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?

If you've done your teacher training (and presumably paid for it) why don't you want to teach anymore? After 5 years teaching I'd got up to M6 (£37k ish I think) which isn't too bad. After having a baby in now in management on more than that. Or is it not about the money?

OP, are you applying directly to PSO positions or applying for probation training (PQiP) ?

Personally I preferred working in a men's prison, I worked in the medical unit for 7 years. There is a lot of noise and shouting but the women are much more scary.

I was a volunteer (IMB) in a male prison - cat C. I never felt unsafe. The men both officers and inmates used to look after me. I felt more unsafe in my job as a nurse (was assaulted a few times at work).

I'm a mental health nurse and about 25 years ago (so quite some time back!) Worked in a male prison. I hated it for various reasons and it affected my mental health to a huge degree. I was for example sleepwalking, and put myself in dangerous situations, woke up once lying on the sofa smoking a fag, tried to walk out the house twice in my nighty....you get my drift. I was under a lot of personal stress too, good and bad (got married, moved from a council flat to privately owned, my lovely Dad died) but the minute I left the prison service, I stopped sleepwalking.

However, the problem wasn't the inmates and I felt relatively safe around them. There definitely was an unwritten rule about not being violent to females. They did seem to respond better to women. Plus they liked nurses! There was a bit of banter on the wings....nothing to report to the governors but a bit of "miss, can you take my blood pressure? "

So while I wouldn't go back to the Prison Service, if I had to, it would likely be a men's one. While I do have a lot of empathy for women in prison, there is, as mentioned, a lot of women there with PD or CPTSD as a lot have had very difficult life experiences such as childhood sexual abuse or being in abusive relationships. There's a lot of deliberate self harm....as mentioned women tend to turn their aggression to themselves rather than others. It's not an easy job at all.

@Spidey66

it's quite scary what it can do to you. I ground my teeth when I was asleep and nearly always had aching jaws , left after 10 years , and I have mainly stopped.

Personally I wouldn't do it in Styal. For the same reasons I wouldn't work in Full Sutton! (Although the money is better!)

I had an interview for a prison role within a cat C male offenders prison and would take that over female offenders tbh.

As others have said, no matter what prison you're in, you need to be prepared more for the things you might see, homicides and suicides, mental health crises, fights, etc.
That said, I read you said you've worked with patients with dementia, in which case you can likely deal with anything! ;)

I also became a little ocd about locking of doors. We'd leave the house so I'd lock the door , go to the car but have to go back up the drive to check.
I've even set off but had to go back home to check.
Going on holiday was a nightmare, 50 miles or so away from home and I'd be convinced we had left the door open , and coming home it was a massive relief to find the house all safe and secure.open
I sometimes worked with paedophiles , and would look for signs in the men I knew , including my dh.
Looking back it absolutely messed with my head.

Every prison is different. There are some male prisons which are very quiet and you can wander around quite safely as a woman. There are wings full of elderly men and the Prison Officer role is increasingly focussed on making sure they are safe and well cared for.

Or there are prisons which have a lot of fights, spice and suicide attempts.

Even within prisons, the range of roles officers do is vast. There are the tooled up guys wearing Kevlar to restrain prisoners, and then there are officers supervising visits, or the workshops - all completely different skills and roles.

You're a bit silly to think a womens prison will be that much better than a male one!

DH has worked in both (and young offenders) and also had the same misconceptions when moved to a female prison.

What stereotypical rubbish

You need a degree followed by 2 years training to be a probation officer

i know as I’ve looked into it myself given all my prison experience

are you applying for a trainee post?

In the prison I work at there has once been an assault on a woman officer.

She was rapidly rescued by the prisoners who were appalled.

In the womens’ estate now there may well be men, convicted rapists and violent abusers, who should not be there. So no guarantees of working only with women, many of whom should not be there for other reasons.

My niece who is on a year secondment from university has just had her ankle broken whilst taking part in self defence classes. A male prison officer picked her up and threw her violently to the floor and then jumped on her! After care was horrendous, wasn't even seen by the prison doctor, and she had to make her own way to the hospital.

I'm not saying this is impossible, but it's highly unlikely. There are so many hoops to jump through to move from the male estate to the female estate as a transwoman. There's a transgender board meeting to even get the process started... We offered separate shower times, clothes that aligned with gender expression etc in the male estate.

I worked in a men's prison and worked with multiple transwomen, none were transferred to women's prison. I've never known anyone get transferred.

My personal opinion is it should be very carefully monitored, and my experience has been that it has been (though I appreciate not in every area and sometimes hmpps has got it very wrong)

You need to listen to Sean Attwood’s interview with Holly Daglish- go to your podcasts or YouTube.

@Friday123

As a matter of interest ( 6+ years left ) In my prison it was strongly recommended that they were housed in the healthcare wing . Does that still happen ?

I don’t know anything about either but these responses are interesting. Having read the Prison Doctor books (anecdote I know), the Dr didn’t want to work in the female prison for the reasons listed above, however, she found it really rewarding there (she left the mens prison beforehand).

@KittyCatsby in the prison I worked in, transwomen were on the vulnerable prisoners wing (if they agreed, everyone has to agree to be on that wing). To start with they were on the induction wing with the general population but could have meals brought to them and separate showers if they wanted.

@Friday123

Interesting how different establishments work .
I can still remember my shock at opening a hatch to be confronted with a pair of naked boobs ! ( in a male prison obviously )

I've opened a door to much much worse
😂😂 we have only had one transgender in our Cat B , held within VP until an incident led to Seg and then transfer out

@tellyiscrap

Yes quite .

I've got an interview to work as an officer in hmp Styal but I'm really not sure whether to go ahead with it..

@Letsdancedavidbowie Why not do the interview and see what you think? If nothing else, it's good interview practice.