1. Peer mentoring in criminal justice: possibilities and perils
Dr Gillian Buck, July 2017

2. Peer mentoring
When people with the same shared experience provide help to each other… supporting people with specific or multiple needs to provide practical advice and guidance (Clinks, 2012: 8).
Arnstein’s Ladder (1971)

3. There are roles for offenders acting as mentors… Each NOMS region is delivering mentoring as part of programme delivery (Ministry of Justice, 2011).
When someone leaves prison, I want them already to have a mentor in place to help them get their lives back together… Often it will be the former offender gone straight who is best to steer the young prisoner back onto the straight and narrow (Justice Minister, November 2012).

4. Early indications
65% of offenders under the age of 25 said that having the support of a mentor would help them to stop re-offending; 71% said they would like a mentor who is a former offender (Princes Trust, 2008: 3).
Peer supported “‘Through the gates’ clients’ re-offending rate is 40% lower than the national re-offending rate” (Frontier Economics 2009:15)
The reconviction rate for WIRE [female ex-offender led service] participants was 42%, against 51% for the national average for women offenders” (The Social Innovation Partnership 2012:5).

5. The study People subject to probation Women seeking employment
People who went to prison after growing up in care
Young women identified as at risk of gang exploitation

6. The core conditions of peer mentoring Easing the terror of change
Mentors can inspire

7. Mentors as inspiration
I wanted to feel the way they did, they weren’t beaming out happiness, but they weren’t sad, they was that content in their life they were offering to other people, to help them and I wanted to be able to do that
(Georgie, Mentee).
If I’m looking to deter people from crime, I’ve got to be that positive change, make them know that I’ve made it... It wasn’t easy, but look what I’ve done. I’ve got to inspire people (Keisha, Mentor).

8. Mentors as inspiration
Mimetic desire (Girard, 1962). We desire what we see others desire, and if we admire other people, our desire for what they want is all the sharper (Hull, 2008).

9. Mentors as inspiration
Mentors are positioned as “role models” (Finnegan et al. 2010; Kavanagh and Borrill 2013; Parkin and McKeganey 2000). Offenders are more likely to relate to a mentor who has previously been in prison (Princes Trust, 2008:4). Routes out of Prison project uses ex-offenders to mentor precisely because they have the credibility that statutory agencies don’t often have (Nellis and McNeill 2008:xi).

10. Inspired to give
[My mentor] is now working for probation; I’d like to do that. I’d love to work with ex-offenders and people with drug problems, cos who’s the best person to talk to? Someone who’s been there and done it. I’d like to do something like that (Don, Mentee).

11. Subtle desistance benefits
Real reintegration requires more than physical re-entry… ‘earning’ one’s place back in the moral community (Uggen and Janikula, 1999).
Mentees can reframe their past in new ways, distinguishing between the ‘old me’ and the ‘real me’, using past to help others (Burnett and Maruna 2006:94).

12. The myth of readiness
They’ve got to want to do it, no point you being given a mentor if you don’t want the help (Fiona, Mentee) If you don’t want to help yourself no-one can help you, can they? It’s nice to have that kick up the backside, but if you’re not going to do it yourself man you’re not going to do it are ya? (Paul, Mentee)

13. Individuals and models
The first stage in desistance is a wish to try and change one’s life, yet this may not be a “rational” or conscious decision, but gradual, sometimes spurred by outside events (Shapland and Bottoms, 2011).
I didn’t think I was gonna get anything out of it. I just thought it would be someone talking to me for four appointments, then sending me on way. ‘Cos it can be like that sometimes when you get these Court orders. But it’s not like that… I think it’s the fact that I’ve had help there, but I wanted it myself as well (Paul, Mentee)

14. Smoothing the road to leaving crime behind
People attempting to desist often experience a period of crisis, characterized by practical and personal losses.
Peer mentors may alleviate the crisis, by providing a blueprint of change, while appearing to be non-authoritarian.
This is important as mentees often feel untethered from known ways of being and describe interactions with authority figures as embattled.

