Why would anyone be a prison officer?

Just watching a show now and it’s saying an officer is attacked every hour in this country.

Lass on saying she gets shit thrown at her, spat at, hit, threatened, abused etc.

Watching these fuckers (inmates) here and the way they go on I can not understand why people doing that job keep doing it. It must get to you having to be in that atmosphere day in day out. Had a look at their wages too and couldn’t believe how badly they’re paid. Absolutely disgraceful that. They deserve a medal putting up with all that man.

My best mate was one. Said it go worse and worse every year until he quit. He was a captain of those teams that go to prisons when there is a riot on - so he was very well trained, yet still got assaulted and ended up on HIV Prevention meds for months.
 


One of the local hospitals down here removed the hand sanitiser things from the reception of the hospital because people kept coming up in and filling up a plastic cup full of hand alcohol and leaving!

At work we had to change the toilet roll holders to those captive boxes with the rolls inside as people were nicking them.
It was so bad we were going through 2 pallets a day of bog roll.

The next thing was that all of the hand soap was changed from a built in hand pump in the sink unit to a foaming one on the wall,
when I asked about that I was told that they'd caught people filling up their own soap dispensers from home from the ones at work.

I don't think we've had anyone brewing hooch at work … yet
 
I was supposed to be attending an ARC last April for the HMPO positions in Durham, Anyway a few weeks before hand I got a start date for the job I'm currently working in, Just under a grand a year more for being assaulted, working long shifts and having to refrain from lacing into some fucker? No chance, think I'll enjoy drinking tea and working my own hours thanks.

Fair play to all that do it but my god the conditions / salary / benefits haven't half been stripped in the last 20 years.

as Sodexo were taking over Northumberland, there were a few V good officers taking their bit and getting out. blokes who'd been in the game for 20 years plus.
Yep, my sister started on about that, think it goes up after a year like but it's a pittance for what they do

especially there. i doubt if there's a 'good' house block in the whole jail now. the last one where you were pretty much cherry picked to be on, turned into just another, like the rest.
 
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Just watching a show now and it’s saying an officer is attacked every hour in this country.

Lass on saying she gets shit thrown at her, spat at, hit, threatened, abused etc.

Watching these fuckers (inmates) here and the way they go on I can not understand why people doing that job keep doing it. It must get to you having to be in that atmosphere day in day out. Had a look at their wages too and couldn’t believe how badly they’re paid. Absolutely disgraceful that. They deserve a medal putting up with all that man.
I think we watched the same thing. I thought exactly the same

I’d say 90% of jobs I would just refuse to do, and would rather be a drug dealer. But I think prison officer would be one of the worst ones.
 
My wife is a Prison officer and is currently signed off and going through counselling for PTSD from work place incidents.
You have to love your job to put up with the shit she goes through
My missus looked at Prison nurses jobs a few times. I didn't tell her she couldn't, but I certainly made my feelings known as to why I would prefer her not to.
Christ that's awful.....no disrespect but I wouldn't do it for twice that amount.
I genuinely wouldn't do it for £100k mate.
 
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My mate was a PO at the Maze. The stress of dealing with paramilitaries caused his marriage to break up and almost killed him.
 
From experience they have a hard job, in infrastructure that is no longer suitable, with practically no support when things go wrong. Most had the attitude of live and let live, then you had the new young ones who just wanted a power trip.
 
I did 30 years non op. I was heavily involved in the restructuring of 2012. Fair and sustainable. Where basically new starters got a shit load less than existing staff.
We went from a very low turnover of staff to desperately trying not just to recruit but to keep staff. Even as has been mentioned places like Leeds. The south was always harder as the pay is national with a few extras for areas where recruitment was particularly difficult.
A lot of experienced staff were given decent packages to leave. I’m 3 years out now but watched that programme where there were so many new staff trying to hold the place together.
This on top of the spice problem has made it a much harder job.
At the time Birmingham was sold off to the private sector but has since been brought back in after it failed. We used their pay and threat of total privatisation to get the reforms through. We also closed prisons. Now they are desperately trying to reverse it but there is competition from Police recruitment.
What was once a fairly controlled environment with decent pay and pension is now a place where they are trying to keep the lid on.
The ever changing strategies from central government never helped. Gove turned up with his prison reform then he was off when he fucked up his leadership effort. Then Rory with his promises. Then Gauke. They all turn up with a mission and fuck off due to some party issue or other.
They tried to join up with the Probation Service for end to end Offender Management but the decision to save money, by palming off the less serious cases to a privatised Probation Service that they cut in two, didn’t work. Grayling I think that one was.
It cost a fortune to reverse.
Then they sold of the Works Department to Carillion and another company. Didn’t work. What looked cheaper on paper at the start turned into a crock of shit. They took that back as well. At enormous cost.
There are some very capable people but the whole thing is hamstrung by ministers and government.
 
That’s what I read yeah. Practically minimum wage to put up with all that. Should be double that.

Watching this you inadvertently made the right choice. I’d much rather Nissan.
I've just saw the starting salary. It's around the same as it was when I applied in 1992 :eek:. In Scotland a trainee gets just over £17k.
 

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