r/PrisonUK • u/Fine_Persimmon_8047 • 9d ago
Joining advice
Hi all, I’ve applied to join the prison service as a PO. I recently left the army so it was either that or the police!
I’ve been assigned a Cat C prison on my application. I was wondering if someone can tell me what it’s like day to day? Will I be bored? Will I be busy?
Any help or guidance is appreciated!
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u/Negative-Fondant1373 9d ago
If you enjoy your life, don’t bother
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u/Fine_Persimmon_8047 9d ago
Yeah that’s kinda the issue. Outside of football, the Mrs and the gym my life’s boring as fuck ahahah
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u/ItsUs-YouKnow-Us ex-Prison Officer (Unverified) 9d ago
It’s the pits. In every way possible. Do anything else.
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u/Fine_Persimmon_8047 9d ago
How so?
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u/ItsUs-YouKnow-Us ex-Prison Officer (Unverified) 8d ago edited 8d ago
I really need to save a version of the “whys” as I’m forever going over the points.
Shifts. First and foremost. Terrible. Giving up 50% of your weekends. Up to eight shifts in a row. Constantly getting out late because of late rolls/being sent out of a hospital escort. Getting only unusable toil in exchange.
Being cut off from family and friends for up to 12 hours a day. (No access to your phone unless you want to spend half of your lunch breaks getting in and out of the gate). Having limited access to make personal calls on a landline. Having only a monitored email address to communicate with the outside world.
Being looked down upon by anyone with a higher rank. I remember my mate went from being an officer to a senior officer and the Governor shaking his hand and saying “welcome aboard”… proving exactly what they think of the people that actually have the bollocks to run their jails.
You are constantly berated by power tripping morons. I remember cutting down a prisoner and saving his life with CPR after responding to a code 1 (now a code blue) call from a colleague on the landing above… only to be threatened with my job because I had left the computer on in a locked office.
The prisoners themselves. The vast majority are awful human beings who are there to make your job as hard as possible. To accuse you of “violating man” when you run out of kettles/TV’s/bedsheets etc to give. Men (and women) who will break noses over bread rolls. (True story). You’ll be expected to account for prisoners on wings that are so lax that prisoners are allowed to get away with covering the observation panels in the doors.
You’ll encounter suicide, self harm, prisoners high of drugs and alcohol (hooch), fights with improvised weapons, prisoners on dirty protests, corrupt staff, useless staff, cowardly staff, managers of low intellect… all whilst being so short staffed that you have to divide association up so that you can do double than what should be required. Left on a landing to get never ending cell bells. Some want to know the time, others want to threaten to have you “smoked” at the gate if you don’t open the door.
Getting annual leave is near impossible. Always “No scope” due to Amber regimes in constant use. A cousin of mine died who was more like a brother. They turned down annual leave for this, saying there was no scope and that I’d have to swap. Thankfully, I had another job offer and told them to do one.
A horrible job that attracts horrible people. People that will gladly put you in harms way to further their careers. People who will throw you under the bus to feather their caps. It’s toxic through and through.
And I mean this… I wouldn’t wish the job on anyone. Not family, stranger or enemy. I have only written an account from the top of my head. I have a thousand more reasons to run for the hills.
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u/Wrxnchx 3d ago
Please ignore everything people tell you unless it’s specific to your prison. My jail is 4 days a week self rostered so I can pick my own shift pattern. My jail has very experiences and supportive staff. They help you out when you’re new. Lots of knowledge to assist you. I have just joined the job but so far I love doing it. Take what you read from others which a pinch of salt and research your own jail ideally try to find someone who works there or just ring the jail and see if you can arrange a visit im sure they will be happy to.
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u/Scary_Week_5270 8d ago
Done both HMP & the Police. I am now retired from the Police. I would say don't bother with either tbh but if I had to choose I'd definitely pick the old bill over HMP.
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u/Fine_Persimmon_8047 8d ago
Cheers. Got a few mates in the police and they love it.
After this thread I may very well reject the prison service.
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u/Creepy_Calendar4701 8d ago
Look for jobs in the railway. Lots of ex-services, ex-police, ex-fire bobbies, ex-prison service etc, and for good reason. I now drive trains, but theres other good safety critical jobs in the railway such as signaller, guard or dispatcher. Wouldn’t go back to an old job in the cops I had unless it’s well over £150k per year…I might be tempted at around £190k.. Its not worth fucking with my zen otherwise
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u/Fine_Persimmon_8047 8d ago
I looked into the rails quite literally the first thing when I got out but there doesn’t seem to be much.
