Intergrading Mentorship in Juvenile Justice
The history documenting the vicissitudes of policy makers and scholars; each attempting to identify and develop creative methods to lower recidivism throughout the United States is often seen and felt within today’s field of juvenile corrections. Historically, juvenile detention centers “all over the country concern about keeping children out of jail and providing better facilities for care in detention” (Designs and Functions of the Juvenile Detention Center,1945). While previous movements and change such as the “inauguration of probation as a device for dealing with offenders” (Dunham, 1958) displays as a sample of the vigorous efforts of concerned individuals to manage wayward adolescence, these …show more content…
The mentorship program should be tailored around highly regarded, knowledgeable, compassionate individuals who work or reside within the vicinity of underprivileged communities. The mentors should be socially responsible, productive and capable of assisting at risk and repeat offenders with personal development, re-examination of poor decision making, and provide guidance which will encourage the creation of law-abiding productive members of society. Mentorship, as the term itself describes, should be a process whereby the exchange amongst the mentor and mentee would be valuable to both …show more content…
The mentorship program would be initiated in the District Attorney’s office by requesting mentors who are past offenders be afforded the opportunity to be granted either dismissal of charges, community service hours, financial assistance with satisfying restitution or a combination the three. Secondly, both mentors and mentee will each be placed under strict scrutiny to identify personal attributes of an effective mentee / mentor, to ensure participants are not only effective but also has the ability to encourage a safe environment. Key prerequisites attributes of effective mentors / mentees