Is anyone a prison officer? Can you tell me about it?

[strawberrypickinginsummer]

I’m considering this as my job vanished in covid and opportunities are so limited.

I am really drawn to it. Are there many opportunities for part time? Have a very young baby. Do they offer a reasonable maternity package?

I was a prison officer for 18 years and wild horses wouldn't drag me back to that life.

You have to be able to follow a full shift pattern, 12 hour shifts, late shifts, nights and double 12 hour shifts on a weekend.

If there is an incident in the prison they can make you stay there, this happened to me so many times. Or call you in to work extra and you have no choice.

I was well paid, but that's not the case now. I have lots of friends still working in the prison system and they all say its a dangerous place now, and covid is absolutely rife in some prisons.

I'd look for something else if I was you!

OK- info about the job (I'm not a PO but work very much in the field)

You run the risk of being attacked physically or having buckets of urine and faeces thrown on you if a prisoner is disgruntled.

You may respond to a cell bell and find a prisoner having self harmed or hanged themselves.

You will deal with people at their most desperate and there isn't the time or resources to help them the way you'd like.

If you are kind and eager to help you may be manipulated and end up doing things that risk your job.

You may be pressured to bring drugs and other contraband into the prison - if you do and things go south you risk your family's safety or risk prison.

At the moment prisons are on up to 24 hour lockdown and prisoners are at the absolute limit of what they can cope with.

There are many good aspects to being a prison officer but many I know who do it for the reasons you want to do it also work in other roles.

I think from your responses you don’t have the right character to be a prison office, you taking offence at posts won’t get you very far

@Strawberrypickinginsummer you'll get put on the spot so many times in prison. If you're that defensive now, I think you'll struggle.

You won't have time to worry about the offenders, you'll spend all your time trying to stay safe.

I got 6 months full pay on maternity in 2007. Honestly, look for something else if you've got a young baby. The pay is shocking for the shit you have to put up with.

Strawberry if you cannot take a few people providing answers you do not like on an internet forum then I don't think you have the temperament to work as a prison officer.

My friend was a prison officer. She fiu d somone hanging in their cell and had ptsd after leaving not just from that.

I think there's loads of ways to work with offenders, such as a support worker, project worker, youth worker. But being a prison officer you've actively chosen to be the one with loads of power. You need to think about who you are drawn to that.

On a wing with 15 convicts? 15 TRY 200 😂😂

But yes OP you can work part time.

I am a prison officer I worked full time, recently come back to work after maternity on a job share, which is more likely than part time. You basically split your shifts in half with another officer but you normally have to sort this yourself. So I’d say it’s unlikely to start out on a job share.

@Chloemol

I think from your responses you don’t have the right character to be a prison office, you taking offence at posts won’t get you very far

That's your only contribution? Did you want to be a judge on X-factor or something?

Some of the posts are really interesting and it's a shame that we've got to wade through the posters who are just mindlessly posting with 'you're not up to it, OP', as if that actually means anything. Tedious!

You might find this article interesting, OP.

I worked in a prison for six years, but as an Education Officer, so rather different. I loved it.

@DumpedByText

I was a prison officer for 18 years and wild horses wouldn't drag me back to that life.

You have to be able to follow a full shift pattern, 12 hour shifts, late shifts, nights and double 12 hour shifts on a weekend.

If there is an incident in the prison they can make you stay there, this happened to me so many times. Or call you in to work extra and you have no choice.

I was well paid, but that's not the case now. I have lots of friends still working in the prison system and they all say its a dangerous place now, and covid is absolutely rife in some prisons.

I'd look for something else if I was you!

I've never worked in any prison but as I mentioned, I've visited quite a few and spent some time looking at the system. It's really interesting to read your post because, being a visitor, I was in a rarified atmosphere, kept well away from danger and escorted by two or three officers at any time.

I saw a few fights break out and the prison officers moved really fast to break them up and separate the men involved/move the crowd on. I can well believe that it's dangerous and I'm just wondering what has changed since the time you started working in prisons and the present time?

I don't think anybody's done an AMA on prison working but it would be fascinating to understand the role.

I worked for five years in a catergory C as a finance admin, pinphone administrator and CARATS (drug counselling) administrator.

It sucked. Badly. Honestly. I once had to spend a month being escorted everywhere because a prisoner had decided I would make an awesome stepmum to his kids and kept trying to wangle his way into my office. Another prisoner declared he was going to do nasty things to me because some random officer had pissed him off.

"David this isn’t helping me or you, is it?

Shall we draw a line? As I do feel that things have calmed down on the thread which is good."

There's no line to draw, I haven't said anything offensive or particularly tricky to you. I've given an honest account of what it is like on a landing.

What do you want in terms of help or advice about joining the prison service? That much remains unclear. I agree with posters that say you can't be so defensive in the job, it'll lead to unnecessary conflict.

"I'm just wondering what has changed since the time you started working in prisons and the present time?"

Staff to prisoner ratios and minimum staffing levels. That's what's changed.

You'll still get a response but when someone is kicking you in the head 30 seconds difference to how it used to be is a long time. 2 less staff responding means less chance of quicker control...etc

So what are good reasons for becoming a prison officer?

