Sarah Nixon & Darren Woodward present an overview of their recent publication ‘Role exit in prison officers: returning to ‘civvy street’. They are both ex-prison officers who teach/research around prisons/penology having left the prison service.
Returning to 'Civvy Street'
Over the last few decades there has been a shift in the length of time that prison officers stay in post, which has had a detrimental impact upon service provision within prisons in England and Wales. Staff shortages, increasing levels of violence, austerity and the Voluntary Early Departure Scheme (VEDS) have resulted in a mass exodus of experienced officers leaving HMPPS (His Majesty’s Prison and Probation service). There are similar concerns around attrition rates in police and probation, which raises issues around effectiveness, continuity and legitimacy of providing services for those who encounter the criminal justice system.
Our research
We interviewed 33 ex-prison officers during 2020 – 2022. We also interviewed each other (as ex-prison officers) and anonymised ourselves in the data set, which we hope will demonstrate creativity in methodological approaches towards criminological research. We both understand the process of leaving HMPPS and our lived experiences have shaped every aspect of our research design.
We used Ebaugh’s (1988) sociological model of role exit as our theoretical framework.
The 4 stages of her model are as follows:
- Experiencing doubt, frustration and burnout
- Searching for alternatives
- Reaching a turning point (which we adapted to making plans to exit HMPPs – physically and emotionally)
- Creating a new (post-prison) identity
We asked ex-prison officers questions that aligned with Ebaugh’s 4 stages of role exit and our aims are listed below:
- Identify reasons for wanting to leave the prison service
- Explore how motivation, behaviours and actions are shaped by both personal and institutional factors (and intersections)
- Identify what ex-prison officers found positive during their employment with HMPPS
- Explore both the positive and negative factors associated with leaving the prison service
- Examine the extent to which ex-prison officers keep their former identity alive or discard it
We do not claim to generalise our findings to every ex-prison officer – however, we found sufficient consistency to identify reoccurring patterns in why people are leaving/have left HMPPS.
Findings
Before acknowledging the processes of role exit, we identified many positive aspects of working as a prison officer:
- Job satisfaction – making a small difference to the custodial lives of prisoners
- Pride at representing HMPPS
- Camaraderie, loyalty and working as part of a team
- Nostalgic recollections of working with prisoners/staff
- Developing lasting friendships with other officers
- Identifying transferable skills applicable to other domains
Stage 1: Doubt, burnout and frustration
- Physical capabilities of the job – age of retirement and health scares
- Mental health of prison officers
- Burnout – demoralisation, desensitisation and boredom with the job
- Frustrations expressed with new/existing staff
- Civilianisation of prison officer roles
- Bureaucracy- treatment from senior management
- Austerity
- Covid-19
Stage 2: ‘searching for alternatives’
- Natural retirement (age graded differences depending upon point of entry/schemes when joining the prison service)
- Medical retirement- on grounds of physical/mental health
- Contemplation of a change of career
- VEDS
- ‘Just had enough’
- Negotiated settlement to leave HMPPS
- Applying for a new career – the liminality of being ‘betwixt and between’
Stage 3: Departure from the prison service
- Biding time until the last shift
- Mixed emotions about leaving/walking through the gates for the last time (as a prison officer)
- Poor or non-existent exit interview strategies
- Lack of formal acknowledgement for time spent in service
- Lack of follow up for ex-prison officers leaving the service
Stage 4: New role/identity post prison officer
Our final stage identifies the extent to which ex-prison officers either ‘amputate’ or ‘reconstruct’ their identity. Interestingly, we had 3 ex-prison officers who contemplated taking part in our research but then decided that ‘this chapter of their life is over’- which is a significant contribution to understanding processes of transition:
Positive aspects of leaving HMPPS:
- Enhanced mental and physical well-being
- Increased family time
- Normal working patterns
- New careers – transferable skills recognised/ applied on return to ‘civvy street’
- Retention of networks with other prison officers
- Positive goals for the future
Negative aspects of leaving HMPPS:
- Triggers – environmental cues that retraumatise
- PTSD and lasting mental health conditions
- Who you might meet ‘on road’ (outside of prison)
- Struggles with reintegration – (eg autonomy in new job roles)
- Extent to which ex-prison officer identity is discarded/utilised
Through drawing upon the Government’s 2023-2025 strategy, we present recommendations from our research on how HMPPS might re-incentivise their workforce
- Recruitment. The different pathways offered to recruit prison officers from diverse backgrounds are acknowledged and the 2023-2025 strategy appears to present a more inclusive and holistic approach towards supporting prison officers
- Prison officer training Research informed training and delivery from ‘pracademics’ (practitioners with academic research backgrounds in prisons/penology/desistance) may lead to greater job satisfaction outcomes, enhanced working relationships with prisoners and ultimately impact positively on recruitment and retention rates.
- Lowering the age of retirement A reconsideration of the physical capabilities of the role of prison officer is needed, and a policy shift towards lowering the age of retirement for prison officers is essential.
- Trauma-informed practice You can never ‘un-see’ what you have seen within the role of prison officer- and a greater focus upon supporting ex-officers upon departure and reintegration might incentivise new recruits to have confidence that the service will look after them.
Conclusion
HMPPS can be a good place to work, but there needs to be significant improvements made to enhance the longevity of careers for prison officers going forwards. Recognition of trauma, co-production/ better working alliances with prisoners, supported through a proactive senior management team are positive strategies that might help to avoid burnout, demoralisation and other factors linked to poor attrition rates within prison officers. In summary, Sarah and Darren conclude:
“There are so many positives to working in HMPPS as a prison officer…and the job satisfaction, purpose and contributions to making a difference to the custodial lives of prisoners are indicators of an esteem that is unrivalled in many other occupations”
Thanks to Andy Aitchison for kind permission to use the header image in this post. You can see Andy’s work here
