Gender and (Fictive) Family in a Women's Post-Incarceration Mentoring Program

Abstract

Mentoring programs have become a popular tool of social support to facilitate post-incarceration re-entry. Still, we have a limited understanding of the fundamental aspects within mentor-mentee relationships that create a support network, particularly for women with troubled relationships with biological family. Through interviews with mentors and mentees, we examined key domains of women's relationships with mentors to identify the potential and limitations of voluntary organizations in supporting the transition from prison to the community. We found that mentoring relationships, constructed as fictive kinships, helped formerly incarcerated women build a support network. Yet, navigating mentor-mentee relationships was complex given the dyadic familial-like nature and the hierarchical power dynamic.