Prison and probation services

Over 48,500 prison officers, instructors and governors manage 155 prison establishments in Great Britain, with many of them working in the medical, welfare and administration fields. The prison population is close to 80,000, with each prisoner costing the tax payer nearly £30,000 a year. Traditional problems of escapes and riots, suicides and drug abuse are falling, with counselling and support measures introduced in recent years.

This article will deal with both prison and probation services in England and Wales as they are at present, although their merger into a single National Offender Management Service by June 2004 has recently been announced.

Prison officers’ duties include security and patrolling, counselling, reception, assessment of offenders before sentencing, escorting and some instruction. Some also specialise in staff training and staff supervision, or are responsible for a section of the prison. They need to be fit enough to restrain violent prisoners and able to work outside in all weathers. They also need to be able to work with people, and they need sensitivity and humanity to help prisoners develop the personal skills and self-confidence they need to re-enter society and not re-offend.

Instructors supervise and train inmates in a wide variety of skills in crafts, industrial skills and construction trades. Many prisoners work towards NVQs/SVQs and other qualifications, and skills taught include clothing and textile trades, engineering, carpentry, printing and binding, electronic equipment servicing, cookery, farming and motor car maintenance. Instructors need to have a real enthusiasm for their trade that they can teach to others.

Governors and managers run and manage prisons, and units within prisons, although newly appointed governors will look after a particular function like security or staff training. Other duties involve working on admission, release and parole boards, supervising prison officers, disciplinary procedures, and liaison with probation officers. Communication skills are very important, and they need to be both mature and resilient under pressure.

Prisons in the Services

The Military Corrective Training Centre at Colchester is the only military ‘prison’ in the UK, reserved primarily for people it believes can be developed into good Servicemen and women despite their transgressions. Staff are drawn from all three Services and come from a wide variety of military backgrounds. Instruction and training take up a huge percentage of the working day and the emphasis is very much on rehabilitation.

Service people thinking of working in the Prison Service are advised to attend a two-week Potential Prison Officers Course, run at the Resettlement Training Centre at Aldershot. Each prison is responsible for recruiting its own staff; there is no shortage of applicants and preparation is valuable.

Employment

Vacancies for Prison Officers in England and Wales are generally advertised in JobCentres; in Scotland, the Scottish Prison Service recruits centrally. Applicants need to be aged between 18 and a half and 57 (20 to 57 in Scotland). They must also be a Commonwealth citizen, British protected person, an Irish citizen, or an EC national. They need to be fit and healthy, have reasonable eyesight and be able to move house if required. They should not have a criminal record or be an undischarged bankrupt, and will undergo a security check.

Minimum entry qualifications are five GCSEs (grade A–C), including English and maths, or the equivalent (five S grades (1–3) or three years’ experience of managing people in Scotland). Or they can pass the Prison Service entry test, as well as an interview and medical and fitness tests.

In English and Welsh prisons most instructors are specialists while, in Scotland, there is more scope to combine custodial duties with instruction and training. People employed as instructors should have a recognised apprenticeship in their trade and about five years’ experience. Entrants should not have a criminal record and very few people under 23 would have the necessary background. Higher qualifications are desirable.

Prison governors and managers are selected from principal prison officers (10 to 15 years) and by open competition from outside applicants. The Intensive Development Scheme (England and Wales only) is for outside applicants with an honours degree or equivalent, or selected internal candidates. This involves a mix of on-the-job training and assessment, intensive courses and accelerated promotion.

Career progression

While junior prison officers and instructors can expect to stay in one place, more senior officers, managers and governors will be posted to wherever they are needed and wherever there are openings that will enhance their careers.

Prison officers can work in prisons (open and closed), young offenders’ institutions, youth custody centres and detention centres. Promotion is by exam, interview, simulated work programmes, and selection.

The increasing number of privately run prisons (nine at present, with two more planned) and custodial services offer opportunities for people to make career moves that were simply not possible before.

