The Telegraph: Self-harm at Belmarsh down thanks to graduate officer

This Telegraph article explores how Unlocked participants are having a clear and phenomenal impact at HMP Belmarsh, bringing a fresh perspective into the prison service and directly helping to reduce reoffending rates.

“Officer Baker introduced distraction packs, and including things like birthday cards has had a huge impact. Prisoners not losing contact with the outside world is so important. It is a high-risk time and we are really aware of the vulnerability. But since the packs were introduced, self-harm in the first 48 hours has fallen by 37 per cent.”

Having spotted that the existing distraction packs were not working as intended, Officer Baker set about redesigning the packs to make them more appropriate and effective:

“It was something I really wanted to do to make sure the prisoners were all right on the first night, so they would wake up on that first morning not feeling so anxious and worried.

We got some of the other prisoners to write experience cards, explaining how things worked, and put a birthday card in the pack so that if the prisoner had a loved one whose birthday was coming up they could make sure they sent a card.

One of the first packs I gave out was to a prisoner who was trying to pretend he was fine. When he saw the card he just burst out crying. He explained that it was his daughter’s birthday coming up and he had been worried about how he was going to get in touch.

This is why we do the job, it’s why we come to work every day.”

24-year-old Officer Herman joined Unlocked after graduating from Oxford University:

“I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do when I graduated, but I came across Unlocked and the more I read about it the more I fell in love with the idea of working as a prison officer. It means working with interesting people in an interesting environment and making a difference. It was the best decision I ever made.”

Officer Herman is working to develop a wellbeing plan for staff and inmates which will provide them with regular physical and mental health checks.

Governor Jenny Louis, initially sceptical about the Unlocked Graduates scheme, said:

“They bring a freshness to the prison service. They have a completely different mindset in terms of what they can do to change a prisoner’s experience and cut the chances of them reoffending.”

Read the full article on The Telegraph Online (£)