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Pookie

Prison officers are being attacked by the prison management who are trying to destroy the officers moral and turn them all in to yes people who will jump when told to.
Prison officers have never been on strike or ever held the island to ranson ( airport) they are always there, behind the scenes, dealing with the things that the island would prefer not to hear about, would like to put away in the closet and not blemish the islands persona as a happy contented place.
The politions always say that things are fine and dandy in the prison, just lately Mr Mahy said that prison officers leaving the service were leaving for better paid jobs, that is not true, some officers have left for poorer pay or no jobs at all, such is the sorry state of Guernsey prison at this time.
The turnover of staff at the prison is a disgrace, the states would rather spent hundreds of thousands on recruiting and training new officers than keeping the trained and ( most importantly ) EXPERIENCED OFFICERS in the service, experience in the prison environmment is so importent as it can make the difference between controling a violent situation and losing the wing . Just think, how many times have you seen in the Guernsey Press, adverts for Prison Officers, so many times,WHY WHY WHY, there must be a problem somewhere surely
My other half is a prison officer of many years service and he despairs of what is happening at the prison at the moment, everything is being focused on saving the very last penny from the budget, nothing wrong with that in the present financial climate, but the wrong people are being attacked ( the officers ) they have never asked for stupid pay rises, never threatened to strike ( they deal with people, dad’s mum’s brother’s sister’s aunt’s uncle’s etc, etc.
The present dispute is a culmination of many years of mismanagment by the states, the officers have finally had enough, the new system that the states want to bring in would destroy the officers family life, indeed, female officers have resigned in tears, as the new system that the management want to bring in would destroy their family life,for day’s, they would never see their children, if prisoners were treated the way that the states are treating officers, human rights lawyers woukd have a field day.
They ( management ) are asking the officers to do 7 day shifts amounting to nearly 90 hours( they would then have a 9 day rest period,sounds good, 9 days off, before they finished their7 day shift, they would be a basket case’s if you have never worked in a prison enviroment, you can never understand, this is a recipe for disaster, at present officers do early and late shifts, one week earlys. next week lates, this allows them to plan for childminding and other family issue’s.
Many officers are sick with stress, don’t mock, the prison enviroment is stressfull enough, with threats from the prisoners against your family, small island is Guernsey, without the management also tryiong to do you over.
My partner is good man, never done anyone any wrong, always tried to do the right thing by everyone, but he is being picked on by the states, who are trying to save penny’s here, but will end up losing pounds everywhere else.
Prison officers are the forgotten service, they are not trying to milk the people of Guernsey.
They are not after a huge pay rise, they just want to be treated as valued members of Guernsey society.

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4

pookie

A high turnover of staff is a very bad sign. Brixton seemed to be full of the same old faces, year after year, on both sides of the doors. 90% of the staff there did a good job.

You need good prison staff on your island – they’ll save you a fortune in the long run.

Thanks for that Hello
If only our deputy’s thought the same, but i am afraid thats too much to hope for.

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