Dr Elaine Crawley Senior Lecturer in Criminology Director of the Centre for Prison Studies

Dr Elaine CrawleySenior Lecturer in CriminologyDirector of the Centre for Prison Studies The University of SalfordGreaterManchesterEngland e.crawley@salford.ac.uk

21st Century Prisons: The Need for Staff Specialisation, Support and Training

What I intend to do in the next hour or so is to briefly describe the context of today’s presentation, and then go on to discuss certain key issues relating to the working lives of those who spend their days in close contact with prisoners.

These issues include ii) the psychological and emotional impacts of their work and the ‘spillage’ of prison work into personal and family life.

First, I just want to define my terms. When I talk about ‘prison officers’ or ‘uniformed prison’ staff I am talking specifically about those men and women who have day-to-day, prolonged contact with prisoners.

It was in 1996, when I was studying for my PhD, that I was first struck by how little scholarly work there was on the working lives of uniformed prison staff (In contrast, I found a huge body of research on the working lives of the police).

The little amount of literature that I did find tended to reduce the prison officer to a negative stereotype – a brutal, unintelligent and insensitive individual who was capable of doing little more than turning a key.

For me, an academic criminologist, the lack of scholarly literature on front-line prison staff represented a significant omission from the sociology of the prison, because it neglected the central, pivotal role that uniformed staff play in the day-to-day lives of those people our courts send to prison.

My curiosity about the working lives of prison officers, along with an acute awareness that the sociology of criminal justice occupations had a gaping hole where the literature on prison work ought to be, led me to start work on a 3 year study of prison officers at work.

The six UK prisons in which I observed and interviewed prison officers at work included prisons for what we in the UK call young offenders (prisoners aged between 15 and 21) and medium security prisons for adult men.

Those of you that have read my book will notice that, in the absence of a developed criminological literature on the prison officer, I have drawn upon literature from outside the field of criminology. Studies in the sociology of emotions and the sociology of occupations proved particularly valuable in my efforts to `make sense of` what prison officers say, feel, and do.

Research Questions – the nuances of prison work. • A great deal is known about the lives of prisoners, largely as a result of a significant body of scholarly prisoner-focused research. As a result of such research we now know a good deal about the impact of prison on its prisoners, about the ways in which prisoners attempt to adjust to living in a prison, and the ways in which they cope with (and are sometimes unable to cope with) the routines, demands and pressures of prison life.

In contrast, relatively little has been known about the impact of the prison on its uniformed staff. • What I wanted to find out was: • “What psychological and emotional adjustments must ordinary men and women make in order to become prison officers? • How do they adjust to the prison environment? • What aspects of the prison environment and the prison role do prison officers find most difficult to cope with? • What conflicts and tensions do prison officers face when attempting to move between the prison world and home?”

The Domestic and Emotional character of Prisons • As many of you will know, developing and maintaining positive relationships with prisoners is not always easy in the emotionally charged environment of the prison. Just as the prisoner must find his or her own way to ‘do time’, prison officers must find their own ways of adapting to the demands of prison work and interacting with prisoners in ways that take both security and emotion into account.

Learning the rules, managing feelings: becoming a prison officer • It became clear to me that the process of becoming a prison officer is a slow, difficult and sometimes painful one, involving a complex process of acculturation. • While the formal training programme sensitises new recruits to the need for vigilance in security matters, it was interesting to note how unprepared most new recruits are for the emotional, psychological and domestic demands of prison work. • In other words, they find that working with prisoners (and indeed with other uniformed staff) is a rather more complex affair than they had anticipated. • All of my interviewees recalled that their first few days as prison officers were difficult and frightening ones. Here is one quote:

It was very daunting at first. It was a big step coming to work in a prison...A very big step. I remember the first morning here...I was that nervous I couldn’t stop shaking. Obviously I was scared to death. It was a massive challenge, and I didn’t know if I was up to it, to tell you the truth. When I was on the induction, we went round the workshops, and it suddenly hit me how outnumbered we were, and they [the prisoners] were shouting ‘Rookies! Rookies!’ I was terrified then. You had to keep your hands in your pockets so that they couldn’t see your hands shaking. I was that frightened!.…….But don’t get me wrong, I wouldn’t swap this job for anything now.

21st Century Prisons: England & Wales Disparate prison population, including increasing numbers of: Young people (15-21) Female prisoners Sex offenders Elderly prisoners Foreign National Prisoners Mentally ill prisoners

Each of these prisoner groups have specific needs, and they present specific challenges to prison staff who work with them. I will just very briefly give some details about each of these prisoner groups in the UK…..

Foreign National Prisoners In the last ten years the number of foreign nationals in prison has doubled and now represents over 14% of the total prison population in England and Wales. There are a huge range of nationalities and languages to be considered alongside the cultural and religious diversity that the foreign nationals already bring.Prison staff are taking a proactive role in coping with their differing needs. Many establishments – including HMP Manchester - hold regular meetings between staff and prisoners to discuss the challenges facing foreign nationals, such as immigration status, staying in contact with family, language difficulties and resettlement.

The last ten years or so have seen a dramatic rise in the numbers of women in prison from an average of 1560 in 1993 to around 4463 in June 2006. An all time high of 4672 was reached in May 2004. Despite this rise in numbers, women in prison represent a very small proportion of the total prison population at about 5.7% There are 7 mother and baby units (hold children up to 3 years old)

Mentally ill prisoners 72% of male and 70% of female sentenced prisoners suffer from two or more mental health disorders. 7% of male and 14% of female sentenced prisoners have a psychotic disorder: 14 and 23 times the level in the general population. 10% of men and 30% of women have had previous psychiatric admission before they entered prison. Women prisoners account for 54% of self harm incidents, though they form only around 5% of the prison population.