Salaries

Prison Officers start at nearly £17,000, rising to over £25,000. Senior officers earn close to £30,000, and principal officers up to £35,000. Shift allowances, London weighting and certain specialist skills pay are in addition. Instructors are on a similar scale. Governors’ salaries start at over £30,000, rising to £60,000.

To find out more …

Anyone interested in joining the Prison Service in England and Wales should contact their local prison or JobCentre for details. The Prison Service website is at: www.hmprisonservice.gov.uk.

The probation service

Overview

There are 18,000 probation officers in England and Wales working in over 40 probation services, mainly with people who have been in trouble with the law. They get involved with court work (reports on offenders and their background), supervise people placed on probation orders, and manage people sentenced to community service. Probation management is the responsibility of social workers in Scotland so there is no separate probation service.

They can also play a role in prisons to help offenders and families cope with sentences and prepare for release, with aftercare for released prisoners including those on parole, such as accommodation, employment, and so on. They also work with non-offenders to provide social work support in such areas as the welfare of children in family proceedings. They prepare 250,000 pre-sentence reports, supervise 170,000 offenders, and organise 10 million hours of community service each year. A total of 90 per cent of offenders are male and only 30 per cent of those found guilty of an offence that could merit a custodial sentence actually go to prison – the rest are supervised in the community.

Those in the probation service work office hours but must expect to be called out if necessary, and to take their share of stand-by duties at nights and weekends.

Probation officers need to be flexible with people and situations; they should have strong personal qualities, a sense of responsibility and clear judgement, together with an ability to make objective appraisals. They must be sympathetic to the pressures on offenders but able to establish control and trust, especially with hostile and resentful people. They need to be good communicators and able to cope with stress, heavy responsibility and sometimes distressing circumstances.

Getting started

In England and Wales, probation officers need to be 22 years old (there is no upper limit) and to have a Diploma in Probation Studies (DipPS), combining an undergraduate degree with an NVQ4 in Community Justice. This is delivered by probation areas together with HE institutions and NVQ assessment centres. Trainee probation officers are recruited, selected and appointed to probation areas (consortia of probation services) on a training salary where they should attain the DipPS within two years.

Minimum entry qualifications are two A-levels and three GCSEs or three A-levels and one GCSE (under 21), five GCSEs (21 to 25), academic potential but no formal qualifications (over 25).

Criminal Justice Work in Scotland requires a Diploma in Social Work (DipSW) (minimum age 22 on award) awarded by the Scottish Social Services Council.

A new four-year honours degree in Social Work starts this year, and there is also a two-year postgraduate qualification.

Career progression

In England and Wales, appointments are made by employing boards within the probation area, or they will assist the individual to find an alternative position in another service. In Scotland, local authority social work departments are responsible for working with offenders; it may be possible to specialise but careers will often be throughout the social services field.

Salaries

Probation officers start at about £19,500, rising to over £26,000. Senior probation officers earn £25,000 to 30,000 and area managers £28,000 to £34,000. Unsocial hours payments and London allowance may be made in addition.

Case study: prison/probation

Been there, done that...

Marc Stopczynski

In January 2003, having completed 23 years in the Army’s REME as a gun fitter, Staff Sergeant Marc Stopczynski decided to try something different. His service all over the world had given him ‘life experiences, skills in working in other cultures and discipline’, and he had computer and hazardous substances qualifications as well as his specialist training.

His Career Transition Workshop made him more aware of his options and he took a basic counselling course as part of his resettlement training. For the past 18 months, he has been working within Exeter Drugs Project in Dartmoor Prison as a drug worker/care practitioner. He works ‘with offenders who have substance misuse issues. This includes both drug and alcohol addictions. Most clients have a long criminal record. I work on how to reintegrate them back into society and to not re-offend or continue using drugs. If I could help just one …’.

As a key worker Stopczynski has over 20 clients, and has been trained in detoxification acupuncture. ‘I have a great deal to do with resettlement and through-care for my clients, including assessment for rehab centres. The work is very rewarding and absolutely hectic.’ Moving shortly to another West Country prison at Channings Wood, he is living proof that not all drug workers are ‘left-wing and tree-hugging’.