The Connection Between Mental Health and Desistance

At The Reasons Why Foundation, we have met many individuals who are not only grappling with the practical challenges of rebuilding their lives after prison but who are also carrying deep emotional and psychological wounds. These wounds, often inflicted long before a crime was committed, can remain unhealed, even after a sentence has been served. Understanding the link between mental health and desistance from crime is not just about statistics or service design. It’s about recognising the humanity in each person and providing the kind of consistent, relational support that enables long-term change.

In this post, we explore how mental health shapes the journey of desistance, how people stop offending and build new lives, and why trauma-informed mentoring is a critical bridge between the two.

What Is Desistance?

Desistance refers to the process by which people cease engaging in criminal behaviour. It is not usually a single event but a gradual shift in identity, circumstances, and relationships. Research has long shown that desistance is influenced by a range of factors including age, employment, relationships, and personal transformation (Maruna, 2001; Farrall, 2002).

Crucially, desistance is not something that is “done to” people, it is a process individuals undertake themselves. However, supportive environments, role models, and mental health stability can make the difference between relapse and recovery, between giving up and moving forward.

Mental Health and the Criminal Justice System

The connection between mental health and offending is well-documented. The Prison Reform Trust (2021) reports that 70% of prisoners in the UK have one or more mental health conditions, and nearly half have attempted suicide at some point. Depression, anxiety, PTSD, and complex trauma are widespread, particularly among those with histories of childhood abuse, neglect, or time spent in care.

Unfortunately, the system is often ill-equipped to respond in a way that promotes healing. Many people with unmet mental health needs end up being criminalised rather than supported. The behaviour that leads to imprisonment, whether it’s aggression, impulsivity, drug use, or withdrawal, is frequently a symptom of unaddressed trauma.

For these individuals, desistance isn’t just about not reoffending. It’s about developing the emotional regulation, self-worth, and relational safety necessary to live differently.

Trauma and Its Long Shadow

To understand the link between mental health and desistance, we must understand trauma. Trauma isn’t simply about what happens to someone, it’s about what happens inside them as a result. For many ex-offenders, trauma has disrupted their ability to trust others, regulate emotions, and maintain a coherent sense of self.

Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs), such as physical abuse, domestic violence, parental separation, or substance misuse in the home, are strongly linked with later involvement in crime (Felitti et al., 1998). Trauma skews survival instincts. It wires the brain for threat detection, hypervigilance, and distrust. In this state, offending can sometimes be a form of adaptation: a way to gain control, earn status, or simply survive.

Trauma also disrupts attachment. Many people in prison have experienced disrupted caregiving relationships. This makes it difficult to form healthy attachments later in life, whether with partners, employers, or authority figures. For mentoring to be effective, it must be relationally safe and non-coercive. Trauma-informed mentoring understands this: it does not pathologise the individual, but instead provides a holding space for the development of healthier contact with others.

The Role of Mental Health in Desistance

Good mental health does not guarantee desistance, but poor mental health, especially when compounded by trauma, can make desistance far more difficult.

Here are a few key ways in which mental health affects the process:

1. Identity Formation

One of the most consistent findings in desistance research is that people who desist often develop a new sense of identity, a “redemptive narrative” in which they see themselves as more than their criminal past (Maruna, 2001). Mental health challenges such as depression, shame, or unresolved trauma can keep individuals stuck in an identity of worthlessness or failure. Without the psychological scaffolding to build a new story about who they are, desistance can feel impossible.

2. Emotional Regulation

Many people in the justice system have learned to survive through fight, flight, or freeze responses. This often results in reactive behaviour, aggression, or shutting down. Trauma-informed mentoring helps clients become aware of these patterns and begin to tolerate emotional states rather than act them out. Over time, this emotional regulation enables them to engage more consistently with services, employment, and relationships.

3. Executive Functioning

Mental health conditions and trauma can impair executive functioning, our ability to plan, focus, remember details, and manage time. This makes everyday tasks like attending appointments, maintaining employment, or complying with licence conditions extremely difficult. Without support, a person may breach conditions not through defiance, but through overwhelm. This is where trauma-informed mentors play a key role: co-regulating, scaffolding, and walking beside rather than ahead.

4. Hope and Motivation

Poor mental health can drain a person’s capacity to believe that change is possible. Hopelessness can be paralysing. A trauma-informed approach recognises that motivation fluctuates and that trust takes time. Rather than expecting immediate change, we hold hope when our clients cannot. We model what a healing relationship can look like—one that does not abandon when mistakes are made.

A Trauma-Informed Approach to Desistance

So, what does a trauma-informed mentoring service actually do differently?

1. Safety First

Before progress can be made, individuals must feel safe. This means more than just physical safety; it includes emotional and psychological safety too. Our mentors don’t jump into problem-solving. We focus first on building trust through consistency, compassion, and containment. Only when the nervous system begins to settle can new pathways to change be explored.

2. Relationship as Intervention

We recognise that many of our clients have never experienced a relationship in which they were unconditionally seen and supported. Our mentors act as co-regulators, helping individuals tolerate emotions, reflect on experiences, and test out new ways of relating. This relational depth is not a “bonus”, it is the intervention.

3. Pacing, Not Pushing

In traditional offender management, change is often measured in compliance, are they attending probation, abstaining, working? In trauma-informed work, we look for change in capacity: Can they tolerate discomfort? Reflect on triggers? Rebuild after setbacks? This requires patience. It also means recognising that regression is often part of the healing journey.

4. Empowerment Over Control

We do not “fix” people. We walk alongside them as they reclaim their power. We help them identify internal and external resources, validate their efforts, and honour their agency. Desistance is not about making someone behave better, it’s about helping them become who they are beneath the armour.

What Services and Society Must Learn

If we are serious about reducing reoffending, then we must get serious about addressing mental health, especially trauma. This does not mean pathologising ex-offenders or turning all services into therapy. It means recognising that many people leaving prison are in emotional survival mode, and until we meet them there, lasting change is unlikely.

Investment in mental health-informed mentoring services is not a luxury; it’s a necessity. Desistance is not just about stopping crime, it’s about starting life. And for that, people need more than rules. They need connection, compassion, and consistent support.

Final thought: Healing as the Foundation of Change

The road from incarceration to integration is long, and mental health plays a pivotal role in determining its success. While employment, housing, and practical support are essential, they are not enough without psychological safety and emotional healing.

At The Reasons Why Foundation, we have seen firsthand how healing relationships can be the turning point. We believe that every person—no matter their past, deserves the chance to write a new chapter. And that chance begins with recognising the deep link between mental health and desistance.

References

  • Farrall, S. (2002). Rethinking What Works with Offenders: Probation, Social Context and Desistance from Crime. Willan Publishing.
  • Felitti, V. J., Anda, R. F., Nordenberg, D., et al. (1998). Relationship of childhood abuse and household dysfunction to many of the leading causes of death in adults. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 14(4), 245–258.
  • Maruna, S. (2001). Making Good: How Ex-Convicts Reform and Rebuild Their Lives. American Psychological Association.
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