15. (Roy, Prison Peer Group Member).
Fear and the unknown
Coming off drugs, stopping grafting, it’s not easy, it frightens me. I have nothing. I ‘been alcoholic since I was thirteen (Don, Mentee).
The actual word ‘change’ used to terrify me, I used to be coming out of prison thinking ‘what am I going to do?’ Because I didn’t have any mates… (Steve, Mentor and previously a Mentee).
My decision [to change] was not overnight, I was in high security at the time. I was involved in a lot of gang violence. I’d had enough, I put my own safety at risk, I had my face cut open[points to visible scar] I didn’t retaliate. It’s a tug of war between the person I used to be and the person I want to be ... I’ve got fears, I don’t know society there today [after 10 years in prison] I get out there, nothing…
(Roy, Prison Peer Group Member).

16. Fears of authority
I’ve been in and out of jail since I saw authority as the enemy (Roy, Prison Peer Group Member). My old mentor got me a flat ... they said stop all the shoplifting, drug use – my mentor said don’t give them [the housing providers] any ammunition (Don, Mentee). [Going straight], for me, is something that could be done to have no criminal record, I feel a little bit that it hangs over me like a sword (Gina, Mentee).

17. Quelling fears
Seeing the change helps you to not be scared of change, because a lot of people are ... you don’t feel like you are going it alone, because people have gone there before you ... It’s not like there’s somebody in a suit saying ‘she’s said this and said that’. They have more of an understanding where you are psychologically if you know what I mean? (Lin, Mentor and previously a Mentee).
I think they see us differently because obviously I have no authority, I make that clear. I’m just another person who came here, it helped me and I’ve gone through the same, going through the other side. Yeah so... instead of being a paid person from a university or... (Ben, Mentor).

18. Caring Listening Taking small steps
Core Conditions
Caring Listening Taking small steps

19. They make you feel like you are their only priority, and they’re just here to help you, and that makes you feel good… There is somebody out there who genuinely cares (Janet, Mentee). I’d be crying my eyes out. She’d give me a few cuddles, I don’t know if they should do that or not, but it was what I needed at the time and I was dead happy. I’d feel a whole new lease of life (Georgie, Mentee). Are they sessions? I just go boxing, I’ve got it this afternoon, have a hug; ‘what’ve you been up to?’ I don’t know, I wouldn’t call it a session (laugh) (Will, Mentee).

20. Listening
If we are to have an informed, effective strategy and approach to deal with the problems of crime [we] must relate, listen to and understand those who are being processed by the ever widening and more punitive criminal justice system (Burke, 2007: 317).
[They] don’t take into account a care experience, but… 25% plus in the prison system can say ‘yes I was in care’… It’s fundamental to a person’s progress, throughout the rest of their life, to engage with some of those issues that have led to them feeling so fragile, so alienated, so detached from everything that can possibly support them… So we use the idea of mentoring, of user perspective (Lol, Mentoring Coordinator).

21. I have met mentors that do a lot of the talking, and forget they’re actually there to listen, so I think listening is equally as important as being able to offer, actually listening is offering (Phil, Mentor). I’d say the main [skill] was being able to listen, because people who come to probation have a lot of problems that they need to get off their chest. I do feel comfortable telling [mentors] most family problems, or problems that I have with myself, cos they don’t criticise you, they listen (Paul, Mentee).

22. I think that setting little goals is what gets people going (John, Mentor) [My mentor]… used to say: ‘Right, one thing at a time, let’s go and deal with this’ … If you’re feeling vulnerable, it takes a little something to knock you over edge, commit crime, take drugs, or treat somebody how you shouldn’t be treating them, and I think mentoring just takes that edge off (Georgie, Mentee).

23. Hope and hopefulness are important factors… helping the individual to recognise possibilities… the worker needs to persist and maintain hope through lapses and relapses (McNeill and Weaver, 2010: 8)
Change is not going to happen in a day is it? Rome wasn’t built in a day. I'm going to take time, there is bound to be them slip ups. But most of the time they just seem to be understanding about it (Paul, mentee). If I have scored [taken drugs] they say ‘don’t worry, what set it off’ (Don, mentee).

