Hidden Heroes Day 2022

National Hidden Heroes Day pays tribute to those hidden heroes working in UK prisons, immigration removal centres (IRCs), probation and youth justice services.

As frontline workers, prison officers have more contact with prisoners than any other professionals, and so they have the power to make a real difference.

This year, to celebrate and recognise hidden heroes working with Unlocked Graduates, we talked with one our Mentoring Prison Officers, Roger Kendrick.

Roger joined Unlocked in June 2021 and is currently working as a mentor supporting participants at HMYOI Feltham, Aylesbury and HMP Bullingdon.

What does being a frontline worker mean to you? 

“To me, a frontline worker is someone who works face-to-face with people dealing with really challenging situations. It is rare that frontline workers receive praise for having a good day. Instead, we’re called out when someone has a bad or challenging day. Frontline workers give their time and energy to a career that is in the service of others.

As a Band Three Prison Officer, you are helping prisoners resolve their issues daily.  One day, you could be an acting as a councillor: listening to prisoners and discussing their concerns, the next day, you could be mediating conflicts. I also feel like I regularly took on a teacher role during my time as an officer when prisoners would come to me with letters that they needed reading to them, as many of them were unable to read. Taking this time to read and write with them was really powerful.

Being a prison officer can be a very intimate role, because you’re truly getting to know the people on your wing: understanding who they are as people, what’s going on in their lives and what’s important to them.

I see frontline work, particularly in the prison service, as meaning anything and everything. Firefighter, councillor, teacher… It depends on the day.”

What is your proudest moment as a Prison Officer? 

“When you have six staff on the wing in charge of unlocking 200 people, how do we as officers go about keeping the most vulnerable prisoners safe? We have to continually maintain strong relationships with them and keep a constant eye out on what’s happening on the landing.

I’m proud of a relationship that I built with a prisoner which enabled my team to disrupt trafficking of illicit articles on our wing. By listening to those prisoners who came to me to say that they were being bullied to keep quiet about the trafficking, I was able to separate the key players to different parts of the jail, helping to make the environment safer and more settled for everyone.

Ultimately, it’s all about communication. Most of my proudest moments as a prison officer have been when I’m really listening and having meaningful conversations.”

Who are your heroes in the prison service? 

“My heroes in the prison service are the staff who volunteer in care teams like trauma response and incident management. They provide a safe space where staff can express their own frustrations, hopes, desires and plans for the future, and space where they can look after themselves. Prison Officers are not much good to the prisoners if we’re not in a good headspace and bringing our problems from home into our job.

In order to help, we need to be of the best versions of ourselves, and to do that we need support. It’s the people who voluntarily go out of their way to support staff when already working to support prisoners in challenging situations that are my heroes.”

Can you tell me about a prison officer you know who has gone above and beyond to provide care for a prisoner? 

“An Unlocked participant at Aylesbury went above and beyond when caring for a more disruptive prisoner on their wing. The prisoner had anxieties around coming onto the wing during the pandemic and their upcoming parole board decision. Because they thought they were going to fail, their good behaviour rapidly deteriorated. They were ultimately rejected from the parole board, where they held back from opening up in parole discussions, due to worries of appearing ‘weak’.

The Unlocked officer decided to contact a specialist team at Aylesbury to support the prisoner through weekly check-ins with a trained therapist.

Once the prisoner was in a safe and open space, he built up a good relationship with staff. The outcome was that the prisoner had massively improved with this ongoing support, and he personally said thank you to the Unlocked participant for having taken the time to listen and to help him.”