ABSTRACT
The process of becoming a prison officer is a slow, difficult and sometimes painful one, involving a complex process of acculturation. In this chapter we follow new recruits through both the formal and informal training processes and into their first, anxious days on the prison landings. While the formal training programme sensitises new recruits to the need for vigilance in security matters, it is interesting to note how unprepared most new recruits were for the emotional and domestic demands of prison work. In other words, they found that working with prisoners (and indeed with other uniformed staff) was a rather more complex affair than they had anticipated. The complexity of prison work, and the emotional responses it can produce in new recruits, are graphically illustrated in the comments of these officers themselves, which I include below.
