Why prison staff deserve more respect than they’re getting.

[prisonofficersareimportanttoo]

our officers face this regularly but they’re still overshadowed by the ‘emergency services’. *
They are currently dealing with nearly 83000 people being locked behind their doors, in 8x12 rooms, for a minimum of 23 hours a day. They are often locked up for longer as due to staff and prisoners getting sick, anyone else who has been in contact with that person then has to isolate until either the person is confirmed non-Covid or their 14 days without symptoms is up. They might not have enough staff to make sure everyone gets a phone call or shower that day and stays socially isolated.

If the prisoner is particularly pissed off, they might have saved up their fecal matter, ready to ‘pot’ the next person who opens the flap/door.

The staff are nurse, police, fire, therapist. They do this because they believe people should have the opportunity to put right their mistakes, because not everyone had ‘the best’ upbringing.

They are going into work, knowing they could bring this virus home to their families when they have to send a sick prisoner out to hospital, because staff still need to go with them. And even if they aren’t Covid positive, they could bring it back from the hospital, pass it on to colleagues and prisoners alike. All with fuck all ppe because the supplies aren’t arriving in sufficient numbers. But that’s ok, because they’re not frontline so don’t need it.

Not enough talking is being done about every other residential unit where prison officers, Carers, children’s home workers, are still going to daily, knuckling down and trying to do their job and keep everyone safe and virus free. The efforts they go to are no less than the nhs, police, fire. But because they don’t have blue flashing lights on their armour plated vehicles - carrying those dangerous criminals - they aren’t important.

So feck off with your sanctimonious clapping. It’s just remaining many of us how invisible we are.

Yet if a dangerous prisoner were to escape, you’d soon want to know they were behind bars and you were safe again.

• [Note from MNHQ: post edited at OP's request to remove a sentence which was detracting from the main point of the OP]

100% agree with regard to prison officers.
Who is Karen though?
I thought such ignorance had been put to bed a long time ago.
@prisonofficersareimportanttoo.
Such a valid point to make and a long time coming, don’t shoot your own argument in the foot in your second sentence 😔

@lookingatthepast, don’t undervalue your contribution to your establishment. You are responsible for keeping the gate secure. No one goes in or out unless they have the correct paperwork, permissions. I’m sure you will have seen some of the less savoury side of things when denying visitors entry, telling someone they needed a search on entry, that they can’t bring x or y in.

Prisons are one of the best examples of getting on with it that I know right now. It’s just a shame that it isn’t recognised by the people who have the opportunity to make a difference.

The prison service is a failed institution. That’s not the staffs fault, but successive governments over the last 30 years.
I’d guess that 70% of prisons are Victorian. Ok for then but not the 21st century.
Over the last 20 years a few prisons have been built but mainly from the private sector. So people like bloody G4S run prisons. When they should all be run by the state. IMHO.
In 1993 the prison population was about 44 thousand, it’s almost double that now. Yes a few prisons have been built since then, but not that many to deal with the numbers of prisoners.
Sending people to prison is a vote winner for politicians, and most people in society believe that prisons are like Butlin’s holiday camps, thanks mainly to the red tops such as the sun and daily mirror.

You're right, prison officers are having a horrific time and are totally overlooked

Prison staff never get the recognition they deserve, they are work in poor conditions with constant treat to their own personal health and safety in work (and outside work especially northern Ireland officers) I pray that you all, including those in your care, come out of this safely. I can't however see the same amount of funding being given to prisons though it's not popular with Joe Bloggs on the street to have their tax money spent on convicts, the value of reforming is lost on some people. Anyway good luck xx

Sorry threat not treat 😳

I'm a prison probation officer & I absolutely agree with the OP. All services have been withdrawn from the prisons. There's no resettlement services, no mental health services, no family support. Prison & probation staff are now doing all those jobs, well outside their remit. I've had more face to face contact in the last week than I would in a normal month.
Bizarrely for the first time ever I actually present more of a risk to my prisoners than they do to me. We're trying to maintain social distancing with the prisoners, but my OMU office is like Piccadilly Circus! I sit less than a metre than someone who has been off work with a confirmed case. He's still coughing his guts up, but was cleared to work as soon as he didn't have a temperature.
It's a dire situation & because we work with a client group that the public (rightly?) don't care about, the workers are forgotten along the way.

This is absolutely not about competition, I get your point OP. I work in probation, people don't really know or care what we do at the best of times. Yet me and my officers are still having face to face contact with no PPE, with people who don't care about social distancing, some are very high risk groups, Street homeless poor health at the best of times, I got spat at last week because the government have promised to house all homeless people yet our local authority isn't. All other services have dried up we're being expected to do it all, they've reduced the number of staff in offices to keep us safe, except it's not as that's the only safety we have, no security guards or metal detectors like the job centre, we had a high risk case threatening to stab an officer and there were only 3 people in the whole building, we're told to use our words to de escalate these situations. People ignore what we do because they don't think it affects them, yet this week alone I've authorised recalls for alleged serious sexual and violent behaviour, we'll just not do that then and leave these people in the community, see how the public like that when the next victim is someone they actually give a toss about. It also makes me feel terrible to send somebody back to custody for you guys to deal with in these times, but public protection at all times right. Unless you're a prison or probation officer.

