Assisting and Supporting Women Released from Prison: Is Mentoring the Answer?

Abstract

Mentoring is widely regarded as a positive form of post-prison support for women. Yet our data from a Victorian study of mentoring reveal that many women drop out early in the mentoring experience: many prior even to meeting their mentor in prison and as many as half directly upon release. This article therefore considers the question of the suitability of mentoring. It asks why mentoring seems ‘right’ for some women and not others and reports the characteristics and opinions of women for whom mentoring was a good option. Finally, it considers the contemporary environment of post-release support and programming, observing the increasing fragmentation of support services for women amid contin..