I worked in a prison, AMA!

[Youarestillintherunning]

I worked in a prison for young offenders (16-18) for two years, then moved to a secure training centre for 12-18 year olds, then a secure residential children's home. I now work in a completely different office based job. Ama!

I've just stumbled across someone's Facebook who I know through mutual friends. Their Facebook is wide open so allows me to have a late night stalking/snooping. Their girlfriend is currently in prison and he is going on about a "throw". Seems that he flings stuff over a wall in copper pipes or something. Surely the guards would notice or people on the street? I even imagine there is cctv all around?!
So my question is, does this go on or is this all bullshit talk? I can't believe the wide open talk about it for anyone to see which makes me think it's all talk.

Is there hope of rehabilitation in them when they are younger or are they led astray by being locked up together? I'd imagine at that age they are easily influenced if already coming from a troubled background.

@ShopingBasket, in adult prisons yes it absolutely does happen. There is CCTV, but like in most places, it often isn't reviewed unless there is an incident. In the prison I worked at, the CCTV in the meeting rooms was for show except in one room, and didn't actually work. The funding (for something as basic as CCTV) just wasn't there. We had a pregnant member of staff, so when she had meetings we always had to make sure it was booked in the room with the working cctv. In my experience, drugs/weapons/phones were usually brought in by by 'prison wallet' (their bottom) or by parents smuggling things in during visitation. Also, we had some young people who were eligible for release on temporary license for things like college, apprenticeships etc who would sometimes bring things back in with them. It's awful to say, but depending on how many staff were available that day, and how busy they were would determine if there was a body search or not.

With rehabilitation, there was good talk about it. We had probably 5 or 6 different programmes related to drug use, gang involvement, driving offences etc as well as normal education which took place each day. The issue, is that most young offenders receive short sentences that are supposed to be short enough that they aren't institutionalised, but long enough to shock them. It means that there often isn't enough time for them do actually do the rehabilitation programmes, especially as each one had a long waiting list. The ones who had longer sentences weren't a priority to get in the courses, as they had longer to be able to do it. It meant that lots of kids only ended up doing a couple of weeks of each course. And sadly, you would see the same kids coming back every few months.

@luckycharmsforbrekky. You are completely spot on! It's so sad, but particularly a lot of the higher up members of staff who were on pretty good wages for things like 'unsociable hours' would do their best to avoid actually interacting with the children. For some people it's just a job. In my experience, the best staff were the ones who were doing it because they themselves had been in homes growing up, or had difficult childhoods and chose this line of work to support others in the same position as them. Some staff forget that even though its a job for them, for these children it is their actual life.

Do you think the current system works? If not, what could reasonably be done to improve it?

Do many of the children have trauma in their background? Is that supported (counselling etc?)

I cant imagine being locked up as a child and how that doesn't damage them further (and I do realise some of them have done awful things, I'm aware of friend of friend who was from a young age pretty much ti keep public safe.)

How does "prison wallet" work? I thought every prisoner was strip-searched upon arrival and/or scanned by some kind of chair scanner?

If you were going to reform the prison system for under 21s, what would you do? Would you actually have a system that imprisons children and young people in the first place?

@Twilightstarbright no, I don't think the system works at all. They are primarily children, and when they are in a secure institution that is completely forgotten. Of course, security is (and should be) a matter of priority. But there needs to be much more emphasis on creating positive relationships with these young people. Basic needs, like access to education aren't met, either because there isn't enough staff or because the kids are too scared to come out of their cell because of gang issues. Instead of being supported, the kids are then penalised for not attending education. Then when released, they go straight back to the same home situation which led to them coming to us in the first place. I really don't know what the answer is. Proper funding? More staff that are trained in how to deal with vulnerable children? Some kind of support system for when they are released from prison?

@L1ttleSeahorse it would be more rare to come across a child that didn't have a traumatic background. I can only think of one case where the young person had come from a stable home in a normal environment, no gang involvement or drug use etc, was attending college. I remember thinking at the time how strange it was. There was in-house psychologists at the prison (a team of 4 people!) Most of the young people didn't want to engage with them, one of their biggest fears in prison is looking vulnerable, and the meeting rooms had big windows for officers to be able to look in. Of course, this means that the other young people can look in too, and see you sitting with a psychologist. Of the kids that did agree to speak with the psychologists, as there were only 4 of them for almost 300 young people, they had very limited access to them. Sometimes the psychologists would speak to them through their doors for a few minutes to check in if there weren't enough staff to get the young person out of their cell that afternoon (very strict ratio, often not enough uniformed officers on shift, only uniformed officers can restrain if needed). This wasn't particularly helpful, as all of the other young people in the cells next to them could hear what was being said.

Gosh that's really sad. They are children for whom family, and then society has failed them.

Its not a suprise it doesn't "work" is it?