@GuiltyPleasure - that's awful. I have friends who have been off over 3 weeks and still not back, they have been that ill. You must be on tenterhooks every day. If they are still coughing then surely they are still not well, given a cough is one of the major symptoms?

I've worked in OMU. Social distancing at work is impossible because offices aren't big enough, hot desking, people in and out. I think I'd be tempted to boot your colleague to an office on their own - one of the governors who are working from home several days a week - until their cough has completely gone. I'm yet to be convinced that people have an immunity to it after they have caught the virus.

@TransformingColumbo - I feel dreadful for you guys. At least we can bang them up behind a door when they get lairy. We might have contact to do it but such is.

You have to face that person, angry at being recalled, angry that they can't get a job, angry that they can't see their families. And maybe with a tendency to lash out first, ask questions later (which is why they get locked up in the first place). Words don't alway cut it and I guess even your personal protection training is minimal - along the lines of prison admin staff, breakaway training rather than containment training.

Don't feel bad about sending them back, it has to be done to keep you and everyone safe. Even to keep that offender safe dare I say it.

Prisons see the offender after sentencing and with probations help, get them to a place where they can be released back into society with the idea that they will continue their good work and flourish as a productive member of society. Whereas you have to deal with finding them somewhere to live, help with jobs, manage parents seeing their children and the fallout from a society who often won't give that person a chance.

As someone upthread said, most people don’t care about offenders so they don’t care about people working with them. Prison and probation staff are seen as either power hungry bullies who enjoy telling people what to do, or bleeding heart liberals who are too soft. The reality is that the majority of prison and probation staff just want to help, individuals and wider society.

I’ve worked with offenders but I also spent two years working in the victims unit. Meeting victims of very serious offences, including the families of murder victims. Overwhelmingly what those people wanted was to know the offender wouldn’t do what they did, to anyone else, be that through rehabilitation, restrictions or a mixture of the two. And who are the people that facilitate that? Prison and probation staff. The public never see our successes, only our failures. It’s a bloody tough job with little recognition or financial reward, it’s been made even tougher with all the budget cuts, low staffing levels etc. Corona virus has added additional burdens to an already struggling system. I don’t know what else to say. It makes me really sad.

YANBU. An incredibly challenging job at the best of times and now more dangerous than ever.

Completely agree.

My work brings me into contact with prison officers from time to time and I have had a tour of one of our Victorian prisons which was utterly shocking. Daily Mail readers might want to believe that prisoners are living in luxury but the truth is very different.

Prison staff face grim day after grim day, at constant risk of assault, and often undermined by an unsympathetic senior management. They are also very poorly paid.

The system was near breaking point before Covid-19. I am in awe of all they do.

@prisonofficersareimportanttoo no, not even breakaway training! We had something called managing challenge but it's all about talking someone down, which apparently never fails and if it does that's your fault for not doing it properly. Honestly what usually keeps us safe is that, but also that there's a building full of people and even other offenders have been known to step in, although that then causes a whole host of other issues. At least we get bank holidays, unlike you guys. Stay safe!

I take back my small minded comment. You do absolutely deserve thanks and gratitude.

I'm a mental health nurse and our 'Karen' ward admin has had her fair share of abuse and shit thrown at her, so this comment got my back up.

I was frustrated and angry last night and the removed comment was unacceptable.

I am still angry at the broken system which so many of us, of you, are expected to prop up with just an applause from the public as thanks. So many of these people have no idea what they are really applauding for and even if the truth was put right in front of them, would deny it or argue back that we 'chose that job'. Yes, we did. Because we wanted to make a difference.

@Meruem - sadly that is a stereotype which I have seen. The rough and tough hard one who is only a prison officer because if they weren't, they'd likely be a prisoner. The ones who try and make up for years of poor choices by saying 'it's ok if you just say you're sorry'. But there are many, many more in-between who just want people to have a chance to show that yes, they made a bad choice. But they have learnt from that and they won't do it again.

And you're right, it's only the failures that are seen. Everyone remembers the London Bridge attack when an on licence offender killed 2 people. They probably even remember his name. But do they know the names of the ex offenders who stepped in to help stop this attack? No. No one thinks of John Crilly, James Ford, Marc Conway. Success stories who demonstrated their selflessness in the heat of the moment.

@TransformingColumbo, that really is appalling. Sometimes even the prison service knows that talking, negotiating, isn't going to work. That's why they have control and restraint teams. they protect the offender and the staff. If you get the chance to, go work in a prison. Breakaway training is mandatory for all non uniformed staff, even admin. It's an eyeopener for sure for many. Especially when you get an evil twat of an officer portraying a prisoner for the staff member to practise on.

I have just had this shared on my FB wall, from Aldi. Hopefully this will help out some of you who have been stuck getting enough groceries in.

From Tuesday 14th April, we are also extending our priority shopping time for emergency workers which will now include all groups entitled to a Blue Light card, such as social care workers, first responders and St John’s Ambulance staff.
These groups, alongside the NHS, Police and Fire Service, will be given exclusive access to our stores 30 minutes before normal opening on Sundays.
In addition, they will continue to have priority access to our stores around the clock.

The blue light card costs around £5 annually and is one of the few schemes which recognises that not all 'emergency services' have a blue light.