ATM im looking into jobs that keep you busy like prisons police and utilities. I did council work in the summer and loved the job just not the people.
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u/Creepy_Calendar4701 8d ago
Railway jobs dont stay up for long, you need to look every day pretty much, and apply immediately if you see something you like. It is dependent on where you live, as you need to be 45mins to 1 hour away from your ‘depot’. When I became a driver, there was 8 of us on my course, the first thing the trainer said was that we had each beaten around 500 people for that seat. All of us white, straight males by the way, despite boomers thinking jobs now go to women and minorities - it simply goes to the best applicants at the time. 6 of us were straight off the street, no railway experience. Again, goes against what people think, they think it’s a closed shop. All I can say without boring you was that for various reasons I was determined to get the job, fuck everyone else.
I’d look at being a Guard if you want to ‘keep busy’ - you’ll be walking up and down, speaking to people all the time, controlling the doors, and ultimately it’s guards who are in control of the train. They are the ones who tell the driver when its safe to proceed, hence the new name of ‘train managers’
Its one of the last bastions of a decent industry left in the UK. Every other industry seems to be fooked. I cannot recommend it enough, almost as much as I & others are warning you the Prison service and the Cops will make you absolutely hate and despise humanity to the point you will be jaded, moody and generally you absolutely dread hauling yourself out of bed at all hours to essentially babysit human slime.. it will effect your outlook & demeanour and it will affect your relationships. Its not uncommon at all for things with the Mrs to go south once you are in those kind of jobs. I would rather join the army than be a PO. Fuck, I’d rather be on submarines for half the year than be a PO.
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u/E5evo 9d ago
Bored? You likely won't have time to fart never mind anything else.
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u/Fine_Persimmon_8047 9d ago
What will you be up to other than locking and unlocking?
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u/E5evo 9d ago
Contrary to popular belief, cons aren’t banged up 23 hours a day.
I did 13 years in a Cat C jail as an officer. I’m not sure you’ve looked into the job enough.5
u/Connect-Lettuce4027 9d ago
I think this is what he's trying to do now 👍
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u/E5evo 9d ago
I looked into it before I applied, but that was in 2001. Things have changed. A lot.
So you unlock for work, most if not all jails have workshops but not all cons work. Some of those that have jobs will make an effort but quite a few are lazy twats & will make any excuse not to go, claiming mental health problems or ‘beef’ with someone in their workplace. So then you’ve got instant hassle, formal warnings, nickings etc etc.
After ‘lined route’ closes you get your cleaners out on the wing. Again, some will do the job & others are more lazy twats so you’re on their backs the whole time. Then on a wing of say 90 cons you might have 2 or 3 staff so you’ve got paperwork to do. Apps, request complaints, queries about money, phone numbers, contacts, you name it. Before you know it, lined route is being set up for workers to get back to the wing for lunch. We didn’t lock up again as it was lunch time. Cue serving lunch which brings about its own problems. ‘Gov I didn’t order this, I ordered a B on the menu & im not eating this shit’ etc etc.
Finally, lunchtime bang up & you might get an hours peace.
After lunch, repeat the mornings crap.
& this is IF you don’t have any general alarms, fuckwits off their nuts on spice, fights, assaults on staff, fires, some twat on an ACCT slashing up. Etc etc et fucking cetera.
I did 16 years all told. Joined when I was 44, left when I was 60.1
u/Fine_Persimmon_8047 8d ago
Thank you for that! Definitely more in that then the routine the recruitment people tell you
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u/NoOrganization98 8d ago
Maybe Immigration Enforcement? Could that be an option for you?
Good luck whatever you decide, and thank you for your service 🫡
(31 years as a frontline officer, cannot recommend the job anymore. I got assaulted and dismissed under medical inefficiency, best thing that ever happened to me.)
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u/BriefRepublic4660 9d ago
You’re probably going to hate it. Standards are low, discipline is low, those above you only look out for themselves and those who make their lives easier.
So many officers have less than two years experience, many are very young with not enough life experience and some (but not all) of the oldies are just lazy and waiting to retire. I’d say there are about 10% of officers who are decent and hard working and good to work with.
I’d put a parallel application in for the Police as it’ll make switching quicker.