What is prison teaching like?

[tulippa]

I have decided that this will be my last academic year teaching in a school. I am in my third year of teaching and want to get out before I get too high up the pay scale and I get 'trapped'.

I have been considering teaching in prisons for a while and was wondering if anyone has any experience of it? The hours look great for pay comparable to what I'm on now. I have never been in a prison before and am not sure what teaching would be like in such an alien environment and whether it would be good idea to jump into something so different.

I currently teach primary but have been advised I have the qualifications needed to teach functional skills.

There was a MNer who did this. Can't remember who it was, unfortunately (and the amount of name changing, she might, or might not still be here). However, she loved it. Got to do all the teaching' without all the rest of the crap that you get in school. Said she never took work home and worked with individuals or small groups who had actively chosen to be there.

I’ve taught in prisons for around 12 years,8 years with young offenders and 4 years with adults.
There’s a lot of positives - freedom to book holiday whenever you want, no marking at home (can’t take anything out of the prison with prisoners’ names on), being part of a small team, much more autonomy in how things are taught, feeling like you’re making a difference no matter how small, no mobile phones in class.
However, there are difficulties - you have 2 employers to please (your direct employer and the prison), not being able to easily take resources in, no internet, outdated resources, drugs, dealing with death on a regular basis, 3 hour lessons, transient population, lack of funding and frustration with the prison system.
On the whole though, I absolutely love it. Everyday is different and you learn to celebrate the small successes. It can be disheartening seeing the same faces coming in and out year after year but then you sit and help someone write a eulogy for their nan’s funeral and it’s all worthwhile.

I fancied it too (ex teacher myself) but I have a friend who taught Young Offenders and hated it because of the continual underlying threat of violence. He said violence could break out at any moment, with security never quite enough to protect the teachers. It was always simmering.
He said the best days were days when the violence got so bad that everything was locked down so there was no teaching. He left fairly traumatised.

(Obviously only a second hand opinion)

My mum did it for a while. She found it very rewarding as a teacher, many of the women she taught were barely literate but were keen to learn and treated her with respect. She definitely felt like she made a difference. However, she found prison itself a very depressing, and sometimes upsetting, place to be.

I know someone who did this (maths)

They said the prisoners were better motivated and considerably better behaved than the pupils in the secondary they had just left.

Haffdonga Unfortunately, the reality is that the threat of violence is ever present. You do get a feel for when there is likely to be an incident but there’s always the ones that just come out of nowhere. Generally, the prisoners are very loyal and protective towards education staff but it’s disconcerting to feel in anyway reliant on them for protection.
As with most Public Sector organisations, austerity has hit prisons hard and losing experienced officers in their thousands has led to prisons becoming more volatile and this filters to every corner of the prison.
There are some shocking incidents happening day in day out in all of our prisons and unfortunately education departments are as affected as the wings.
I’ve taught in FE though and I would say on balance I faced more disruption and violence there but I didn’t have the option of hitting an alarm and having tens of officers come running!

I worked in prison education, although wasn't a teacher. I would say that if you treat the offenders with respect they generally respect you too. Often you are one of the few people within the prison system who will treat them like a "normal person".

The one thing I really disliked about working in a prison was that I felt I was always being watched to make sure I wasn't doing anything I shouldn't. I was always fearful of bringing in banned items (chewing gum, wax, tin foil etc) as they were down on you like a tonne of bricks if you did. I think it's because so much stuff gets into prisons through staff and the officers think that civilian staff are a soft touch.

You would get training about manipulation etc before you start though.

As a previous poster said, it's really rewarding and very interesting experience.

For anyone thinking of joining a Prison Education team at the moment, just be aware that currently there are huge changes happening. All contracts are up for tender with new providers coming in in April 2019 most have not yet been announced so you could find yourself in a TUPE situation very shortly.

I work in a prison. You are classed as a civilian. No uniform obviously, but you have to dress appropriately. You will probably have full access to the wings as well as the education department but not given keys to cells. In my prison you wear a leather belt with a belt purse which contains your keys ( for the endless doors / gates you will be opening on a chain with a whistle ) You will probably be radio trained with your own call sign. I've always felt very safe working In a male prison ( b cat ) but strangely when visiting a female prison didn't like the atmosphere .

Thanks for the responses! They seem to reflect what I was imagining - rewarding, small group teaching that would really make a difference to people's lives v potential danger and violence and thoroughly depressing workplace.

I have contacted a company that organises education in prisons to see if I can shadow a tutor in the holidays to get an idea what it's like.

Thanks for the heads up Lazyjane. I am going to do my best to see this academic year out so hopefully the dust should have settled if a new company takes over.

