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 imagine, however bad it is in UK prisons, it's 10 x worse in America.

I know that even probation officers carry guns over there.

@Cheeseburger43

I worked in a male b cat prison for nearly 10 years , and have also done short stints in a female prison to train staff . Honestly , I would much rather work in a male prison as I found the female prison more intimidating .

I work in Low secure and Medium secure MH so not exactly the same but female services I found to be a lot harder emotionally. Yes you are at more physical risk but assaults on staff were rare in male more fighting with each other. Males watch TV and potter around the ward. Anger would be quick and easier to defuse. Women more assaulted the staff and engaged in extreme forms of self harm ligaturing , inserting pens / food / dirt into wounds, burning , poisoning , headbanging. they would also fight restraints took a lot longer than men. Women would carry on with the grudges against staff and eachother, whispering and planning.

Emotionally I think working with men is much easier even if intially it seems to be quite daunting. The times I've been seriously assaulted it's by women not men I would never go permanent in women's services as it would give me a nervous breakdown.

I think I've had the totally wrong idea tbh.. for some reason I imagined women's prisons as being much more supportive to each other and kinder. I also thought some men would act quite inappropriately towards female officers and deliberately make them uncomfortable, more sexual assault risk etc

They can do but you just have strict boundaries but treat them with respect. I separate the crime from the person but I'm mindful of risks. You always are mindful of risk. Women's environment seems to be like an awful version of secondary school the males seem more chilled. Many of the sex offenders I've worked with have been peadophiles so they aren't interested in me anyway.

In all my 10 years of working in a male prison , I've never heard of a sexual assault or acting overly inappropriately. Some might try to flirt or act Mr Big , but they would soon be put in their place .
I've told friends I feel safer in a prison rather than walk down a street at night .
You are also taught C & R ( control & restraint - if it's still called that ) and are expected to prove that you are still able to do it yearly , plus your fitness test .

Dementia care is physically tiring but not emotionally like caring for women prisoners/secure services it's nothing like it. The risks are completely different.

I’ve spent 25 years working across prisons

womens are more risky to women

even in prison there’s a line that male prisoners often won’t cross

it’s much safer for a woman to deal with male prisoners trust me

I found being a woman it's easier to de-escalate men not so much women 🤣

I’ve worked in forensic mental health and love working with women in that environment. It is challenging though, and there definitely is quite a lot of violence as well as self-harm. Relatives that have worked in prisons have said they would never work in women’s prisons primarily because of the levels of self-harm. They’ve quite enjoyed working with male young offenders. My colleagues that have worked in both male and female forensic services have found that they’re more likely to be assaulted in male services if male and more likely to be assaulted in female services if female. Having said that, in 2 years in female services I’ve only been assaulted once so their comments are not something that would sway me.

In 25 years of male prisons working full time I’ve never been assaulted once

I’vr never even had a bad row with one

How to rehabilitate a prison: female staff and an emphasis on wellbeing

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/11eb92c8-1fd0-11ed-b7c3-8b288ab55a56?shareToken=c14ce2cc1cc046f36a9190c0ab41f5a5

You may find this article interesting OP

OP I worked in a women's prison as an officer and it was not kind or supportive. It was brutal and a lot of the women need mental health support rather than jail time. I now work for Border Force on passport control and it's 30k a year. Less stress and better pay. Consider that.

I taught (EAL) in a women's prison and loved it!

I've worked with young offenders and did some work experience/voluntary work in a male prison and I experienced flirting, sexual/inappropriate comments for sure

I worked in a male prison (not as a prison officer) and loved it, but the level of suicide risk we were containing was overwhelming and I'm still burnt out and low level traumatised a year after leaving. I was very rarely concerned about violence towards me as a woman in a male prison because hitting a woman is generally seen as weak. I was far more concerned about getting caught in shit/piss crossfire. I managed to avoid it but not being far too close to dirty protests and very unwell people smearing shit.

I'm not saying probation is low stress, but I think it's less traumatic than being a prison officer in prisons at the moment (I live in hope genuine reform will happen one day...)

Have you considered other helping careers? Maybe a careers assessment might give you some other suggestions e.g.
nationalcareers.service.gov.uk/skills-assessment
There are probably better careers questionnaires out there but it's the one I could remember

30 years in Probation here, I manage Approved Premises. Have a look at RSW jobs. You couldn't pay me enough to work in the women's estate though.

I got a fair amount of cat calling, leering, and comments about my body, some flirting, but no inappropriate touching. Mainly it was guys shouting through their obs panels as I walked down the wings. It was not dissimilar to walking down a high street.

I worked in a specialist men's prison in education and throughly enjoyed the actual teaching. My students on the while were respectful and engaged which was definitely a change from students I've taught in other places.
The worst bit was the admin....dealing with the paperwork required by the prison, the education provider and Ofsted.
I know there were disagreements / fights between the students but these were never in the classroom. Salaries were also better than the officers which never felt fair to me.

My friend who moved to teaching in a womans prison enjoyed it . Unlike education on the outside, prisoners appreciated what she did (plus no pushy parents) and, if there was any aggro, she pushed a button and they were taken away. I think the key is what your personality is. She's pretty robust.

Yes OP watch this documentary on Styal!

Thank you everyone! I've decided an officer position is definitely not for me, I'm glad i posted here.
Going to watch that documentary on Styal today! Funnily a friend of a friend has just qualified to start working there as an officer, I hope she's not in for a bad time.
Applying for probation service officer positions now!
Looked at prison teaching jobs but there don't seem to be many sadly

I'm a prison nurse .. I can guarantee less hassle in the male prison . I'm currently in a cat B male prison and never feel unsafe . I work with a lot of the officers and all agree the womens prison just up the road is far more dangerous .

@Cheeseburger43 I’d go for probation or youth justice service (youth offending service), both really good roles.

if you were looking at teaching I’d go for the youth offending service. Starting salary as a worker is about 21-28k as an officer up to 38k

Wow that's really not very well paid for how stressful I imagine it is. I work in an office on 29k