EmailExperiences of Volunteering at HMYOI Aylesbury
I decided to apply to be a volunteer mentor after doing some work experience with young offenders in the legal system. I really enjoyed the experience and wanted to get a better understanding of working with young people in the criminal justice system to see if this was something that I would be able to do as a career.Most of my anxiety about mentoring young offenders had been centred around my relationship with the young person and whether we would be able to build a rapport and get something useful out of the experience. I hadn’t thought too much about the prison environment beyond an initial curiosity about what it would be like. It wasn’t until I received the information from Trail-Blazers about the first training day taking place in Aylesbury YOI that I started to think about how daunting it would be to actually go in to the prison. The security requirements and the list of things you couldn’t take in made me realise that personal safety was something that I had to take seriously.
I’m really glad that the four training sessions we had were held in the prison training suite. I had underestimated how long it would take to get used to the environment and it was a good way to ease our way in. At first I even found arriving at the prison scary. Although the staff were friendly I found just signing in and being searched quite intimidating, particularly when I heard the big clanking gates slamming behind me. It definitely added to my nervousness on my first few training sessions and I was quieter than I would have been normally. Being in the training suite rather than on the wing meant that we didn’t get to see any of the young prisoners but we became more familiar with the layout and formalities of the prison and it became less intimidating with each visit.
Before my first session with my mentee I was very nervous, but again, my anxieties were more about whether we would get on than about going on to the wing. On my first visit to the wing I found the staff all very friendly, but I felt very conspicuous. I was very aware of being female as the atmosphere seemed so overwhelmingly masculine. On my first visit to the wing there were a few boys out of their cells either cleaning or using the showers or phones and although a few of them stared, no-one said anything to me.
The more I visit the prison the more I realise that if you visit the wing everyone seems to know who you are. I occasionally overhear one of the boys saying “That’s so-and-so’s mentor” even when I’ve never seen them before. It made me realise that little things like a visitor coming on the wing are a big deal when your routine is so regimented, and it’s hard to keep anything secret. Although I have always been aware of the security procedures such as sitting nearest to the alarm, I have never felt unsafe. Occasionally the prison bureaucracy can result in confusion and there have been times when I’ve turned up at the gate at 9 o’clock on a Saturday morning to be told that I can’t see my mentees for one reason or another. It’s frustrating, but it’s something that I had been warned about by people with experience of working in prisons.
On the whole, my experience of volunteering in prison has been extremely positive. There have been ups and downs in my relationship with my mentees; moments when I’ve wondered if I’m banging my head against a brick wall, and then times when I’ve been so impressed by the work they’ve done. I’ve learnt so much from my mentees and from the training that it really has been invaluable for me. A lot of people I talk to can’t understand why I do it, but I find the work interesting and rewarding and I am now certain that working with young offenders and working in prison is something that I will pursue as a career.