Good luck OP. Prison officers are always needed. I hope you get a role that suits you. I work with offenders and really enjoy it.

I passed all pre assessments to go into it last year op but in the end was offered another job and took that as better pay and conditions. I was very much warned off being a prison officer by a friend already in the service and prison I was due to go into. She said a lot about low morale, poor working conditions, long hours with lots of unexpected and often unpaid overtime, - often you’d be due to leave and there would be a sudden staff cover shortage or emergency incident meaning you had to stay on, staff numbers had been greatly reduced to the point she was starting to feel unsafe etc. She is married to another prison officer and isn’t now going back to it after having a baby recently.

I did a civilian job in the security department as a temp. I thought the work was really interesting.

The staff who worked in the prison were mentally really tough and had very strict boundaries. A lot was about crown control and maintaining your own safety. I think if you're interested in prisoner rehab type role then other civilian roles or probation might be better.

Have you thought about the police? I'm not sure if it's still as hard to get into but a lot of the people I worked with in the prison had been in the police service (and the army). It's that kinda vibe.

Useless for me, I'm a total softy.

Not sure if the OP is still interested in the role but I’ll give some free advice and I’m a newbie, only been in a year.
Prison officer comes from all walks of life. I joined with people in their 50s and people aged 20.
The job itself is challenging. No two ways about it. You will be verbally abused, perhaps even physically. People in prison are there for a reason and some are from very damaged backgrounds.
Suicides do happen now and again but self harm is very common.
Your training may involve you training away from home meaning you’ll need to stay there. You’d have to factor this in if you have children, or a family.
You’ll work 37 hour shifts a week, not including tea breaks. This is a 24/7 job and yes you may have to work Christmas and New year. You may miss other important dates, but you can book leave, apart for the Christmas period where everyone is expected to work when told. You can sway with colleagues.
As for part time, this is down to the needs of your jail and you won’t be able to do this as soon as you join. But there are staff who do work part time.
The training doesn’t prepare you for the realities of working in a prison, you won’t know if it’s for you until you try it.
There are different types of jails, including females and young offenders.

I've just passed the assessments to go in for a prison officer, I've also applied to be an operational grade aswell. I have 3 children and my youngest is 5 months old. I graduated from uni last year with a Criminology degree and my actual career goal is to become a probation officer. I've purely applied for the experience of what it's like to work in that environment and for offenders and to hopefully learn how I can support them when out of prison.

I'm not going to lie I'm a little nervous but at the same time it's something I really want to do, I'm not doing it for the money either I genuinley have a passion for the CJS and really want to have a career support offenders.

You won't know until you try it I suppose, I just kmow you will need a lot of resilience in a role like this and great communication skills...

Good luck OP

Can i ask what a PO does day to day? Genuine question? What would a typical shift look like?

What is Spice?

Im not interested in a job, im too wussy and volatile , but just curious and have a lot of admiration for those that can do it.

Do the prisoners mostly resent you? Or do they look to you for support? Is it your role to provide support or jyst maintain order? Or both?

I'm a prison officer, and I work part time. However, it's my understanding that the service do not advertise for part time positions, it is full time only. You can only go part time once you're already working there, if that makes sense. I have 2 DC (14 and 12) and work semi part time hours (26 per week) as opposed to the 'normal' part time (19.5 hours).

It's a physically demanding job, be prepared to be on your feet for 12 hours, non stop. It isn't as exciting as you might think, the majority of the day (right now under COVID restrictions) is spent running the regime, so unlocking for meds/exercise/showers and dealing with prisoner queries (PIN phone applications, property etc). There is a LOT of self-harm in prisons, on a daily basis I see prisoners who have 'cut up', a lot of the time it is to manipulate staff into getting their own way (cutting up to get vapes is oh so common at my prison) it becomes the norm really, you aren't shocked by it after a few weeks. It does change you as a person, I hear so many sad stories that after a while, they all blur into one and you become hardened to it. You have to.

However, if you have good interpersonal skills, which I do, engaging with challenging prisoners and establishing a good rapport goes a hell of a long way and makes the job 10 times easier. I have learned that I am a far more patient person than I ever thought I was before I joined the service.

If you have any more questions, feel free to ask me!

I did a couple of education projects in a maximum security prison,it was absolutely fascinating as most people don’t get to go inside and see what it’s like.

Sometimes I think about the inmates I worked with and can’t get my head around the fact they’re still in there (probably) and all that I have done in the last 15 years since I was there.

@LEMtheoriginal

What is Spice?

It's a synthetic drug that is very popular in prisons. I'm a nurse and have looked after patients who have taken it: they can be unresponsive and almost zombie like, or have hallucinations and be very aggressive. It's easy to sneak into prisons as it can be sprayed on to paper, like a Harry Potter book:
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-nottinghamshire-47239692

I know someone very well who became a PO after university working in some tough prisons. She's had two kids and still works, not on the wings at the moment but in a support role connected with prisoners movements.
She has been "potted" and has taken part in disturbances but enjoys her job.
There's no harm in looking into it further if you feel drawn to this work.

OP, you really don't sound mature enough to be a prison officer. The passive aggressive 'have a lovely evening' and 'let's draw a line in the sand' nonsense suggests you may need to rethink.