure that the role of the students was confined to mentoring and that

they did not duplicate the work of the prison staff. Participation in this independent men-

toring program is naturally not linked to sentence planning or release prospects, and incar-

cerated person participation or otherwise in the program is voluntary and without

prejudice. However, the Release Committee does receive an expert opinion on the incar-

cerated person’s general conduct in prison, and participation in the program is the out-

come of the overall impression gained on the incarcerated person’s positive functioning.

Contribution of Mentoring Programs

Mentoring has been defined as a “one-to-one lenient relationship. An individual (men-

tor) gives time to support and encourage another (mentee)” (Her Majesty’s Prison and