Paula
CEO of Unlock and ex-prisoner
I say that prison officers can be angels in the darkness of prison, touching people’s souls with the right word or the right action at the right time.
Prison officers can act to inspire and guide prisoners towards better processes of coping with the pain of imprisonment, and in developing hope for their future. I have never met a prisoner who, even if there were 99 bad things to say about the prison experience, couldn’t remember the name of one prison officer who they credited for helping them get through it too.
I am so glad that the Unlocked programme has the lived experience of prisoners at its heart, recognising that their experience is also human wisdom that can help us to understand the challenges and inhibitors to change but also help to answer the problems we face in improving our prison system. I’ve noticed it leads the way in its collaborative approach and commitment to inclusion and determination to break down the stigma of prisoner convictions that has often led to former prisoners’ voices being kept out of work like this.
A piece of advice that I would give to future Unlocked participants is to keep hopeful, all the time you put into your work is helping prisoners to recalibrate, to move through their sentence and learn what they need to do in order to lead more positive lives. You might not get to see it for yourself, as they leave the prison and don’t come back, but somewhere someone will be telling a tale of their prison experience and saying to those listening, I will never forget Officer X for being such a decent person and getting me through to the end. Be that beacon of hope in the darkness.