Should prisoners be mentored?

The Royal Festival Hall is hosting an exhibition with art by prisoners and ex-offenders, put together by the Koestler Trust; research has shown that mentoring schemes like this one have been proven to decrease re-offending by half.

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Do you think mentoring schemes like this one are worthwhile? Would you donate to the Koestler Trust?

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It's hard to get the ballance right between carrot and stick (I don't think there's enough stick to be honest in our prison system) but if it's shown to decrease re-offending then yes we should be doing more of this.

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A lot of people argue that prison is just a "holiday camp", but if people who are imprisoned for petty crimes are given a chance to rehabilitate to improve their self esteem, would that be of benefit to society?

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Yes, even though an element of prison should be punishment for the crimes you've been convicted of, you would hope that prisoners would come out better people than when they went in - both in terms of their skills and their attitude to existing in society.

I knew a guy who went into prison on drugs offences and said that all prison did was tool him up for being a better criminal, if anything he was better equipped for crime and a life at odds with decency than before he went in. He said it was basically a big club where criminals can exchange ideas and cheats and schemes.

I know this is just ONE guy's experience but it sounds as if more rehabilitation is needed!!

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