Prison Officer Speaks Out
Jim McCartney speaks to a Prison Officer
'A rigorous, urgent and pragmatic approach is needed.'
Over the last few months I have highlighted some of the problems the criminal justice system is facing within our prisons. As the system becomes increasingly overstretched, we can no longer afford to wait and see what happens. A poorly executed strategy runs the risk of having a catastrophic impact on the management of offenders. A rigorous, urgent and pragmatic approach is needed.
Recently I met with a Prison Officer from one of our Prisons in the UK. He only agreed to be interviewed if I would not reveal his name. For the purpose of this article we will call him Officer A and he met with me outside his working hours.
‘Some prisoners are milking the system’
Officer A joined the Prison Service some years ago. “The pressure is on and the momentum for compensation” is how Officer A describes the state of our prisons. Accidents happen but Officer A believes some prisoners are milking the system. “Disgruntled prisoners have a tremendous amount of time on their hands to fabricate stories that resort to legal action and financial gain. This makes it ever more difficult for us to do our job”, says Officer A. He takes the view that the power of the Prison Officer is being eroded away and the prisoners understand this and are manipulating the situation.
‘These youngsters are very argumentative and aggressive’
He speaks with an educated voice and unfazed delivery. He understands the system and has worked his way up, He started off his career in the 1980s . “In those days prisoners had an ethical code and lots of good humour.” He says there was good banter between prisoners and officers. However, this is no longer the case.
The juvenile culture has taken over. “These youngsters are very argumentative and aggressive.” He blames the lack of parenting, a broken society and the continuous changes that are made by government where consistency is hard to find. According to Officer A, “standards are no longer there. These guys don’t seem to have moral principles. They come from a culture that is ruled by a blade or a gun or the pair of trainers on their feet. That’s their credibility and what they need to keep themselves going.”
‘There are decent people who want to change’
It could be argued that Officer A gives a very negative view of prisoners. He accepts there are decent people who want to change, but they are few and far between.” Being in prison is a strange environment – a lot of it relies on good will. At the end of the day if they all decided to riot you have no choice but to walk out. There is not enough staff to deal with that situation.”
‘The majority of prisoners are not willing to change’
When I suggest that there must be people who want to change, Officer A is adamant that in his experience the majority of prisoners are not willing to change. “These guys are in a system where they have a lot of time on their hands. They are plotting, thinking it through and getting it right. In my case I’m faced with situations where I have only twenty seconds to make a decision. These guys have twenty-four hours to think it through. They’ve got all the time and they can manipulate the system.”