Prison officer in a women's prison?

[Cheeseburger43]

I'm qualified in teaching but seeking a career change.
As I'm getting older I'm also looking for a higher salary, and I've considered a prison officer role.
I would never do it in a male prison.
However I'm wondering if a female prison would be safer?
Nothing is 100% sure but I think that a women's prison might be less violent on the whole, correct me if I'm wrong.
I want to do this job to make a difference to people's lives, but I don't want to do a job where I'm at constant high risk of assault.
The salary proposed is 30k for a 39 hour working week which is something I've never been even close to earning.
I think employee benefits are generally good too.
Has anybody done this role or is doing it currently?

I’d rather be a civil servant in an office (which I am) rather than working in a prison. There was a time though years ago I did think of working in a prison, on a path to be a prison governor. I think I’d have probably enjoyed it, but under no illusion how tough it could be. I’d want more than 30k

Probably decent pension, sick pay for 5-6 months, special leave for bereavements, paid public holidays. I’d imagine, and more

@Darbs76 you have to work public holidays if you're shifts fall on them, one year I worked nights Christmas Day, Boxing Day, and New Year's Eve.

@Cheeseburger43 are you in NI?

I'm a supply teacher, I'm not going for an ECT job for various reasons. 25k starting salary would still be more than I'm on now.
I've started the online assessment, waiting for the results. It starts with an apprenticeship apparently though so need to find out what that pays.

I have relatives and friends that work for HMPS. As a woman prison officer, you're MUCH more likely to get attacked by an inmate in a women's prison than you are in a mens prison.

To be fair I've already had bodily fluids on me with working in a dementia care home!
The high levels of self harm and suicides are something I've not experienced before and honestly not sure how I'd find it.
I always thought I could never work in the police due to things like that.

Really? Why is that?

I was a Probation Officer. Worked there for 15 years and left as I was treated horribly by my service after a period of maternity leave.

However, when not over worked the job itself, is great. Loads of DV perpetrators (men), you'll soon learn their patter "she wound me up", "she knows what buttons to push", "she did it on purpose", " she hit me first", "even the copper who arrested me said it wasn't my fault"
It's like "the script".

Sex offenders are the easiest bunch to work with, they're incredibly compliant, will do all the work asked of them and never miss an appointment! They just want to show you how much they have learnt, and how you've shown them the light and they don't even masturbate any more as they just don't feel the need!! 🤔

Burglars are usually the most fun to work with. I'm not sure why. Many of them come round and round again, they know us all and have worked with us all. They tend to learn when they get too old and start getting caught more times than they don't rather than due to any work or prison sentence.

Women offenders though are a different kind of working to men. They have a lot more issues going on most of the time, most are or have been victims of DA/SA,

they're often addicts, have Mh issues and mad with grief missing their kids.
Lots of people don't like working with them for that reason, but I loved working with women. So long as you get time with them, it can be very rewarding.

The hardest thing is having to be honest on a child protection board that their children should or shouldn't live with them. You feel guilty for saying they shouldn't live with them, even though you know its' the right thing to do. Some women really struggle to be alone, and they often pick their partners over their children. However, I have also been a lone voice saying I have seen no evidence of abuse and that is hard as well. Social workers can get very upset if they're challenged, but it's really important to be honest.

From what I've seen in prisons, it seems like a lot of work with little support. Definitely look at who runs the prison, although if I remember G4S run the worst run prison in the country and they also run the best, so the actual company itself might not tell you much and it is down to the individual prison so deffo do your research.

I am a female qorking in a male prison. I have never worked in a female prison although have worked with lots of female offenders. I would chose a male prison over a female prison in terms of feeling /being safe.

Nearly all civil service jobs start with an apprenticeship now, you still get the same salary. In our dept you get 20% to do it, so around 1 day per week when you can focus on doing that. It tends to start once you’ve trained on your actual job with us. So a couple of months in.

Source?

Not the same thing I know, but when I used to work on the doors the female fighting was always much more viscous then the men fighting. I'm not convinced their is much 'rehab' work in being a prison officer either.

I've worked in a number of prisons. My observations are..

1. Females generally are v safe in male prisons. There has been an unwritten code amongst prisoners 'not to hit a woman' for many years. However this is changing as the world becomes less sexist. But it is still generally a thing!

1. Generally the officers who are physically attacked or have boiling water (or excrement etc..) thrown over them, or are on a hit list, are the ones who are either really unpopular and wind the prisoners up, or have got themselves into some dodgy dealings (yes, the prison officers are often the ones bringing in the contraband and this can get them in tricky situations)

1. If you are a decent human, treat the prisoners with respect and dignity, they will treat you the same way.

So, my view is that if you are female, not planning on bringing in contraband, are respectful and treat others with humanity, then you will be perfectly safe and love your job.

(If you are on a power trip, mean, planning on bringing in contraband, or otherwise have ill intent or tend to wind people up, then I would avoid this job as it will be unsafe for you)

Agree

I mean, I agree you are more likely to be attacked in a female prison as a female, than in a male one

Do not work in a prison if you want to avoid dangerous environments. Women's prisons are not violence free.

I've worked with prisoners in the past, but left because of the assaults I saw. I work with young offenders now, which I love, but still isn't assault free.

This is making me have doubts... What is it in the female prisoners that would make them more likely to attack a female officer?
Would they attack an officer who did nothing wrong to them, just minding their own business.
Not someone who treated them badly, involved with contraband etc. As mentioned above

I have worked in various roles within prison education including a regional role where I entered multiple types of prisons, the most volatile are the female estates as women tend to be more emotionally charged and there are generally more internal relationships which leads to friction. In saying that I have always completely enjoyed my work and due to the protocols and training I can't say I have ever been afraid. I worked in a male site and generally the residents where very respectful and grateful for the teaching. The female residents I found to be more difficult to work with BUT I also found them the most rewarding seeing them make a positive changes and learning as most have come from very traumatic backgrounds. Just my opinion but stick to education Styal has an excellent education facility and wages tend to be higher than schools.

I should imagine women feel it's OK to attack women whereas men wouldn't.

I think I'm reconsidering it to be honest, simply due to the risk of being attacked/chance of witnessing suicides.. I don't think I'd be physically or mentally strong enough. I'm glad I posted here though and I will look at other roles in the setting

In all honesty- I wouldn't go into this now .

I'm a police officer and my neighbour was a prison officer for over 20 years. She is lovely and really commanded respect but she left more due to the internal politics . She still has friends in the job . None of them really love it anymore. One got "potted" ( bucket of excrement over the head) and had ptsd as a result. She still works in the prison but is going for different roles - the job she wants is pt trainer but it's very tough to get through the recruitment process as the fitness test includes Olympic weight lifting !!

My friend was hospitalised after walking into a cell where slice was being smoked - it left her with pretty severe problems .

There are a lot of you if something does kick off but you will be expected to get "hands on " and learn restraint and self defence techniques and you will use them .

I'd really do your research. My friend was in mens prison.

Oh and yes you would see suicides , people on constant watch, self harmers.

I'm looking at probation service officer roles now :)

Been doing my research and what I'm reading is horrendous. A US source claims that 14% of prison officers have considered suicide. There were 600 attacks on officers in 2016 in one US prison.
High rates of PTSD in staff.