It is a small unit within the jail which is run as a therapeutic community. The inmates here have, at some point, decided they've had enough of constant reoffending and that they want help, either with a personality disorder or a drug or alcohol problem. They have to write to us to gain admittance, and acknowledge they have a problem they wish to confront. They come to us for at least 18 months and when they leave you hope they will not reoffend. But I don't always feel valued by the public because I don't think they have a real understanding of what goes on behind prison walls and what we're trying to achieve.
Victims have a hard time understanding.
They want people punished but prison isn't always as punitive as they would like. I earn a basic wage of around 24,000 with London weighting on top, which takes it up to around 26,500. Some days you work really hard with some really difficult people and you think, we should be paid more, but I've never done any job just for the money, I've done it because it's the one I want to do. I just come in to work and try and reduce the number of reoffenders. That's my motivation.