My exP works in a prison housing sex offenders, teaching a skills based course. He knows many will not be released and if they are they will probably not be able to enter private homes to work. Conversely I know a woman who works in the same prison, she is an effectively retired teacher and does literacy and numeracy with small groups. Both get some reward or they wouldn't keep doing it. But you have to have an outside support network in place just in case a total shut down occurs and you have dependents on the outside.

I worked in prison education for many years, and have only recently left to work in a school. (Not mainstream) The biggest thing that you will probably find is that lessons are very long usually, three hours in the same room with the same group. However the plus side is that the turnover is fairly rapid, so you will end up repeating everything several times during the year. You will probably teach functional skills. The holidays will be shorter, and the days quite long, but nobody really did anything at home.

I taught in an adult male prison for about 3-4 years, after leaving teaching in secondary, which I'd done for about 10 years.

I was at a medium risk closed prison which housed YOs ages 17-21y and adults aged 21+ they were cat C up including some cat A and restricted prisoners.

I also did prison Ed as a summer job between finishing university and starting my first teaching job, for a few months. That was a cat c male prison.

I initially taught there in the education department. I taught mainly business and ict skills with some key skills English/maths. I taught in a classroom in the education wing and had around 5-15 prisoners in class at a time. They were normally working st their own pace on longer assessments etc so it was more of a facilitator type teacher role than stood at the front teaching a whole class at a time.

I then moved on to advice and guidance work, still within education and still requiring a teaching qualification. In this I worked on a 1:1 basis with prisoners planning their education and employment routes through their sentence and their longer term plans, and helping those who were coming up to release sort out plans for that. I sat on parole and tagging boards, was involved with other aspects of the prison and visited prisoners in their cells, workplaces, isolation and hospital, etc.

I did enjoy it. It was interesting and challenging, and there was planning and prep to do. However in the teaching role there was nothing to bring home - not allowed - and time was given to prep and assess, plus time in class itself due to the nature of the teaching. With the guidance work I planned my own timetable and knew I had to see x number of prisoners a month, but how I did this was my choice. There was also a lot of office time for write ups, referrals and planning.

The pay isn't as good as school teaching. It was in a college contract, so lower pay. I did have 12 weeks holiday though and, as prison Ed is all year round (though not on bank holidays and weekends) I got to take those when I chose to. There were no real restrictions on this either.

I actually felt safer working at the prison than at the OFSTED failing school I was at previously, even though I was often working in a 1:1 situation in a locked room on a wing or in isolation units, with a whistle as my alarm. I knew there were people there to back me up, and if anything did occur I would be supported thoroughly and there were consequences for the prisoner. I was relatively young looking, and quite petite build then and that was bit an issue at all. On the whole the men treated me with respect. Many would apologise for swearing accidentally -land almost all wouldn't dream or touching you first. I did shake hands with them in leaving them in my guidance role, but other than that is was unusual for them to try and touch you before. As I say, they did have respect for the education staff.

It took some getting used to and you do tend to get a little institutionalised. Handing in your own keys and phone and going through scanners on arrival, and picking up a huge bunch of keys to hang on a thick black leather belt - a strange start to the day compared to before. And the clanging of the metal doors around you, and shouting from prisoners around - all just take time to get used to. I got used to shut downs happening occasionally though that was a little alarming at times if it happened on a wing as I'd be locked in an office often on my own, and could be frustrating if it was time to go home and you were delayed.

But despite all that it was an interesting time, and one I look back on in a positive way, unlike my last secondary school experience. Many people do find it fascinating if I tell them about it, and the year 2s I now teach love to hear about (obviously edited versions) it!

There is more pressure than when I started, as governors are now accountable for educational performance, but I think education managers (which I was for a few years) felt the brunt of it more than individual teachers. Very few people get 12 weeks holidays now, most will have five or six weeks a year which is something to check with whichever prison you are thinking of applying for. Governors are also under pressure to send prisoners, so getting them removed is harder than it used to be, but it's still relatively rare that behaviour warrants it. To be honest, if somebody doesn't want to attend, they just won't turn up so it's not really an issue for most teachers!

Oh and yes you are definitely able to teach functional skills. If I was still in my job, I would probably bite your arm off!

I would advise against it, having left my job after teaching in a prison for 9 years. When I first started, the education department was run by the local college, and we had a lot of freedom regarding the curriculum. We did creative writing, drama, things that were good therapy for the inmates, most of whom have underlying traumas. Then the department was taken over by a profit making organisation - first A4e then People Plus. These organisations had no interest in helping people, only in meeting ridiculous targets. The curriculum was totally pared back to the basics. Only low level literacy and numeracy courses and the most basic of workshop skills were taught. At the same time, the teaching staff were treated appallingly - constant criticisms and observations.

The upshot was that staff left in large numbers, and finally I did the same. Put that together with the face that violence in prisons has soared, due to there not being enough officers, and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone now.