To think that female prison officers who fall in love with inmates are idiots?

If they're of naive tendencies then it’s perfectly plausible a manipulative sociopathic narcissist inmate could be charming enough to lure them into their lair. It’s not an excuse but let’s not forget prison isn’t full of mingers, good looking criminals do exist.

They all receive corruption training so yes its not that simple. There a lot of factors which make someone vulnerable to this (individual, along with the culture) and in the current state of the service, there is minimal proper selection. Warning signs once in post are not picked up. I agree that the age should not be as low as it is. I also have little sympathy for the male officers trafficking in drugs for money, which also absolutely happens. I work in a prison in a non operational but prisoner facing role and these things impact us all reputationally, the vast majority of us would never even contemplate it.

I think that people who join to be a prison officer anyway can't be doing it for the love of justice

I just assume a lot of sign ups are connected to the criminals

Yup. They make their own decisions and need to live with the consequences.

I’m all for men guarding men and women only guarding women.

You're being disgenuous.

That's not to say that women don't abuse their positions, they obviously do but whichever way you look at it and however you look at it, male/female and female/male relationships are a lot different.

It poses some obvious problems, but we're not really in a choice based situation when it comes to recruitment to work in prisons. They are not popular jobs.

Nonsense. And you should know they are officers not “guards”. How insulting and patronising

Because of course women can not make decisions for themselves and all women are helpless and vulnerable. Women make stupid decisions as do men. Saying women are vulnerable is just confirming that they think women are weaker than men and are not equal

same could be said about a 21 year old female teacher that has had sex with her pupil. Is she thinking with the heart? Surely she’ll have the upper hand and being in a position of power.

What age does she stop being vulnerable? Could be the same as her working in the office and ends up shagging her boss or coworker. You make choices and need to act accountable.

We need to stop infantilising women. It was the same on the drug mule thread. Always a big bad man in the background making the women unable to follow the law.

It’s well known that women fall for dangerous men. Documented throughout history.

This! Not every 21 year old is some vulnerable little lamb. Is the same with teachers who have sex (rape) their students. Males get a much harsher sentence than females. That footballer Adam Johnson had sexual activity with a 15 year old, not full sex but was sentence to 6 years in prison. A actual female teacher had sex with a minor and got a much lower sentence.

Someone recently explained it to me like this. You can be permanently vulnerable. When something about you means you are a target. Like a limiting disability. Or temporarily. Like you just got off a plane in a country you haven’t been to, stressed, alone and jet lagged. A female 21 yo in a male prison is the second.

There is a difference between the sexes in this case, I think. Anyone who’s worked in the prison system knows that women in prison tend to be among the most vulnerable in society, and very often have been victims of domestic and/ or sexual abuse. Many men in prison are vulnerable too, of course, but they’re also overwhelmingly more likely to have been convicted of a violent or sexual offence than a female inmate (you can look up the statistics). So the power dynamics are not quite the same if you reverse the sexes.

22 year old are adults, naive? Perhaps but she isn’t vulnerable.

Jesus, the one trying to get pregnant by a rapist? What the hell.

There’s a documentary on Netflix about a case in the US where a female prison officer (who had been a model employee for 20+ years) falls for a dangerous criminal and breaks him out of prison and they go in the run. Unsurprisingly, it didn’t end well for her.

Apparently Levi Belfield received loads of female fan letters, including some raunchy pictures - despite him being a multiple murderer and looking like a potato.

Ted Bundy married a woman while he was on death row for the rape and murder of dozens on women, so did Charles Manson.

There must be something in it for these women - do they want to rescue them or something?

I think anyone male/female who does this is an idiot and should have repercussions.

On the whole I think they are sad and lacking in self esteem

Yanbu at all but people get themselves in all kinds of stupid positions for love, or lust, or the feeling of being wanted and desired. Those feelings are pretty intoxicating for everyone and I guess not all inmates are bad people.

I’m not sure prisons should work in such a way that wardens are able to find enough time to be intimate with prisoners. I’m also not sure that young attractive women are the best choice for working with young criminals.

I have no experience, but I'd assume they must have some pretty difficult MH issues.