Prison from the other side: We hear from a Prison guard

The Letters From Prison initiative is going absolutely amazingly. Giving the women of HMP Peterborough a voice is one of the most rewarding part of our jobs to date. We have had one resident tell us that since she started doing this, her mental health has improved, the health professionals are decreasing their visits with her, she has stopped self-harming, and she has noted a huge increase in her confidence. This is all down to the feedback Prosers have given her and the other women who submit their work to us on our weekly visits. We are so touched at the generosity of this community, as are the inmates.

The staff of the prison are beginning to get involved now, as they are seeing the benefit. When we were on our last visit, We were handed this blog piece written by one of the prison guards; who we’ll just call ‘R’:

I love working for the prison, every day is different. There are good days and bad days, as there are in various places. There are times when it can be difficult but there is a great team spirit and everyone is willing to help each other. As I’m sure you can imagine we have to deal with some very difficult people but there are also people who you see that can brighten up your day. It can be very demanding and stressful one minute, but a pleasure the next.

There are times when you feel like giving up, but yet you don’t. You can see things you never expected to see and some things that are difficult to see. It can be a bit distressing at times but we are there to help people to better themselves and to look after people who can sometimes be a danger to both themselves and others.

I enjoy going to work because of not only the staff, but also because of the prisoners that I work with who can do great things. Sometimes they just need to believe in what they can do.

I joined the prison service after working in restaurants since leaving school. I joined because I wanted to help people and make their lives better. I understand that life can be difficult at times and that we all can make bad choices, and that everyone can make mistakes. I too have made mistakes. The difference is that I decided I wanted to change so that I didn’t end up on the other side of the bars, and possibly a bit of luck that I was never caught. I believe that people should be given a chance no matter where they come from.

The work you see on here is from people I know, and it gives me great pleasure to see all the comments and the positive effect it has on the people who wrote the work. I recently had the pleasure of giving some of the feedback provided by people like yourselves on this site to those that wrote it. I must admit it was the highlight of my day seeing the faces of those people light up. It makes people believe in themselves and gives them hope.

One person in particular has been so low and had no confidence in themselves. They weren’t sure about handing their work in to us to be able to post, but after seeing the feedback, it made their day; and you could visibly see how much it meant to them. They were so proud that they showed the staff as well as the other prisoners and it was great to see them becoming so much more confident in themselves.

Sometimes all it takes is for someone to believe in you to make a difference.

Thanks so much to ‘R’ for handing this to us last week. We hope you enjoyed this take on a different perspective, and we hope you also check out the Letters From Prison Portal located here. Please join in with our quest for creative writing within the rehabilitation process and comment away on the inmate’s work.

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Originally published at blog.theprose.com on May 25, 2016.