24. I failed loads of times in my life
I failed loads of times in my life. I’d say I’ve failed but then I’ve got up… People won’t go straight just like that, they’ll have their up and downs, but I think having a mentor will support them and show them that you’re not giving up on them. And even if they do go off the rails a bit, [they’ll] think: ‘well I won’t do that because she’s still there for me’ (Julie, Mentor).

25. Potentials for social work?
Peer support groups in prisons
Concerned others
Child sexual exploitation (Buck, Lawrence and Ragonese, forthcoming)
Women released from prison (Brown & Ross, 2010)
Young people in trouble (Pitts, 2006)
Child welfare (Berrick et al., 2011; Rockhill et al., 2015)
Prostitution survivors (Hotaling et al., 2004)
Domestic abuse (Taft et al., 2011; McFarlane & Wiist, 1997)…

26. Pitfalls
The urge to imitate is very strong, since it opens up possibilities of bettering the competition. But the urge not to imitate is also very strong (Girard 1991:240).
“How can he help me? I’ve burgled houses with him!” (Peer group member).
Some say about [mentor name], he’s a fucking nob working here. They know him, know what he was like, he used to run everything round here, now he’s working for probation, it can put some people off. I know a few, they say: “You’ll never guess who they want me to go and see? He’s telling me after what he’s done! ” (Don, Mentee)

27. Georgie: I feel it’s deeper, my stuff now…
Needing more
Georgie: I feel it’s deeper, my stuff now…
Interviewer: So the mentor was able to take you so far, introduce to process of talking and healing…?
Georgie: Yes, but I think I need some Counselling or something… If Alcoholics Anonymous would have been introduced to me two years ago I’d be straight now (Georgie, Mentee).

28. The costs of caring
[W]here commitment to the client is made central… the worker sells her personality as an integral part of her own labour power. It takes the form of emotional labour, and this emotion work brings its own costs (Colley, 2001: 188).
I spoke, tears, in [peer] group. I was confident, comfortable… Social worker, foster carer, they’re all seeing pounds. I’m not sure I’ll ever see from their point of view. All about money, not care and love, the child’s needs (James, Prison Peer Group Member).

29. I actually spoke to [the coordinator] and said ‘look, I don’t want to do the talks anymore. I’m getting bored, I’m sick of people hearing about my life, let’s hear about somebody else’s’, but they say: ‘it’s because you’re an inspiration, from what you’ve been through and then you’ve come out and done all this, really positive about stuff’, even though they have seen me… living with my manic depression, up and down (Cat, Mentor).
We know only too well how prison establishments think in goals, you can have a million success stories but one failure and that’s enough to shut down that peer mentoring (Phil, Mentor).

30. Conclusion
Mentors can inspire… Can make the difficult process of personal change seem more manageable… And employ core values which illuminate the limits of disciplinary approaches… Yet this is not a panacea… Peer practice knowledge hub

31. Related reading
Buck, G., Lawrence, A. & Ragonese, E. (forthcoming). Exploring peer mentoring as a form of innovative practice with young people at risk of sexual exploitation. British Journal of Social Work.
Buck, G. (2017). The core conditions of peer mentoring. Criminology and Criminal Justice. Online first.
Buck, G. (2016a). ‘I wanted to feel the way they did’: Mimesis as a situational dynamic of peer mentoring by ex-offenders. Deviant Behavior. Vol. 38 (9) pp
Buck, G. (2016b). ‘It’s a tug of war between the person I used to be and the person I want to be’: The terror, complexity and limits of leaving crime behind. Illness, Crisis and Loss. Online first.
Buck, G., Corcoran, M. S. and Worrall, A. (2015). ‘Gendered dynamics of Mentoring’, in Annison, J., Brayford, J. & Deering, J. (Eds.) Women and Criminal Justice: From the Corston Report to Transforming Rehabilitation. Bristol: Policy Press.
Gosling, H and Buck, G. (2015). Mentoring: crossing boundaries with care? Criminal Justice Matters, March 2015: Vol. 99 (1) pp
Buck, G (2014) ‘Civic Re-engagements among Former Prisoners’. Prison Service Journal, July 2014: No.14.