Children in custody The number of children sentenced to custody in England and Wales more than tripled between 1991 and 2006. In England and Wales we lock up more under 18 year olds proportionally than any other country in Western Europe. Young people in prison are especially vulnerable to bullying, self-harm and suicide.

Elderly Prisoners In England and Wales, the rate of prisoners aged over 60 has risen 185 per cent in ten years. Prisoners aged over 60 are the fastest growing age group in prison. The increases in the elderly prison population is due to harsher sentencing policies which has resulted in the courts sending a larger proportion of criminals aged over 60 to prison to serve longer sentences. On 30 June 2007 there were 2,221 prisoners aged over 60 in England and Wales, including 405 over 70. The number of sentenced prisoners aged 60 + rose by 169% in the 10 years 1995 - 2005.

Problems of elderly imprisonment The most common illnesses are psychiatric, cardiovascular, musculoskeletal and respiratory. More than half of all elderly prisoners suffer from a mental disorder. The most common disorder is depression which often emerges as a result of imprisonment. ‘One size fits all’ regimes (but a few exceptions) ‘Institutional thoughtlessness’

Some consequences of institutional thoughtlessness Can't get to yard in time for exercise Can get there in time but can't say out for an hour because no toilet in yard Unable to get to activities

Despite the dramatic rise in the number of elderly prisoners there is no national strategy for elderly prisoners (ad hoc delivery) Generally speaking, there is no specialised training for prison staff who work with this population either…......Instead, regimes run on the goodwill and creativity on the part of prison staff ; making the best of things)

The Need for prison staff training & professionalisation It is possible for prisons to ‘muddle through’ from day to day without staff having either population-specific skills or management support. However, this is often to the detriment of both staff and prisoners’ psychological, emotional and physical health.

Some impacts on staff of 'muddling through' Frustration (eg if old prisoners cannot understand rules or remember instructions (altzheimers; dementia) Role conflict -not proper prison officers? Questions of legitimacy

The demands of doing prison work are many and varied……. High degree of emotional labour required A need to develop strategies to cope with the day-to-day demands of the job (including strategies of detachment; emotional distancing)…. Result? Various degrees of de-sensitization amongst staff (dependent on regime/prisoner group) Potential for stress, burn-out and work spill-over

Later in this presentation I will talk a bit more about i) work stress and its causes ii) the impacts of work stress and iii) what we can do to reduce and prevent stress amongst prison officers

21st century regimes, practices and policies Over the past 20 years there have been some interesting policy and practice developments that have improved both the working lives of prison staff and the day-to-day lives of prisoners. In the 1970s and 1980s, prisons were brutal and depriving places for prisoners; moreover their rights were not acknowledged by the courts

Prisons at that time were difficult places to work in too Deeply demoralised staff Long working hours / dirty work environment Little sense of purpose beyond locking up and unlocking High levels of pressure to conform to the dominant staff culture – machismo was rife and those who wanted to try to help prisoners were often ridiculed and ostracised (not 'one of the boys')

Post 1990s: better employment conditions Increasing commitment to employing a more diverse workforce with higher standards of education Overtime constraints Decreased desire to employ ex-military Increase in numbers of female staff Overt statements from managers that racism, sexism, homophobia were unacceptable in the modern prison service

A better deal for Prisoners Proper recognition of prisoners rights More programmes aimed at reform and rehabilitation Sentence planning Addressing offending behaviour Education (many cannot read or write) Work training for release (type depeneds on type of prison etc) but can include computing, bricklaying, etc (NVQ) HMP Manchester does very well in this

Managerialism Accountability Standards Efficiency Cost effectiveness Economy Has producded good practice ie setting standards BUT KPIs and KTPs can disrupt good practice (measurement gone mad?)

The 'healthy' prison The decency agenda Prisoners families NGOs Etc etc

However.............. Recognition that managerialism can turn into box ticking – displacement of goals – box ticking rather recognising what the boxes mean Occupational cultutres can be very strong – rooted in machismo and mititgate against change Cultural change may be needed (people or bodies) – change depends on how staff see prisoners (media, politicicans, 'old-hands')

What Next? Many of these innovations and changes are very positive and exciting – it's a good time to be studying prisons and a better time to working with prison professionals to keep the impetus going The Academy and its contribution (Salford, Romania) Lifelong Learning, Short courses, weekends, e-learning SUCPS – open to academics, prison staff (all grades), professionals working ion prison (probation, psychology), ex-prisoners

Supporting Staff NJDOC Manchester Prison – allowing staff to acknowledge the strains of the job Not a personal deficiency: and aspect of doing the job On the job (e.g. Cop-to-Cop, SHSD Manchester)

So what can the Academy contribute? Prison officer training History, sociology and philosophy of imprisonment Ethics The sociological imagination Taken together, represent a contribution to the professionalisation of the prison.

Romania Real desire to professionalise Maintaininjg family ties (e.g. Conjugal visits) Dej – outstanding hospital facilities – nothing like this in the UK

Closing Remarks Well-trained Front-line staff really are the organisations biggest asset Professionalism and skills should be recognised High achieving staff should be rewarded All staff should be supported Prison work is complex!!

Thank you www.sucps.salford.ac.uk

Dr Elaine Crawley Senior Lecturer in Criminology Director of the Centre for Prison Studies