‘Life as a Prison Officer’

Earlier today (30^th October 2013), three young people from HMP Hindley, interviewed a highly experienced prison officer for the ‘Telling Tales’ heritage project.

This particular prison officer has worked within the prison environment for 25yrs. Throughout this long period of time he expressed he’s had good and bad days whilst working at Her Majesty’s Prison (HMP Hindley).

When we asked the officer is it better or worse than back in the day?

He gave us two explanations, he stated that earlier in his career it was more disciplined but now there are more opportunities for Young People to help them in their future.

Moving on, we asked the officer if this kind of job affects his personal life?

He acknowledged that it does affect his personal life due to some young people behaving unacceptably.

We ask the officer whether prisoners are treated fairly?

He replied that young people are treated much more reasonably than in previous years.

We also wondered what emotions you endure whilst restraining a young person?

He explained that he does not like to restrain a young person and believes he has failed if it has to resort to restraining a young person.

As we proceeded through the interview we wanted to know,

What qualifications he needed to achieve in order to become a prison officer.

The officer in question attended 9 weeks at college and had a series of courses to complete, such as control and restrain training (C&R). They also developed interpersonal skills and shared experiences together.

During the interview we questioned the officer about what he likes and dislikes about working here?

He explained that he loves helping and engaging with the young people and dislikes seeing them return after all the help they have received.

When we asked the officer why he chose to work with Young People?

He told us that we Young People have a chance to change and make a difference.

We went on to question the officer about the main roles and aims of his current job as a Prison officer?

He said that his job is to look after the staff and to make sure that they are treated with the respect and decency they deserve and that staff treat young people the why, they would want to be treated.

As we progressed through the interview we asked the officer whether he prefers too work with Youth Offenders or Juveniles?

He explained that YO’s are more mature than Juveniles and has worked with both and enjoys working with Juveniles, due to the fact they are more likely to devlop further down the line.

We then wanted to know if the uniform was better now than back when the officer first joined the prison service?

He replied that they use to wear hats all the time and white shirts which he explained were very uncomfortable. The officer said he prefers the uniforms now due to the fact that they are more casual and suitable for the Young People’s due to colour co-ordination.

We concluded the interview by asking the officer about whether he had been injured in his career?

Which he explained to us that he has suffered from a broken wrist twice but very rarely gets injured. This is one of the perils of being a prison officer.

The end