"They were vile": Underage prison officer left because she was appalled at her colleagues!

[Jim Burton]

https://insidetime.org/newsround/prison ... icer-post/

A 17-year-old girl was hired by the Ministry of Justice to work as a prison officer at HMP Erlestoke – despite a rule saying that no-one under 18 can do the job.

The recruitment of officers is handled by the MoJ centrally, not by individual prisons. In 2021, Emily Frith applied for the job, filled in her age, submitted photo identity with her date of birth on it, and was given the post without question.

When the error was discovered, she was suspended pending her 18th birthday the following year. However, in her time doing the officer job she says she was put in charge of searches of visitors, had a set of keys, undertook cell counts, and locked men in their cells. She says she dealt with serious criminals including drug dealers and terrorists in her day-to-day duties.

The error was spotted after she had been working for two weeks, when she put in an application for mileage expenses and another officer spotted her date of birth and reported it. Initially prison managers claimed that she had lied on her application, but finally they accepted that all the papers she had submitted were correctly filled in.

Once she was 18 she returned to work and stayed for 18 months, during which time she says she saw rampant corruption and people smuggling in contraband. She says the job ruined her life as she was traumatised by it, “not so much from the prisoners but from the other staff, who were vile”.