Prison and probation services

Over 44,000 prison officers, instructors and governors, manage 140 prisons and over 30 linked establishments in Great Britain, with many of them working in the medical, welfare and administration fields. The prison population in England and Wales is more than 70,000. Traditional problems of escapes and riots, suicides and drug abuse are falling, with counselling and support measures introduced in recent years.
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 work outside in all weathers. They also need to be able to work with people, and they need sensitivity and humanity to help prisoners to develop the personal skills and self-confidence necessary 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, and is reserved primarily for people who the system 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 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 (grades 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, who must have an honours degree or equivalent, through the Fast Track Scheme (England and Wales only). 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 offers opportunities for people to make career moves that were simply not possible before.
Salaries
Prison Officers start at nearly £17,000, rising to over £23,000. Senior officers earn close to £25,000, and principal officers up to £33,000. 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.

Probation Service
Overview
There are 15,000 probation officers (social workers in Scotland) working in nearly 60 probation services in the UK, 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 managed people sentenced to community 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 etc. They also work with non-offenders to provide social work support in such areas as the welfare of children in family proceedings. They prepare 300,000 pre-sentence reports, supervise 250,000 offenders, and organise 10 million hours of community service each year.
They work office hours, but they must expect to be called out if necessary, and to take a share of stand-by duties at nights and weekends.
Probation officers need to be flexible with people and situations, with 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 at least 22 years old (there is no upper limit) and 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 and 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.
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 the term 'probation officer' is not used.
Posts are limited and promotion can be slow, often into supervisory or managerial posts. There are some vacancies in voluntary organisations, or in teaching and training in educational establishments.
Salaries
Probation Officers start at about £18,000, rising to over £24,000. Senior Probation Officers earn £23,000 to £28,000 and Area Managers earn £26,000 to £32,000. Unsocial hours payments and London allowance may be made in addition.

BEEN THERE, DONE THAT
Bill Quate
After 24 years as a Royal Navy sonar operator - including two years' boy service - Chief Petty Officer Bill Quate had seen the world and wanted to work in a prison. Living in his own house in Scotland, he researched the Scottish Prison Service, but found that the first private prison in Scotland run by Premier Prison Service was about to open.
This offered good promotion prospects and Quate was able to 'get in on the ground floor.' He found that 'being able to deal with people in all sorts of stressful situations and flashpoints' was invaluable. As were other Service skills like 'teamwork, team building, and medical expertise.'
Starting as an officer, he was quickly promoted to security manager. Next he ran the night shift of 14 officers and 500 prisoners before managing 10 staff and a block containing short-term, remand and protected prisoners. After a spell in charge of a 12-cell segregation unit for dysfunctional prisoners, he is now running visits for the gaol - 'dealing with prisoners and the public.'
He enjoys his job very much - 'a challenge and every day is different.' He lives 50 miles from his work so he does not 'have to meet the clientele when they are released.' Pay is good but he reports that 'you really have to work at it when you get out.'