These resources focus on the use of volunteers in criminal justice and correctional settings. Volunteers can and do provide a variety of services within state and local correctional systems.
Bureau of Prisons (BOP): Volunteer Opportunities
The involvement of volunteers in correctional facilities and community programs plays a significant role in rehabilitation, education, and reintegration efforts. Volunteers contribute to various services, including mentoring, programs, educational initiatives, and reentry support, which have been shown to reduce recidivism rates and enhance institutional morale.
First Step Act Volunteer Programs
When incarcerated people transition from institutions to Residential Reentry Centers (RRCs) or back home, they must readjust to life in their community and find employment. Volunteers play an important part in teaching them new skills, providing strong guidance, and promoting accountability to make their transitions easier and to help them succeed.
Volunteering in Prisons: A Systematic Review and Narrative Synthesis
Individuals from the community who volunteer within prisons are an understudied population, despite previous research indicating the increase in involvement of the penal voluntary sector and benefits to both prisons and prisoners from effective implementation of volunteer programs.
Peer Mentors as Prison Volunteers: Building Bridges Between Institutions and Communities
One creative way that Departments of Corrections offset costs is by relying on volunteers. Prison volunteers are a heterogeneous group, who provide various programs to incarcerated populations. One unique subset of prison volunteers are peer mentors, who are individuals who have experienced criminal justice interventions and have desisted from criminal activities.
