Address Criminogenic Needs through Correspondence-Based Mentorship Programs

What makes people more likely to commit another crime when they get out of prison?

Factors in recidivism include a lack of education and job skills, substance abuse issues, inadequate social support systems, and a history of criminal thinking patterns. Addressing these needs is crucial for reducing recidivism and ensuring successful reintegration into society.

Correspondence-based mentorship programs support efforts by corrections agencies to address criminogenic risk factors without increasing correctional staff workload. Mail-based mentorship programs can effectively foster a prosocial community within prisons by connecting incarcerated individuals with positive, encouraging role models who write to them. The impact of the letters lasts far longer than in-person mentorship programs because the letter recipients save the letters to read multiple times over months and years when they need encouragement. In addition, participants report that they share the letters with others in their units, who also find encouragement from realizing that people on the outside care about them.

In addition, mail-based correspondence mentorship fosters personal growth and prepares people in prison for life beyond bars. Through correspondence mentorship, incarcerated individuals engage in valuable introspection, guided by dedicated volunteer mentors. Of benefit to facilities, mail-based mentorship programs require significantly less time for corrections staff to monitor than in-person programs because they do not require screening or monitoring visitors inside facilities.

Tackling Criminal Thinking Patterns

A critical aspect of successful reentry is addressing criminal thinking patterns. Correspondence-based mentorship programs allow people in prison to engage in meaningful conversations with their mentors, who help them challenge negative thought processes, offer moral guidance, and encourage personal development. By fostering critical reflection and self-awareness, mentors empower incarcerated individuals to adopt alternative perspectives and make positive choices. This work supports and reinforces ongoing work within facilities to reshape thinking patterns from antisocial mindsets to prosocial perspectives and worldviews.

Introduce Crossroads at Your Facility

A correspondence prison ministry like Crossroads Prison Ministries that partners people in prison with mentors can play a significant role in addressing criminogenic needs at your facility. Crossroads Prison Ministries offers incarcerated individuals a pathway toward rehabilitation and successful reintegration into society through mentorship, instilling hope, and sowing seeds of positive change. The program includes lessons that specifically address criminal thinking and behavior, life skills, addictions, victim impact, and prosocial culture change, with the goal of developing leaders in prisons who can serve as positive peer mentors.

Since it began in 1984, Crossroads Prison Ministries has expanded to all fifty states, reaching more than 1,300 facilities and working with more than 25,000 students annually. Many graduates of the program have been recognized as leaders in their respective institutions and have successfully reintegrated into society, some even serving as Crossroads mentors themselves.

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