Children of Incarcerated Parents

Table 5:
Number of Matches, Mentors, and Mentees
Number
Percentage
Total Number of Matches 556 —
Number of Active Matches 312 56%
Number of Terminated Matches 244 44%
Number terminated before less than a year 165 30%
Number ended after completing a year or longer 79 14%
Total Number of Mentors 482 —
Number of Active Mentors 294 61%
Number who have had more than one match 70 14%
Total Number of Mentees 517 —
Number of Active Mentees 309 60%
Number who have been re-matched 38 7%
Source: Amachi Year Longitudinal Report, April 1, 2001-March 31, 2003.
HOW LONG HAVE THE RELATIONSHIPS LASTED
—AND WHY DID SOME END?
Despite the sometimes intensified challenges involved in mentoring children
of incarcerated parents, a high percentage of Amachi matches have remained
active over time. Of the 556 mentor-child matches created from April 2001
through March 2003, 312 matches, or 56 percent, were active as of the end of
March 2003. (See Table 5.) Of those, 189 have already been meeting for 12
months or longer.
An additional 244 matches have ended. In 79 of those cases, volunteers fulfilled
their commitment to mentor for at least a year and then elected not to
continue with the relationship. Many of those matches lasted longer than 12
months. In fact, more than one-third of them lasted for 18 months or longer.
The remaining 165 matches—or 30 percent of the matches overall—terminated
in less than 12 months. As Table 6 illustrates, the majority of those
matches ended because of circumstances surrounding the children, and it suggests
the extent to which many of their lives are marked by complications and
disruptions. In some cases, those circumstances are unique to the children
involved in Amachi.
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AMACHI