As part of our continuing efforts to augment our strategies for helping individuals avoid the life that leads to prison, we have recently implemented an initiative to match volunteer mentors with children who have a parent incarcerated.

          This service is sorely needed as 7.3 million children have an incarcerated parent, and if current trends do not abate, nearly 70 percent of these children will become incarcerated themselves. Mentoring has been demonstrated to be an effective intervention for at-risk youth, as children in mentoring relationships have improved attendance in school, less drug and alcohol use, improved attitudes toward adults, and demonstrate fewer incidences of violent behavior.