The mentoring of offenders is one of the most promising pathways to rehabilitation in today’s Criminal Justice System. It is about to move from the margins of rehabilitation practice to the mainstream of national policy, thanks to recent developments in the government’s strategy for Transforming Rehabilitation (TR). Although mentoring is an idea whose time has come, it has so far been poorly defined and erratically implemented. Mentoring is a fuzzy concept which is in fashion but short of facts.

This report attempts to portray various types and forms of mentoring now being used within the criminal justice system. It has tried to learn lessons and draw conclusions from what is happening across the spectrum of mentoring activity. Out of this spectrum it is possible to identify examples and themes which constitute best practice. Once these are understood and implemented in the new TR strategy, it is argued that the present free-for-all could be replaced by a coherent plan for more effective mentoring in all the geographical areas administrated by the new Community Rehabilitation Companies