@daretodenim most young people are strip searched and put on the 'boss chair' when they first arrive, or come back from court. If something is seen, they are put into a special solitary cell, with a toilet with a collection bowl beneath until they have "passed" whatever they had on them. Depending on staffing levels, and any other incidents that are going on, the officers might go with just a pat down and looking inside of shoes and waistbands. The visitors can't be stripsearched unless we have a particular reason (I.e seeing them tuck something into their clothes before coming in). Stripsearching isn't something that's routinely done in the prison, only if something has been seen that would suggest they have something on them.

@daretodenim. I have very mixed feelings about imprisoning under 18s, in my experience it doesn't help. There aren't the resources or staff available to rehabilitate them. But at the same time, some of them really NEED to be in a secure institution, they are not safe on the streets. I don't know what the resolution would be, as I said to someone else, more staff that are trained in how to deal with vulnerable young people, more funding, some kind of support for when they are released. I also think their time time in prison should be restorative based, and actually doing something. In the secure training centre I worked in, the kids had access to a garden which they maintained and grew their own vegetables for dinner which was really great for them.

@L1ttleSeahorse, yes it's so sad. That's why I had to leave in the end. Emotionally, it was too much for me. I couldn't turn off at the end of a shift, and would end up sitting at home crying. Some of the officers were not fit to be near children or vulnerable people at all. It got to a point where I felt too small, and that nothing I did would make a difference. I felt so much frustration for the kids at their families (or lack of). Some of the kids preferred being in prison to being at home.

It's such a shame that you had to leave - I totally understand why though! The system seems designed to break people who care and want to make a difference to the lives of vulnerable children. Thinking about what you've said, there should be a very high level of training required to look after some of society's most traumatised and vulnerable children. But if society wanted to help these kids, they likely wouldn't have ended up in prison in the first place, because we'd have systems in place (with adequate funding), to support them and their families.

Do you think prisons should be single sex?

@daretodenim exactly! You are so right. The requirements to work with these children are passing the vetting standards and willing to do it... nothing else. And these are some of the most vulnerable, damaged children in our society. It's just soul crushing after a while, because as one person there is only so much you can do. Especially as it seems that all of the rules are against you. When I was working at the residential children's home, there was a 13 year old girl that I built a strong positive relationship with. Her family never wanted to visit her, us staff were all she had really. She hugged me at the end of one of my shifts, and I hugged her back (from the side, and in front of the other staff on shift) and I was given a formal warning the next day for my behaviour. It seemed insane to me!! Children need positive, safe touch imo. How can we be proper guardians and nurture these kids if we are supposed to punish them if they try to touch us?

@Mn753 absolutely yes. Issues with child sexual exploitation were massive, especially with the young girls I have worked with.

Thanks, I have a background in social services and agree 100% however some young male friends of mine with zero experience of the real world think I'm a right wing bigot for suggesting it's important.

@daretodenim, I should add, that I wouldn't have tried to hug a young person first ever. It could be a massive trigger for them. And if we were alone I also would have been upfront about why it isn't appropriate. Which is part of how I would teach 'safe touch' to a young person. But in the circumstances, where we were in a room full of staff I was absolutely shocked to be pulled up on it! Especially as the managers seemed to encourage a "family like" feel to the home.

@Mn753 in the residential home I worked in it was mixed sex. We had two girls who has experienced extreme cse and sexual abuse, and then a boy was placed in. The behavioural issues went through the roof, with the girls trying to run away from the placement, self-harm, constant allenegations etc, and it's because those girls has felt safe for the first time in a long time at the home, and then a boy was thrown into the mix so the girls acted out because they didn't know how to express how they were feeling. After that, we decided to make it a girls home only! It is so important, and 100% should be taken into consideration when looking at a child's history

Also, I apologise for all of the typos. I get really passionate when discussing this, and start furiously typing to get all of my thoughts out 😅

To what extent do you feel that undiagnosed disabilities underlie the reasons that children are imprisoned? For instance, ASC/ADHD/learning disabilities? Of the adults in prison, it is presumed to be high. It feels that if we are more ‘switched on’ about trying to diagnosed and support children at an early age, this could be really helpful. I am thinking also of speech and language issues that are difficult to identify to most.

I work with what would be described as ‘chaotic’ families and I can see generations of disabilities that I feel are unidentified. Adding trauma into the mix and an education system that allows children to fall through the cracks, it feels like we are missing many opportunities to support children before they get to the stage of being in a home.

@imip I'm not sure to be honest with you, it's not something that I have much experience in. I can imagine that for some young people it is an issue though, as countless kids that came into the prison had never really attended basic dental check ups or doctors ever before! So I would imagine that any underlying disabilities wouldn't have been picked up either

@imip adding to this, you're right in that a lot of them wouldn't have ever attended regular education, so it's unlikely that anything would have been identified there either. I do agree that early intervention and support for the whole family would prevent a lot of young people from coming into secure institutions

Yes, it feels such a shame. I imagine the journey for many begins with exclusions from school and at that point I feel like any hidden disability should be investigated. I guess if you were unaware of it at work, it is an overlooked area? Would the children you work with have a level of education in line with other children their age?