MENTORS SOUGHT FOR YOUNG

A Melbourne Juvenile Justice Centre chaplain wants government support for a
volunteer mentor scheme to help keep released young offenders out of trouble.

Chaplain Gerard Reed wants to expand a scheme he has run for two years in
which young volunteers regularly visit inmates at the centre to also
operate after release.

Mr Reed said juvenile offenders repeatedly say that what they lack most in
life "outside" is a stable relationship with someone other than a paid worker.

"Most of the overdoses that occur from kids out of this institution happen
in the first fortnight after they leave," he said. "Mentoring could be
pretty intensive in the first two weeks when a kid gets out, which is when
they want to go out and get a hit, or when their accommodation or work plan
is likely to fall apart."

The Catholic Social Services' social mission director and former MJJC
chaplain Karon Donnellon said newly released youths often want to "party",
making them prone to high-risk behavior without good support.

"This is exacerbated by them being often released into accommodation that
is inappropriate in that it may bring them into contact with other
offenders who have just been released and who are also looking for a good
time," Sister Donnellon said.

A mentor program could help steer offenders to express their new-found
freedom in healthy ways such as contacting family, going to the movies or
talking.

"What is needed is a mentor program that picks young people up before
they're released, so they can at least introduce them to a more socially
acceptable world," she said.

Jack (not his real name), 16, who is serving his third stint at Melbourne
Juvenile Justice Centre this time for assault and robbery "to support my
heroin habit" said he would value a mentor when he's released.

A young man with tattoo, spiked hair and muscled arms, he said his parents
were dead and he had lost contact with his brothers.

Of the proposed mentor plan he said: "It would be good if you could ring
them up, once you're on the outside, just to talk.

"If I was thinking about shooting up, maybe I could take the time, talk it
over with someone."