Speakers at a meeting described a collaboration with the Utah Department of Corrections aimed at lowering the state’s recidivism rate, saying mentors begin working with people while they are still incarcerated and help plan for reentry, housing, employment and reunification.

Supporters said the program pairs incarcerated people with volunteer mentors who help develop individualized reentry plans and provide guidance on housing, livable-wage employment and reconnecting with family. “There is a beautiful, beautiful collaboration coming together. The Utah Department of Corrections wants help. They wanna lower the recidivism rate,” Commenter 1 said.

Proponents framed the work as addressing underlying trauma and addiction as a path to reducing repeat offenses. “When people get to heal the trauma of their childhood, when they get to heal their brains and their hearts from the traumas that they've suffered, They don't need to self medicate with addiction anymore, and we help them find safe housing and livable wage employment. We help them reunify with their children, and we help them open doors that they didn't know were open to them anymore,” Commenter 1 said.

Speakers described mentoring that begins during incarceration: planning for reentry “happens the moment you enter prison,” one commenter said, and mentors “can help you fine tune that plan.” Commenter 4, who identified himself as an executive director, described his personal trajectory from long-term addiction to prison and then into nonprofit leadership and said the experience motivates him to mentor others: “To go from being an addict for 20 years to being in prison to getting a safe place to stay and now being an executive director of an organization. And so for me that just gives me hope that I can do that for someone else.”

Commenters emphasized that mentoring offers hope and practical supports but did not describe any formal changes in policy or funding during the meeting. Organizers said the mentoring relationship is intended to begin inside correctional facilities and continue after release, but specifics about program size, funding sources and formal roles for the Utah Department of Corrections were not specified in the remarks.

Speakers urged eligible people to seek classes and caseworkers and described mentors as a single-person support model: “1 mentor at a time, let us walk you out of here,” one commenter said. No motions, votes or formal actions were recorded in the transcript segment.